MR REEVES AND THE MAYORAL ELECTION.

Evening Star, Issue 3874, 24 July 1875, Page 3

MR REEVES AND THE MAYORAL ELECTION.

To the Editor. Times corrupt, imd nature ill inclined, Produce the point that left the sting behind • Till, friend with friend, and families at stride, Triumphant malice rag’d through private life. —Pope. PiU,— During the recent contest for the Mayoral election such previous mistateraents and calumnies were circulated by a few acainat me that I am induced by my friends, and forced in defence of my reputation, to claim space in your columns to refute them. Although for years past rumors of these reflections on my character have from time to time been reported to me, I never turned out of my way to trouble the public with these personal matters, as such narrow-mindedness and unjust prejudices arc much to be deprecated in a free and enlightened community, and are, I am sure, not believed in by the thinking and liberal portion of my fel-low-citizens. As, however, I am credibly informed I have lost many votes owing to these mean, mendacious mistatemeuts, I think it time to .- peak out boldly, and possibly by other means punish, as they deserve, those malicious slanderers.

The sting of rasro ch which has been pointed at me, and u cd, I fear, for party purposes, has been that I am au Irishman, and, a Fenian. To the first I plead gv.iby, having, by accident o I birth, been burn in the land of the shamrock—a laud v.hich I : "ve mid \ cuerrte, and wi:l do so as long as life lasts, fully conning the hearfstirrlug sentiments of ore of Seotl aid’s immortal barns—lave-: inerc a man with soap, r-o dead Tin)! never to himself lias said, This is my own my unlive laud.

Ao to the invective convoyed in the second »ta wnent, it is only Fvellcd at me in m dignity or w ■iitoness, for tarn sine that dming my it.-.i'tciioe thnieon y."ci) in this (Jit v no persoii wd.i l -voi I nin ncquiiritod will fur ono say but tnat rueli an opj.ridriuu > epiUKt is f.dsc and nmliaioua. 1 neur duplayrd d} ] >\ ul(.y, i-or could any acts of my

past residence in Dunedin be construed into such a meaning. If, at the request of a large number of my country ir ?n, my having consented to act as treasurer to a charitable fund subscribed to by colonists of all nationalities and creeds for the relief of the widows and children of the unhappy and misguided men called Fenians, constituted me one, it was certainly very far from my ideas or intentions. It has also been stated, probably for party purposes, that I aha a Homan Catholic. Well, if I were, I cannot see that this should estrange from me the confidence or support of my fellow-colonists, for religion is, or at least should be, in the minds of all reasonable and liberal men, left out of public affairs; so that were I a good Catholic I do not think I would be a worse man on that account, viewing it in a broad and Christian spirit, than did I profess any other creed ; but having been often asked wind religion I r>rofess, I now once and for all disclose myself a member of the Church of Fr,gland under the ministration of my woithy countryman and pastor, the Rev. Mr Stanford, of All Saints’ Church,

In conclusion,'sir, ! do not write these lines to refute the religious misstatements—for I have so many excellent and worthy friends amongst clerical and lay Catholics, both here and in the old land, that I shall ever regard them with kindness—but to point out to my fellow-citizens what a cle’iro there may be at times, to suit certain pirposrß, to malign the character of a public man ; and it is a practice which, if persisted in, may tend to subvert that broad Christian spirit and humanity which should exist amongst us, and should' be discouraged by all who have either the love of their country or the honor of their religion at heart.—l am, &0., C. S. Reeves. Dunedin, July 23.