BISHOP LISTON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2415, 8 April 1922, Page 3

BISHOP LISTON.

LETTER TO THE PREMIER. MISUNDERSTANDING RE- . 'GRETTED. Auckland, Yesterday. Bishop Liston, in a letter to the. Premier, says: “I yield place to no one in love for this beautiful country of New Zealand, in which I was born, and loyalty to the King. In so far as any reported remarks of mine should have led those who do not know me, I quite frankly regret my share in ilie misunderstanding, and I trust, when the people of New Zealand come to know me better, they, will think of me as my friends do. "I speak in that matter as a citizen of New Zealand no less than a Catholic bishop. The Church is Mother of my faith in things eternal.; New Zealand is my country, protectress of my liberty, and of my fortunes on earth. I could not utter one syllable that would belie either my Church or my country, and when I assert, as I now solemnly do, that the teachings of the ■Church are in thorough harmony with the interests of my country,New Zealand, I know in Hie depths of my soul that I speak the truth. Thai Catholics in New Zealand have carried out this obligation of loving their country, their generous part in her children’s toil and sacrifice is honourable proof. Loyalty, however, does not preclude me or anyone else from striving for betterment of any part, of' the Empire. What I said, and. what I sav now, with all sincerity, is thus: In spite of an all-foo-unhappy past, Irish people at borne and abroad, and their sympathisers, are both willing and eager to hold out the hand of friendship. The very first, to strike this note were the bishops of Ireland to a man, and one amongst them who was', often denounced as an out-and-out extremist has hailed the Treaty which binds his country to the Empire as a very gift of God.”