MR. CHARLES BRIGHT’S LECTURES IN WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5288, 7 March 1878, Page 2

MR. CHARLES BRIGHT’S LECTURES IN WELLINGTON.

TO THE EDITOR OF TUB NEW ZEALAND TIMES Silt, —I have to ask your pel minion to bring under the notice of my m my friends "in Wellington the following astounding paragraph, which; though very probably conooeted in Dunedin, purports to emanate from the Wellington coreesponden t of the Tablet, the weekly organ of the Roman Catholic \ of , this city, and appears in the last issue of that journal:—■ “Mr. Charles Bright, the ’Free Th ught Lecturer,’ lias discovered that in his attempts 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»me

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 tbe least tainted centre of population in the col my 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- hare stigmatised those of freeer minds as .Atheists, I may ask w-hat 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 nc»t permit of my giving more than three lectures iu their city, whilst almost everyone 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 “unpleasant proceedings” in every town I visit. Such a result would ; iudeed prove most satisfactory to myself and the cause to the furtherance of which my life is devoted.—l am, &c., Charles Bkight. l 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, i This was especially the case on the occasion of * his Sunday lecture at the Theatre.—Ed. j N. Z. Times ] ,