PENALTIES ON OPINION

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 128, 3 June 1919, Page 2

PENALTIES ON OPINION

TO THB EDITOR. Sir,; —If the recent cable message is to be trusted, the League of Nations has determined that in the new States being formed in Europe there is to be no "victimisation" for religious belief. . It is to be hoped that the decision of the League will be applied to New Zealand, and that tho intolerable piece of legislation of last session and the recent decisions of the "Inquisition" into the religious beliefs of conscientious objectors will receive the short shrift that they deserve. Five years ago would the people of New Zealand have allowed any Parliament—especially one with: no mandate from the electors—to place on the Statute Book legislation which en- , ables the man who has> broken the law •to escape the penalties of his action because he holds certain religious dogmas or beliefs, while another man, equally honest in his convictions, is heavily penalised 1 Shades of the Middle Ages ! People will bo burned a.t the stake next! That the churches nnd press of this country have not raised a cry against such flagrant injustice indicates a lack of that morality, which maketh a nation. ' Unjust laws almost inevitably lead to lawlessness, a fact that has been often pointed out, but which Governments seem to assimilate with difficulty. ■=■"! ?mii sfcq,, ■ 'J?. A, HUNTJift. , Wellington, 30th May, 1919.