THE LATE BISHOP PATTESON.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 262, 6 November 1871, Page 2

THE LATE BISHOP PATTESON.

To THE EDITOE OF THE NELSON EVEtTCNG MAIL. Sir — Allow me to suggest that it will be only decent and becoming for Christian people here to testify the affectionate sorrow they so widely feel by putting on, say till Christmas, the outward garb of mourning for. our first martyr Bishop of the Melanesian Isles. For New Zealand churchmen and women to do so, especially, seems no more than the bounden duty imposed upom them by the Apostolic rule of Christian courtesy; while Englishmen and gentlemen can hardly need prompting to show their ever ready admiration for chivalrous heroism and self'rforgetting bravery which formed so prominent a feature in the character of our well-loved Bishop Patteson. I am, &c, C. Henry J. Halcombe: • Nelson, Nov. 4, 1871.

To The .Editor ov the Nelson Evening Mail. Sir, — In the editorial note which you appended to my letter of yesterday, you complained of my want of courtesy in applying the word " lie "to any statement the correctness of which I happened to doubt; allow me to state that, if I were doubting of the correctness of a statement and, whilst under that doubt, applied the word of " lie ." it would, be, on nay part, not only uncourteous, but very rash indeed. But, when I have in my bands documents

which show me that the writers of such statements invented and wrote deliberately a falsehood of that nature, against the most august and - venerable body of the Catholic Episcopate, I do not see* any other word, except some stronger ones, but the word that I have used, to express the nature of such a forgery. French people who are generally reputed to be civil and courteous, would, without violating the laws of Etiquette or Courtesy, apply to such a statement, as the one in question, the *vord rnensonge aud even a noire calomnie< Voltaire said to his admirers without a want of courtesy in their eyes, Meniez, mentez. Was Bishop For remainder of news see fourth page.

Strossmayer very courteous when,' according to the writer of his speech, he applied to certain Popes the words "avaricious, incestuous, murdering, simoniacal," and yet his speech is extolled < as a masterpiece ! As to my complaint of my letter being shut out for several days, (without contesting your right of decision as to what shall or shall or shall not appear in your columns, and acknowledging, at the same time, with thanks, your good nature for the facilities you have afforded me for the for different articles in your local news, for I have not troubled you by my letters except when called for) it would be wrong of me when I send a letter, not as a reply, if I were to complain of a delay; but whea it is a reply to statements which I consider to be injurious to my religion or to myself, the case is different; and I think that, in justice, I have a right to be heard, by the right of defence, at the right time. I am, &c, A. M. Garin.