218
MASONRY AND CATHOLICISM.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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[September 24, 1904,
The Cloual Estimates indicate the The revenue to be steadily progressive. actual revenue for 1903 was 85,238,857; the revised estimate for the current year is 86,763,391; while the estimate for 1905 is $7,198,611. We find the most notable in- crease to be in respect of the Opium Monopoly. From this source in 1903 a revenue of only $750,000 was derived by the Government, while in the estimates for 1905 the amount expected from this source is set down as $2,220,000, which is $245,000 more than the revised estimate for the current year, In respect of assessed
taxes
an increase of nearly $100,000 is expected compared with the revised estimate for this year. Another tisfactory feature in the revenue account is the growth in the land revenue from the New Territories. In 1903 this item amounted to $22,127; this year double the amount is expected, and next year it is estimated to produce $75,000. In view of the public attention directed to the tree-felling which the Government en- deavoured to justify at the meeting of the Council on Thursday it may be noted that the
revenue incidents prove? Nothing more, surely represented 34 per cent. of the than can be proved by citing equally true
When Sir HENRY BLAKE began his reign (Daily Press, 19th September.) Cases of wicked priests, and the Church's there was a strong feeling in the Colony The ascription to "Continental Masonry" sometime questionable methods of suppres-that more money should be devoted by the
Government of responsibility for the present rupture of sing doubt? It is more fitting that we
to Public Works Extras the relations of France and t'e Vatiein should look for the good points of both, ordinary, but it was pleaded to be impossible seems to us unwarranted. France, the which both undoubtedly possess. The out of the revenue, a view which securel hotbed of ideas and ideals, is ever ready to Church's detestation of Masoury, we believe, the endorsement of the Secretary of State sacrifice its own peace and harmony for the rests mainly ou its threatenment of the Con- for the Colonies. It is worth pointing out sake of either; and France is at present fessional, à means of grace that has all that in 1899 the expenditure of the Public imbued with the idea that it is priest-ridden, along been one of the Church's strongest Works Department represented 19 per cent. The revenue has We need not enter into the various causes of weapons. Protestants detest the idea of the of the colonial revenue. this belief, since we purpose dealing more Confessional, its abuses having impressed since increased more than 100 per cent., usefully, we hope, with the side issue raised them more than its use. They detest, a'so, and about one-half the amount of that in- by a northern contemporary which had the Papal discouragement of freedom of crease is given over to public works. The ascribed a Freemason origin to the recent thought, unwitting that that policy, and expenditure of the Public Works Depart actions of M. Combes and his confrères. th it alone, has preserved intact the funda. nient was represente l in 1900 by the sum of Whether it is that the staff of our contem- mentals of the Church for so many nges, $630,000; in the Estimates for 1905, the porary includes a new, and s enthusiastic, nud saved her from many of the scandalous Department asks for appropriations amount. recruit of one of Shanghai's numerous bickerings and internal dissensions so con- ing to $2,459,300. Lodges, or whether it was sheer temerity spicuous and consistent in the other forms that prompted the N.-C. Daily News to rush of the Christian Church. As for Masonry, into an editorial defence of Freemasonry. its rituals are pure and beautiful, and its we do not know. Dealing with The X Rays ideals as altruistic aud holy as any the in Freemasonry, by A. Cowan, our contem-Orthodox can claim; and If the majority of porary endorses the suggestion (first made Masons come short in practice of the glory by the author) by quoting Papal attacks on thereof, their professions, at any rate, have Masonry to show that the Masons are gone to show good intentions. In the dis- justified in "hitting back." In defending crepancies of practice and precept, neither Masons, our contemporary has offended the Masonic Pot nor the Ecclesiastical Kettle, Roman Catholics, by such comments as this : may call the other black. The facts have Freedom, liberty of worship and of to come from "babes and sucklings" after thought, truth, and, above all, light: these all; and these have said that faith is are the teachings which Rome abhors unless believing what you know ain't so," and "the they are tinged with the colours which she ideal is the antithesis of the real." A small 20 skilfully infuses into them. It was for boy of our acquaintance, aged about eight, seeking truth in his own way that the Mason astonished his mother not long ago by was damned." The immediate result was a breaking silence after a lengthy spell of long letter accusing our contemporiry of meditation, with the remark: "Mamma! I quoting "in a garbled mauner,' and hurl have decided that there must be good end ing something like a thousand denunciatory bad in all things." After which dictum, words at the Society which claims so many we think the hatchet ought to be buried at Lodges and members in the Far East. Before Shangbai. more acrimony is imported into this unfor tunate moot-case, we would fain acquire some of the merit that falls in the peace- maker. Here is a passage which extorted the ire of our contemporary: "Truth does not exist in Masonry or in any of those who fill the highest grades in the order. In the sect itself, lying, deceit, and perfidy are the sovereign rulers: and these pretended virtues are simply put forward as a mask to blind men of honour and good faith and to induce them to join a body of persons whose principles they would abhor if they knew what they really were. In truth I hereby declare that Freemasonry is an institution the scope of which is to under. mine and destroy every form of religion, and especially the Catholic faith, and to try and substitute thereto a diabolic worship and the restoration of humanity to primitive paganism." In reproof whereof, and com- menting that it seems to be "
stretching the amenities of debate rather too much," our contemporary probably thought to reduce the tension by attributing to the Pope and his Church an antipathy to “truth, and, above all, light." If our duty as peacemaker could be done by showing the faults of both sides, it were easily doue. We could suggest that the Masonic respect for Light is scarcely consistent with hiding it under the expensive bushel of a secret society, making it inaccessible to the majority of mankind; and we could narrate an auec | dote illustrative of masonic piety. To a would-be recruit was put the question: "In times of difficulty and danger, in Whom do you put your trust?" The candidate replied: “In A———— B-
giving his own "Oh! But you must reply In God, was the answer. "Is it essential that I should profess such a belief?" To which the good P.G.M. replied, emphatically but profanely, By- it is." But what do such
name.
"
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THE HONGKONG BUDGET.
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(Daily Press, 19th September.) In his first address to the Legislative Council upon his appointment to the Governorship of Hongkong in 1899 Sir HENRY BLAKE said: The most pressing public work at the present moment is the building of the New Law Courts, which blocks the way for the improvement of the Post Office, a build- ing entirely insufficient and unsuited for the postal requirements of the Colony.'
At the end of Sir HENRY BLAKE's term of office the building of the New Law Courts was still a most pressing public work." His Excellency, however, just before he left the Colony, had the satisfaction of laying the foundation stone of the building as well as of seeing the excavation work begun on a site for a new Post Office For the delay in the execution of these works, red-tape entanglements were more responsible than inadequacy of funds, though five years ago the estimates had to be framed with " rigid regard for economy." Such a pro- gramme of public works as figures in the Estimates presented to the Council Inst Thursday would have been impossible five years ago. Sir MATTHEW NATKAN has the advantage of finding the revenue larger than it has ever been before, enabling long. needed public works to be taken up and actively carried out. His Excellency notes that the Government is committed to large expenditures, notably on waterworks and sanitary improvements, and that the list of public buildings in course of erection include besides the Law Courts and Post Office, a New Harbour Office, a Bacteriological Laboratory, and a market in the Western district. His Excellency pointed out in his address to the Council that the estimated expenditure on public works for 1905
a
revenue expected from the sale of timber this year (the first year this item has figured in the estimates) is $25,000, and next year 836,700, which indicates that this vandalism is to proceed to an altogether unsuspected by the public.
extent
It must be a source of great satisfaction to the community to observe that a large proportion of this increased revenue is being devoted to carrying out long- delayed though urgently needed public In the ourrent year the sum Works. appropriated for public works is about 34 per cent, of the estimated reve.ue, and the same proportion the Governor has pointed out is asked for in the estimutes for 1905, though the actual amount is nearly half a million dollars more than is estimated to be spent this year.
His Excellency spoke of the Budget as practically a Public Works of Budge's the community desire to see. Estimate, and that is precisely the kind
While the revenue is waintained at its pre- sent level there is no apparent reason why the percentage spent on public works should be lower than it is. Much, very much, requires to be done in Hongkong in the way of public improvements, and the sooner it is done the better, alike in the interests of the health and convenience of the present inhabitants and the future progress and prosperity of the Colony.
Under the auspices of the Hongkong Branch of the Sanitary Institute, a course of about 40 leotares will be commenced early next month. These lectures are intended for students pro- posing toattend one or other of the three Institute examinations in practical sanitary science sanitation, so far as required for an inspector of nuisances; and inspection of meat and other foods, so far as required by a meat inspector or inspector of markets.
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