"AN EYE-OPENER FOR BISHOP CLEARY."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1702, 19 March 1913, Page 4

"AN EYE-OPENER FOR BISHOP CLEARY."

1 Sir,—Bishop Cleary has become the special pleader tor the present system of education, and has lectured the . lenders of the Bible-in-Schools League, for not conthe Komau Catholic Church when attempting a. .reform of tho seor.lar system. He has been crying out also for tho-rights of minoriUes in-'education mutters. I consider, .therefore, it would be well if .tlui outlook was widened., to see -»'liat the Roman Catholic Church is doiiifj iu other lunds. She is very "ood at crying out for tile rights of minorities when she is in the minority, bu, we find quite a cry when she in the majority. The Church of England sent out afew months ago a Missifln of-Help' to Western Canada, and most of the members have now returned and' have been giving the. Church at Home the benefit "(if their experience. One of (lie missioiiers, the Rev. C. S. Qiiainten, has something to say on the Catholic Church's methods in" Western Canada. He- says: "Tho Anglican Church in Canada wos a very bad fourth among the icligions bodies. He has come back a more ardent Imperialist, but a very '.hastened Anglican, us the result of hi.; experiences. The IJoman Catholics sui passed us in numbers, money, practical effectiveness,'statesmanship, and astuteness. They worn the only religious bodv in the West to have their separate scliools financed and built by the State, with their own doctrines and atmosphere. The Anglican Church had to put up with the dry husks of secularism." No,v. if we change the Dominion of Canada for the Dominion of New Zealand, and reverse the

Roman Catholic for the Anglican, what a cry out wis would have from Bishop Cleary, nml sonic of his friends—the (secularists. This seems to be "subsidising n 1 - the expenso of all and the religion o: some," as some of your recent correspondents put it.—l am, etc., THUS. M. MILj.IOAN. Alaich 18, 1913,

IMMIGRATION AND MR. TREGEAR. Sir, —Under the nbovo heading thero appeared ill your issuo of March 12 a letter signed "Disgusted." It was tiu admirable signature, for overyono who read the letter felt disgusted when they got to tlio end of it. The writer stated that in my evidence before tho Imperial Trado Commission I opposed immigration. From the very fair report of my evidence given in The Dominion, it is clear that my evidence was entirely on the other side. I said that immigration was almost compulsory on account of the fast-falling birth-rate, but that I considered such immigration must bo most carefully regulated, lest it should produeo unemployment by introducing labour for which there was 110 outlet. I should, therefore, like to hint to one who is evidently interested in seeing an over-stocked labour market that he is hardly as accurato in his judgment as he is delicate and considerate in his mode of rebuke. His allusions to my "master, the late Mr. Seddon," to my "nico billet," my "fat pension," and my liavirig spent my lifo in "the lap of luxury," show such intimate knowledge of uiy personal history that I feel diffident in replying to so courteous a critic. I should like, however, to remind my gallant friend behind the hedge that he would shoot straighter if his hand did not shake so much. I'hero could be no objection to shiploads of English people being suddenly dumped down in New Zealand, if they all ikisscmed- the high intelligence and tho kindly generous spirit disclosed in the letter of "Disgusted." Colonials, who have fought and toiled for more than half a century to make New Zealand the pleasant placs it now is, would ' flock in hundreds to tho wharves to welcome strangers if, like "Disgusted," these new-comers have at once a lofty scorn of "the lap of luxury" and an utter contempt for common honesty of speech—l am, etc., EDWARD TREGEAR. March 13.