The Kumara Times. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1878.

Kumara Times, Issue 457, 14 March 1878, Page 2

The Kumara Times. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1878.

It is now matter of common talk that after having made every arrangement for holding a grand ball to-morrow evening, a section of the Hibernian Society, outvoting by a small majority another section, has succeeded in obtaining its indefinite postponement. The ball having been abandoned, a meeting of Catholics is to be held this evening in the Church for an object not mentioned in the advertisement. Although, however, the object is not*,stated it is generally known, and as several of onr good Catholic friends, (who quite unnecessarily take our posi- i tion very seriously to heart) have been ! kind enough to furnish us with an ap- i proximate draft of the resolutions to be submitted, it would be ridiculous of : us to pretend ignorance. As this meeting is to be one composed exclus-

ively of thb members of a religious body, it would under ordinary circumstances be entirely beyond the province of a secular journal to take cognizance of it in any way ; .but as the object of holding it is known to be to pass judgment upon this journal for publishing a certain article; and as, moreover, it has been represented to us that the question may be placed before the meeting in a false light, we may be pardoned for departing from the ordinary rule.

Amongst a portion of the Roman Catholic community we are accused of attacking their Church through one of its accredited Priests, the Rev. Father Hennebeny, who is travelling in these Colonies ostensibly to propagate total abstinence principles. Such is not the case. Father Hennebery is reported—and evidence accumulates daily (vide to-day’s West Coast Times) tending to prove that the report is correct—to have denounced in terras calculated to produce much domestic misery, and to rouse class against class, marriages between Roman Catholics and Protestants marriages authorized and solemnized by the Church itself. This we attacked; but to attempt to make out that we condemned the enunciation of this doctrine because it fell from the lips of a Roman Catholic Priest is quite beside the mark. At the time we stated distinctly that we cared not to what faith, sect, or schism the speaker belonged. As journalists we recognize no one denominationalisra before another; and were the most exalted champion of Protestantism, or Judaisim or any other “ ism” to make the assertions attributecj to Father Henneberry, we should denounce him in no less emphatic languthan that used the other day. It has been argued by some that we were not warranted in accepting as correct the report of the Evening Star. Our reply is that until any of our contemporaries are detected in untruthfulness Or misrepresentation we place, the fullest confidence in their statements of facts, however much we may differ from the arguments built thereon. In this case the correctness of the btar s report has been .in our opinion fully corroborated from outside sources. Had the reverse been the Case ; had it been proved that the Star’s report was untruthful, we should have been the first to denounce mendacity the only object of which could have been to sow discord in a peaceable community. In conclusion 4e will just say that after an explanation that should have been quite unnecessary; after our assertion that we attack neither Father Henneberry, nor Ms Church, nor his mission, but only the dissemination of a mischievous doctrine by any man be what he may—after this explanation, we repeat, if it is sought to place any other interpretation on pur conduct, it will only be a perversion of the simple truth as maliciously ingenious as it will be wilful and beneath contempt.