Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 52, 30 December 1925, Page 22

Current Topics

£- Welcome Home IP Father MacManus has just returned from . his tour in Europe, and, still mindful of the .- .. kindly welcomes recently extended to our- |; selves, we venture to say our "Welcome K Home" to his Reverence. We note that he p has been impressed by the manifest proofs g: of industry among the Italian and French g,... peasants, from whom our people could, and p;.. they would, learn such a lot about farming. .•: Lourdes, with its supernatural atmosphere, j won his heart, and he soon found out what g;v a courteous and cultured people Italians are. y Like ourselves, he came to the conclusion I . that what the people of Ireland want at pre- |: sent is peace, not politics. Naturally, the J;.- events of the Holy Year and the magnificent : churches of Rome were all of deepest interest • for him. Being.a church-builder himslf, he SV doubtless examined them with the eye of an !_-. expert, as well as with the imagination of a devout pilgrim. Loftns Hall A cable which announced, the other day, the death of the Marquis of Ely recalls many memories-connected with the Irish residence . of the family, which was sold a few years ago to a community of Belgian Benedictine • nuns. Loftus Hall was built about the ; '-seventies of the last century on the site of the ancient Redmond Hall, which stood on - the Wexford side of Waterford Harbor. One of the lords of the Hall in the early years of their possession was very much a Von ; viveur, and strange tales are still told of his wild ways. Among such traditions there is a story which says that one night when ; there was heavy gambling and drinking in one of the rooms, a player, on stooping to pick up a card he had dropped, found that it rested on the cloven hoof of his neighbor. The devil had come among his friends, and, as they say down there in the Hook, when telling the story, "it was the devil to get him to go." When all other means had failed, the local priest was called in. Tradition says he succeeded, #.nd, only last summer, we were told of. an inscription on a grave in Cough's Bridge which holds the dust of the sagart "who drove the devil from Loftus Hall." To-day the nuns are chanting the psalms there, and the cloven hoof appears no more. the Humors of Ulster For how many years now have we not heard the Orangeman's -war cry: "Ulster : . will fight!"' Drums beat and tin whistles . play the Boyne Water, and people and par- - : sons perform their war dances year in and p year out. And an unkind Ulster Protestant A tells the world that it is all nonsense, and .■--, that "Ulster will run" ought to be the motto :. of the Wee State. We are reminded of this ■;.■ comic opera Ulster business by recent cables • v about the specials who refused to be disgp missed. Meditate on this example of Ulster £■ fierceness and firmness: 5- /■"';'/ ■ . : ':'" "London, December 18. - - "The Belfast headquarters declares that m , the men will stand fast till the are turned out. A message to this effect was circulated by dispatch riders."

Does not that note show what determined Q men these Craigite policemen are when their e blood is up— rather when there is question _ of cutting their pay down! And despatch Q riders, too! no nonsense about it.: it looks e like the real thing. Yes Ulster will fight! s But here comes another cable. News of the i first fierce battle, no doubt! Alas and alack, 3 Mr. Henderson was right. The specials ; . have run away! , - "December 19. t "The strike has completely ended. The . men have resumed their duty and the bari racks have been handed over to the officers." And so, they all went home and lived e happily ever afterwards. Here endeth the t tale of the first fierce civil war in the Wee t State. It will be celebrated in song and 3 story for years to come. I "The Pearl of Italy" Official bulletins announce the serious ill—r ness of Margherita, the Dowager Queen of Italy. She is a woman of seventy now, and , has lived quietly since she retired from the r throne after'the murder of King Humbert, » who was shot at Monza by an anarchist s twenty-five years ago. In middle age she was" i still a beautiful woman, of the rare Italian i type portrayed by Tiziano, with fair comf plexion and auburn hair. Her personal i charms won for her from her subjects the 3. title of the "Pearl of Italy," which was also 3 suggested by her name, Margherita. Her i appearance was not more beautiful than her f character, . whether as a Christian woman, , or as a queen. Her piety was remarkable, i and she was often seen praying before the t Blessed Sacrament in the churches of Rome. , We remember once seeing her arrive at - Santa Croce where she came up among the , worshippers and knelt to kiss the Cross ex- , posed there on Good Friday. Her influence , on the Court was all for good, and its ; traditions have been well maintained. One who knows the members of the Royal Family 5 intimately assured us recently that Elena is , just such a good mother as Margherita was l before her. and that the children are all , sincere Catholics. lolanda, Maria, and Maf--5 alda are the names of the princesses, while , the prince is called Umberto after his grand- , father. He is beloved by the Romans, among whom, he walks like-any Italian young man. He has inherited the bravery of the Savoia family,- the princes of which are alias ready ; to take a real part in war as were the sons r of the Kaiser. ; The Pope Pleads for Modest Attire The N.C.W.C. News Service reports that ; in his discourse to the delegates attending the -Congress: of the International Union of Catholic Women's Leagues the Pope congratulated .the Catholic women's organise tions on their understanding of a Christian. life and encouraged their programme to promote modesty in dress. The Papal audience concluded the sessions of the Congress After congratulating the delegates on their successful meeting the Pontiff told the women he was particularly gratified by two Phases of their work as revealed in the meet- - ing- First, he declared, their idea of a

Catholic life is not superficial, but is guided '. by a profound knowledge of truth and duty so that they cannot be swerved into movements irreconcilable with spiritual Christian rlife. Second, he said, he is greatly pleased r. with their proposal for a campaign against ■** immoral fashions. Such fashions, he de-;-clared, are the shame of many women who f- ' call themselves Christian but dishonor that '*"'** name. The Pope told the delegates that whenever h? receives delegations of teaching Sisters he urges them to insist at any cost upon modesty pf dress in the educational institutions conducted by them. If, on such oc- § casions, the Sisters say that too much insistence upon this point will result in mothers sending their daughters elsewhere the Pope replies that this does not matter, but that Christian modesty must be taught and re- ; commended at any cosh. His Holiness said he is particularly anxious that the best ex- < amples of modesty shall come from ' Catholic educational ' institutions. N Godless America According to recent religious statistics there are in the United States forty-nine and a half millions of accredited Church members. They are distributed as follows: Catholic (figures from Catholic Press Directory) : 20,103,76" Methodist Episcopalians (Church Year Booh, 1923) 4,225,246 Southern Baptist Convention ... 3,374,165 V North Bapt. Convention (colored) 3,253,733 Methodist Episcopalian (South) . 2,362,598 Presbyterian, U.S.A. 1,732,254 iNorth Baptist Convention ... 1,272,250 Disciples 1|218,'849 -^ Protestant Episcopal 1,118 396 :^ Congregational ....... 838,271 v a United Lutheran 801250 Missouri Synod 673 321 African Methodist Episcopal ... 551,766 : African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Presbyterian U.S., Evangelical Synod of N.A., Church of United Brethren of Christ, and several other smaller bodies have member- .'■•:■' ■ships under half a million. Thus, about two- '' \ fifths a the whole population are Church • n.embei-3. Three-fifths belong to no religion. Therefore, the predominant religion of "the United States is pagan. Long ago, in his •s 1 larewell speech, Washington warned Ameri- : v?| cans to make religion and morality *he props of ihe State. The godless schools hare sue- "3 ceeded in nullifying the effects of. his tisb "- message to his country; they have ur»der- , M mined the foundations, and left a people I among whom the marriage tie is not sacred, ' 1 who are devoured by the canker of race- % suicide, and to a large extent unfit even to 'become fodder for gunpowder as a result of M their loose lives. No wonder, and it is late -I in the day, serious non-Catholics are now urging a return to Catholic traditions. New I Zealand also may one day wake up.. A Boomerang for Belfast S 3 The Irish Weekly News Hells a story with" a moral which we here summarise for our ■-■ .&£ f e Tm ?* a d ° Zen years W a man M named McEvoy-note the name-was thrown Vout of employment in Belfast. The name : > explains why. He went to Japan. - He l| knew all that was to be known about the - linen industry. It was »t *w J ■:•■•-

J. decaying in Japan. So the Japanese said: "You are the man we want." They did v not ask if he were an Irish Catholic. He Sg&gotia free hand; he re-organised the industry; and it began to improve straightway. It was fifty years behind time when .;• he took it in hand; in three years it was fp|rc ; the front rank. From the raw material r to the finished article in the shop window, „-. he overhauled the business. Under his direc- ; tion, Japan, which a few years ago, could ;1 only produce coarse material was turning ; out yarn fit for the finest fabrics. The ■: material increased in these few years three . hundred per cent, in value: a quantity of the raw material priced at 40/- became worth 160/-, in the short period between 1919 and ■ 1922. His health broke down, but his work was done. And he went home for a visit to ; ; his friends laden with gifts and tokens of : appreciation from all those with whom he .had had business dealings in Japan. What : he did in Japan he could have done in Belfast, but there he could not get a job. His name was Me Evoy. A few weeks ago we quoted a letter from a non-Catholic business -- man in Belfast, complaining that the bigotry" and folly of his co-religionists had killed the f. trade with the United States, where the Irish Catholic millions remembered what the Orangemen had done to their friends" in Ireland. Here now we have a record of one '"■ of these men driven from employment and going abroad to create in Japan a powerful : rival which will drive Ulster from the markets v of the East.- It ought to be a lesson, but some people never learn. The Church and Evolution s- It ought to be plain to everybody who reads that the -Catholic Church is not op- -- posed to the theory of Evolution. It is m open question, and there are Catholic scholars for and against it. But they do not forget that it is a THEORY; they do not make a fact of it; and in this they differ from a great number of people who talk and write much and know but little of the subject. In reference to the recent inquiry in the United States, the New York Times quoted Father Wynne, S.J., editor of the Catholic Encyclopedia, as upholding the principle of teaching evolution as a scientific theory of human origin and disapproving of attempts ;'■ to legislate against it.. He said: . : We are not in favor of making laws ; against the teaching of evolution if jt be j..".. properly taught. Evolution should he -.': ; ..-.. taught as a scientific hypothesis, with the. g facts which tend to support it arid the facts which tend to discredit it impar- . tially displayed. It should neither be r v preached as a dogma nor attacked as a heresy. >ii~. i Nor are we in favor of having evolu- ;_ tion tried in the courts. It is a matter . _~ for scientists, rather than jurors, and £>.' scientists are very few in number and slow to speak. • The Common veal, a . New York Catholic ■■;_ weekly, names Catholic authorities for and against it. It has a comment on the topic which puts the case very weir: .; "Evolutionfor the present at least—should be taught as a theory and not as L .established truth, and the arguments against £as well as those in favor should be stated. • It should be taught that it may have been the. method of : - creation r but that even so- *: it can not audioes not, as men, like. Darwin . wtf Ruslejr admitted, in any mj wludV

the idea of a Creator. From our point of view, it can never be admitted • that man's soul comes under the sway of evolution as the teaching of many indicates—in flat contradiction, as we think, not merely to revelation, which settles the matter for us, but to all common-sense psychology. Indeed, this is the opinion of many important thinkers outside the Church. "And with regard to the formation of man's physical frame, let us beg that those who are teaching the subject will face fairly the fact that the actual as apart from the imaginary evidence for its production from that of a lower animal, is very far from ocnyincing. Of course, many will admit that in private, who are more reticent in public but such is the fact nevertheless, and the statement made some twenty years ago by the eminent paleontologist Branco, that the only honest thing for science to say is that it knows nothing of .man's ancestry, still stands unaffected by any intervening discoveries. . . "With a fair exposure of the subject in all its aspects, and on honest lines which must be water-tight against the criticism of the " non-Catholic listener, and more especially with that philosophical treatment which we have already desiderated, the student will go out into the world knowing what the papers and magazines are writing about— is more than the favored inhabitants of Tennessee will be able to do. Moreover, he will go out knowing what are the weak as well as the strong points of the subject, which is more than can be said for the favored products of some State universities possessed of teachers with the blind eye ever to the telescope .when it is a case of" the 'cons.' Every man and women going out into the world to-day has to face religious difficulties, and that he may be able to face them successfully is the chief raison d'etre of his" education. « What some one may say, 'is that what you think? What about his worldly career?' That will not be interfered with by his having an adequate knowledge of the other matters, and if it were—after all is man brought into the world for? To save his soul or to accumulate dollars? It is for our teachers to see that their pupils are provided with the needful weapons for their future conflict, and one of these is an adequate idea of the position of evolution as at present set . before the public." Boycotting the South People who live in the South Island some-. times complain that the North is unduly favored by the Government,, and that Auckland and Wellington are petted by politicians nowadays. Perhaps the North might, with some reason, retort that in other days it was otherwise, and that they had reason to feel dissatisfied because Mr. Seddon loved to honor the friends and the scenes of his early triumphs. However that may be, there is certainly one matter in which the South does not get a square deal. We have heard' visitors who, almost against their will, strayed down to,.Westland, Otago, and Southland say that they were positively discouraged from coming across the Straits at all. It would seem as if employees in Tourist Bureaux were not aware that there was - anything worth seeing in New Zealand except Rotorua, ;: the -Waitomo; Caves; the Wanganui River, and, 0 course, Auckland and ;< Wellington. When visitors th coins ts m South IsJftnJ they wo

puzzled why it is not only not advertised y puzzled why it is not only not advertised M but car©.is taken to prevent it from being known at all. Then they find out that Wellington and Auckland are only two ordinary little towns, that Rotorua is a place of thrills (not to be compared with Wairekei), and that ; the trip down the Wanganui River is tiresome and expensive beyond reason. On the : other hand, they travel down the Sounds, to : Picton, amid scenes that enchant them and ? leave delightful memories; they find the fun' :: down the Buller Gorge wonderful beyond belief; if they go as far as the Franz Josef they . are spell-bound by the glorious bush/the lakes, and that incredibly magnificent | Jacob's Ladder of ice which lies, nine miles!§§ long, with its feet in the rushing waters of > the Waiau. Christchurch, on a day in sum- X mer or spring, is delightful. Lyttelton Harbor, where the waters are like glass in the 1; crater of an old valcano; Akaroa, -like a. little bit of Norway; and the rich plains :• of Canterbury extending far towards the : serrated barrier of mountains, with their - snowy tops like a long white cloud, will all appeal to the traveller as powerful indictments against the ignorance or malignity of. a Tourist Department which failed to boom them. And, farther south, the interest grow* : even greater. Where in the world js there / a more picturesque bit of coast scenery than that which meets the tourist's eye as the train winds from Palmerston to Dunedin? % If you have not climbed the hills above Port H Chalmers and looked down on that brightexpanse of water among those green hills, - you have missed one of the joys of life. There is no walk in any city more delightful than the Queen's Drive in summer. The view from the hill over St. Clair is worth going a long distance to see. - Let us mention briefly, also, the charming landscapes around Lake Pembroke; the grandeur of the panorama from the top of the Crown Range; the majesty and the awe of the mountains; the enchantment of Quoenstown; the myriad de- ~: lights of the wonderful native bush which grows profusely all along the West Coast; ..: and, as a reminder to sportsmen, the trout - fishing and the duck shooting and the deer i stalking of the South Island. We have \ spent considerable time among the most iS' famed beauty spots of the globe, and we came " ' back to be more than ever enchanted with the spell, of the southern lakes, mountains, and bush. Taken "all round, there is nothing ■- in the world to compare with the South Island; and it is almost a profanation to |l name some of the spots which the Tourist'ti Bureau does advertise in the same breath ■&# with it. Americans who Have-come down here marvel at the stupidity which hides such |§ beauties., Australians tell the same story. "•-£ If another country had such astounding nat- ; ;1 ural assets how they would be boomed, and how convenient it would be made for tourists ; to visit them. . No doubt the Exhibition .7? (which was also more or less boycotted by our Northern-friends) will open the eyes of .; thousands of visitors and teach them to know 3 and love this beautiful country. Failing Gov- . eminent help in any effective degree, it remains for private enterprise to encourage visitors to travel in the south. This year there are motor cars running to" schedule:">.£ among the places of interest,; and we are sure the hotels will also wake up to their .<< own interests. Practically nothing is done : . : -in the way of; advertising, and surely th»'v • Exhibition : m t$ Mte & liaefu] mediu'm for r Publ,%,;. \ • -. ;.-:■