FATHER COLEMAN IN REPLY.

Evening Star, Issue 3121, 19 February 1873, Page 2

FATHER COLEMAN IN REPLY.

To the Editor.

Sir,—Your article in last night’s Star is worthy of you. You have recourse to an old trick: you state untruths, and then require me to disprove them. You say you do not believe me; and yet you ask me to come forward and give proofs for what I said. “ Persuade a man against his will, he is of the same opinion still.” You have pronounced sentence. You adopt the old oppressive principle “hang him first and judge him after.” You say, “ men claiming to be spiritual fathers, by their harshness and intolerance drive their spiritual children into hypocrisy and lying, and then denounce them.” Sir, I shall uollower myself, by replying to that statement, as it deserves. I shall leave it to the judgment oi every honest man to decide whether the picture is not life-like when reversed. The Education system gets about L 3,000 per year out of the hard earnings of the Catholics in this Province. W hat do they get out of that ? simply nothing ; unless they accept teachers, for the most part Presbyterian. JN T o Catholic could accept a school under the Board at present. For that money there are put into their children’s hands, books containing vile calumnies against Catholic doctrine, the Church, and her ministers. With that money, schools are maintained in which Catholics are taught Protestant prayers and Bible reading. No instruction is offered except from a forbidden source ; and when they accept the offering, they make an effort to conceal their infamy. Who cause them to act the part of hypocrite and liar ? Doubtless, the persons who first plunder them ; and then offer assistance on terms that degrade the receivers and make them lie to conceal their degradation.—-I am, &c., Wm. Coleman. Dunedin, February 18th, 1873.