New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-04-02
RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

CHRrsTiANITY AND ITS EFFECTS IN THE
SOUTH PACIFIC ISLAEDS.-ln his book on New
Guinea, Captain Moresby takes occasion to
say that n Hood Of philanthropy lies ready lii
England and Australia to be poured on these
islands, referring to the islands lying on the
north and northeast Australian shores. When
further on he saws: No single aboriginal in
habtant of Van Dieman's Land is alive to
day; the natives OF Australia are perlsmng
fast, and will soon be extinct the use OF the
term food" though at tiISt sight seemingly
ill-chosen, appears eInlnently justified: Other
travellers in those regions, notably Mr. N. *.
Wallace and Mrs. Brassey, unite In declaring
that the dying out of the aboriginal races III
those islands is due to their conversion TO Chris
tianity. Whether determination is the direct
result of conversion it would he difficult to say
certain il is that the population of those Islands
has decreased in an extraordinary degree since
the introduction of Christianity. The lnhab-
tants of one of the New HebTides once num-
bercd 10000, to-day they scarcely number
1000. The people Of the Tonga Islands, for
merly one of 1.-THE most savage of the tribes o.
that archipelago, are now all Christians, but in
1S47 there were from 10000 to $4,000 OF
them now only a quarter remain. The natives
Of the Hervey group have now become so
civilized that all read the Bible dress after the
European fashion, etc" Still they decrease in
numbers so rapidly that their total cytermna-
ton seems to be but question of time. The
Marquesas Islanders are not now tenth OF
what they were thirty years ago. The Ma0rls
of ew-Iealand in 1910 numbered 100000;
in 1874 only 10000 of them were left. The
Sandwich Islanders are yisiby decreasing, and
the same may be said of almost every race IL
the South Pacific whose conversion has been
brought about. " Ii may be asked" remarks
The Pal Mall Gdsettc, discussing this matter,
" If there is any necessary connection between
converting a savage tribe and eXterrIinatng
it. Is the preaching of the faith to be as fatal
to those who receive it as the scourgng dis
eases brought among them by its needless, UNI
official professors? As far as evidence goes
evidence rendered H. those who, if they were
not above supisciOn, might have been sus-
pected of eXaggeratlDg 1t in the opposite
dircctiOn-tO receive the Word at the hands OF
one sect is nearly as destructive as receiving II
at the hands of another. Mr. Wallace, indeed,
gives TO the members of the Reformed Church
an unenviable prominence i'll improving the
Pacific Islanders oil the face of the earth but
he himself shows that they are closely followed
by those of a rival communion. One thing
seems pretty clear, and that Is that there VIII
soon be few savage sheep TO gather to the fold.
Perhaps the unocccuped shepherds will then
turn their attention to some Of their own cOun-
trymen who grow wealthy amid the lovely
islands of the South 10y violating every prin-
Clplc impressed upon the minds OF the eXternI-
mated aDOIgines."
The Rev. John W. Chadwick, in the Second
Unitarian Church in BROOKLYN preached last
Sunday Oh the late Dr. OTvlle Dewey lie
said that lac was representative man--repre-
sentative of the development OF Unitarian
ideas from the stTlctcst form which they could
bear and still be Unitarian TO the most liberal
that can be entertained by men who are willing
10 regard themselves and to be regarded as
either UnitarianS OF Christians, and also o! the
increasing libeIality and nationality OF tue Uni
tartan development from first To last, az wei as
OF its dual faith in God and man, with the CO.
ordinate Lopc Of an immortal life. Further on
he said Human nature did MT fascinate HIM
more than human life. Mems farming and
building ana trading, their marrying and
housekeeping, their sOrr0Wng aud dying, he
felt the nathOs Of it ALL and tine educatlye
force Inherent in the homcliest tasks, the sad
dest losses, the most lancntabe sins. But
GREAT as was his faith In man. his talth In COD
was rot impaired by it III tie least degree. l
would say of him as N0valls SAID Of SplnOza
He was a COd-ntoXicatcd man but that the
cure is suggestive Of less rational emotion
than was possible for one so simple ana so sell
restrained. And 1t seems 10 me that the OOd-
side of his religion was as calmly reasoned, as
consistent, rs Legitimate III Its sphere as tie
man side. We have had among us no other
man with such capacity for awe and rev erence
and alteration. When ] am told that prayer Is
a survival of the past which has no logical
standing room i'll any scheme OF rational rellS-
ion | think of this mans hushcd and tender
lifIng of his face and voice and mind and
heart to the Eternal One, and ! know that he
was right and that those who cannot worship,
cannot pray, have lared themselves III some
miserable lteralncsa OF thought and phrase
which will not long ontangle and impede the
spiritual motion OF any simple, natural and
healthy man.
DIR. Uerrick johnson. Of the Fourth Presby-
terrain Church of Chicago thus summarizes the
condition ~ things III that city: Politics
seized BY unpri. ciplcd asprantS for place and
power; official patronage dispensed with no
regard whatever to the public veal; ballots
sometimes served out like liked ammunition
and dropped into the box at the word Of COM
mand with a kind of military plidc IN not car
ing what they contain, provided they come
from the proper quarter; Mayor WI VIII 90 |
into liQuOr-deaers convention ana publicly
boast of his having been brought up ON whls-
key: 4 municipal chief whose sworn duty II Is
10 enforce law. seeking to regulate an IN |
iquitv which he is under legal obligation 10 sup |
press; gambling houses haunting then shaiue- !
less and laWlcss lntamy IN open day; daSo |
deuS and low varieties visited, and often !
crowded by hundreds and thousands of young |
men and Young women !, 1SL actually counted |
as entering one OF these vile establishments on |
ore E., cning between the hours OF ana z =. |
n.y.: 200 places for the sale OF hquOf, l. e. |
more saloons than lamp-p OstS-iiftcen miles OF |
solid prog-sh0Ds: liquors sold to minors in fla
grant violation OF law, and boys ana girls |
found drunk In the street sabbath that, III |
some portions of the city. IS KIND OF high car |
niyal where men AMI women tranple on |
everything sacred with defiant and insolent |
scott; over 10000 children between the ages
of six and twenty one without any religious in
whatever; the majority OF crime i'll
the city committed by minors criminal classes
controlling the juries aud packing them TO
their purpose Dr. Johnson, it may be here
is the clergyman whose two-coumn
letters in the Chicago newspapers against the
theatre attracted recently such universal attcn-
ion.
at is one Of the Padishah's privileges" says