A DEAD BIRD.

NZ Truth, Issue 138, 8 February 1908, Page 4

A DEAD BIRD.

i . — *— — . — The "reliarable" daily press of Wellington, which depends upon the Press Association for its e.i;,le news, made a grievous error, and displxved .shocking ignorance during the week when it published news concerning th. suicide of a Methodist mouther named Bird. Now. it would appear from the daily press that Bird Was a Sydney ranter,, as the cable is alleged to come from the city of the harbor, and it might, therefore, be not at.all unreasonable on "Truth's" part to correct the day-lie press and to assure their readers that Bird did not belong to Sydney, and that he was one of Perth's (W.A.) ranters and that ho killed himself m King's ,Park. which is the only beauty spot m that sinful city and there-fore-just the spot that a miserable Methodist would be likely, to desecrate with his poor, blood. Bird seems to have gone the way of a lot of Perth parsons. He was mixed up m a dummying transaction with an oily and unctuous Minister of the Crown named Illingworth, who was a leading light m Bands of Hope, the cause of temperance and other heartless frivolities. Being religious, it was never suspected that lie Was a rook, and- being a Minister of the Crown, a God-fearing servant of the "Loard," and the people, he was the last m the eyes of the Godly to be thought guilty of 'boodling. It seems that Bird, who is a religious ranter, and almost as notorious as our own dearly beloved "brudder," J. JNorth, and being a weak vessel he allowed himself to be the tool of the oily Illingworth m a dummying land transaction. Whether Bird came out of the ordeal spotlessly pure or not is a matter one need not dwell on. j The part he played preyed on his mind. «•« he poisoned himself with I strychnine and' then went to the beautiful park aforesaid and shot himself: He left a note behind, whining m truly Methodist style as follows :— "For a long time I have wished to die. lam so disappointed at my own [weakness. Men do as they like with me with money matters, and my conference, since 1901, has always opposed me." He's a dead Bird now, though "Truth" cannot help smiling at the cry of "Men do as they like With me with money matters," particularly when the Rfrd is viewed as a pastor of a Methodist bible-bang-ing concern. The greed of gold, this devotion at the shrine of Mammon, has heen the undoing of many a par son before to-day, and there are few of Bird's sort m Perth to-day who have not come to gr'ef. Some have cleared away with other men's wives, one h :i s chucked the chm-ch for a erog-,ihop, others Vu>ve turned land-

sharks, and one or two have found their way into gaol. Where Bird has gone is a matter difficult of solution.' Suffice it to say he has closed, a life of hypocrisy m ignominy. Why the daily press should haVe erred over his woeful end is what "Truth" cannot understand. Anyhow, we set them right and charge them nothing.