MR. CHARLES BRIGHT’S LECTURES IN WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 317, 9 March 1878, Page 8

MR. CHARLES BRIGHT’S LECTURES IN WELLINGTON.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, —I have to ask your permission to bring under the notice of my many friends in Wellington the following astounding paragraph, which, though very probably concocted in Dunedin, purports to emanate from the Wellington correspondent of the Tablet . the weekly organ of the Roman Catholici of this city, and appears in the last issue of that journal : “Mr. Charles Bright, the ‘Free Thought Lecturer,’ has discovered that in his attempt* to foist the tenets of his atheistic doctrine upon the people of Wellington, he has not been, to his own mind, in any way successful. In the course of a series of lectures which he delivered here a few weeks ago, the attendance was so small, and the subjects having drawn out severe criticisms in the Press ; as also his audience being inclined to pursue the s«ne unpleasant proceedings to which they treated a fellow laborer—Walker, ‘the Spiritualist’— he considered it but waste of time and abilities to remain for any longer period in Wellington, and so he betook himself to “ pastures new,” leaving Wellington to enjoy her reputation of being the least tainted centre of population in tlie colony by Free Thinkers, Atheists, and Pantheists.” Without doing more than refer to the readiness with which, in all ages of the world, persons idolatrously inclined have stigmatised those of freeer minds as Atheists, I may ask what must be the condition of a cause which requires to be thus bolstered up by deliberate falsehoods ? The gentlemen who invited me to Wellington know' that I informed them from Auckland that my engagements would

not permit of my giving- more than three lectures in their city, whilst almost everyoue in Wellington must be aware that in consequence of the great success of those lectures, and the detention, for one day, of the steamer Hawea, I was enabled to give a fourth lecture prior to my departure. As to the “ unpleasant proceedings,” all I desire is that I may encounter similar “ unpleasaut proceedings” in every town I visit. Such a result would indeed prove most satisfactory to myself and the cause to the furtherance of which my life is devoted.—l am, &c., Charles Bright. Dunedin, March 5, 1878. [Whatever opinions may be entertained of Mr. Bright’s lectures, it is a fact that they were largely attended here, and well received. This was especially the case on the occasion of his Sunday lecture at the Theatre.—Ed. N. Z. Times.]