CORRESPONDENCE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 680, 24 June 1914, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

Letters for publication, and articles for insertion must be accompanied (not necessarily for publication), by the name of the writer, and, provided they are not offensive in any way, wur be ■ ■ published as space permits. The Editor does iot identify himself with the opinions expressed, '** by correspondents, and accepts up responsibility for them. The Editor. Sir;— Will you allow rce a little spacein your next issue to refer to a letter in your last issue signed by the president of the Social Democratic Party,. Te Kuiti? To make things clear and brief, let me say: In a previous letter I criticised Mr Way, lecturer for the party, for two reasonsMr Way condemned and sneered at religious tenets held by millions; Mr Way gave no definite programtas for his party if returned to. power, but spoke of a- "long shovel" for the employing classes, and of ''putting them in the front of-an invading Japanese firing line,'' etc. Now, I am stated to be "unjustly misleading" in my criticism, tipcause Mr Way did- not condemn and sneer at any. religibut! tenet "during his lecture.",'-but only in giving a long .answer to a guestiun immediately following on his lecture. If I am, for this reason, "unjustly misleading," I am sorry and I apologise; However, Iccart,n r t, tee the point myself. I would consider Mr Way, or any lecturer just as responsible ior a long answer to a question arising from the nature of his work and of his lecture, just as responsible as for the lecture itself. Whilst Mr Way is on the platform, speaking as a leader of the party, then, any reasonable man will weigh his utterances in the same balance, from the tiwe he gets on the platform till he leaves it.' '"J ■ ; Secondly, I did not have in mind nor mention the Bible-in-Scbools question. Therefore the president's re marks in his letter on the subject do not concern me.

Thirdly, to m9ke it clearer Mr Way, speaking from a platform, aa a Social Democratic leader, r.vttdenm and sneer at religions • tenets' He did, most gratuitously and intolerantly. He. denied - and condemned the world-wide doctrine of Christian churches, viz.: Original sin—and therefore the body of doctrines which depend on it. Redemption, the Passion, and Death of Chrißt, etc.: the sacred character of the Bible, the system of religious instruction for young and the sacred .practice in the Catholic Churches o( Confession. Did Mr Way fail to develop his prorgamme, jf in power, _ and hint at lawless methods for disposing of the classes with whom he differs? Here, 1 apologise. I missed a good sPßrt of the lectjure. I am justified, however, in that 1 heard his summing up and, in it, he certainly indicated methods imnossible to the vast body of Christians. I asked: Was lie joking or serious. No answer is given. Still; withal, -I state is a pity that men with such great wurk in hand as the betterment of the worli, and above all, of the poor and labouring woild. will drag in, unnecessarily, hurtful allusions to the most sacred things men hold dear. DoeßMrWay, or the president, realise that to Catholics and to Christians all over the world, the. hurt is most deadly when it is a hurt to their religious Reliefs? The president regrets that the churches have mixed up, and do mix up, economics and religion, etc. Well, Mr Editor, long back in the ages,one Church was the motfies of all religion and the teacher of all economics—she was the bulwark of the very classes for whom the president is* working. That's a big statement and vast field for examination —history will most certainly teach, its Uuth.to the man who reads. In conclusion—"ne little* word for those terrible landholders. 1 don't like landlordism—l and mine suffered from that system. Above all the large, intolerant uncontrolled landholder is, I believe, a curse to any land, and should not be permitted to hold sway. Still, there's a little good in everything. "Magna Charta" was, in great part, the foundation of the people's liberty in England. It still, to a great degree, is the radical basis of the best parts of the great English Constitution. Who secured it for the land and for the people? The "landlord barons" of England, with sword in hand, forced the unwilling King to sign it —I am, etc., . J J. N. BRENNAN.