LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1657, 25 January 1913, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

BISHOP CLEARY'S ACCUSATIONS.

Sir,—Your issue of the 20th instant contains a letter from-Bishop Cleary, purporting to bo a reply to my statement-of facts m regard to the charge he made against tho league,' of publishing a fabri-cated-statement in tho name of the Director of Education,' Tasmania. I venture to submit, that most people/who read my statement of facts and Bishop Cleary's subsequent letter will agree , with mo that lie has passed by a last opportunity. of taking the proper course, which obviously is that lie _ should have expressed regret at having brought an accusation now', proved to be; wholly unjustifiable, against the heads of. those churches, and other' Christian people, associated in. the league.

' Ho carefully fails to give any reason whatever why he did not acknowledge his. error and withdraw his accusation; , immediately on the receipt of the cablegram or on the subsequent receipt of tho letter from, the Director of Education, Tasmania, confirming tho authenticity of the document published by tho league. Wo would' then have accepted his Lordship's apology, and' passed the incident out of further remark. ' Neither does he throw'any light on, the fact that although ho was m actual possession of tho knowledge that his accusation was without foundation, he did not publish it himself, but said nothing whatever about it until wo had published a copy of tho letter from the Tasmaman Director whioh cleared us of, forgery exactly one month , after it had been sent to tho Bishop. . 1 , ■ Under these circumstanoea it is not an unfair question 'to ask, "Would the vindication of our honour from a charge of forgery, have ever becomo publio had the knowledge that it was cleared remained in the Bishop's sole possession, and not have come.to us?" ' . ' It seems to me that the Bishop is very late in the day when ho now says that he did not "guarantee" tho accuracy of tho "information received" by him from Tasmania on which'ho founded his acous&tioiv When he published it he made no such qualification, but his words wero as emphatic in their charge of fabricat-. ing evidence, as the answer is decisive received, by himself from the Tasmanian Director , that the original publication by the league is an absolutely correot statement of the Director of Tasmania's .official opinion.—l am, etc., . _ ' . , DAVID J. OAKLAND, Organising Secretary. Dominion Executive Office, : ' Wellington, January 23.