PROTESTANTS AND POLITICS
MEETING OF ASSOCIATION. A meeting of the Protestant Political Association was held in the Early Settlers’ Hall on Tuesday evening, Mr S. G. Griffith occupying the chair. There was a large attendance of supporters of the association, who listened with keen interest to the addresses of the speakers for the evening—Rev. P. B. Fraser, Rev. J. Pringle, and Mr F. W. Ashman (organiser of the association). In introducing the speakers, the chairman said that at the present time there was nothing more necessary in the world in general, and in the Dominion in particular, than that the plenty that existed should be distributed to the advantage of all, that fair play should be universally applied, and that, in matters political, even-handed justice should be extended to all sections of the community. In Dunedin, and, indeed, all over New Zealand, gentlemen of the cloth knew they were Protestants and knew why they were Protestants; moreover, they were able to declare their reasons. Thus, as Protestants, supporters of the association should accord hearty support and more than silent sympathy to those who honoured themselves and the faith of their forefathers by occupying the pulpits of the churches. The Rev. J. Pringle said the watchword of the association was equal rights for all and special privileges for none. When any particular power was dominant in a country, the people had not the freedom to express their rights of citizenship, and it was altogether deplorable that under the British flag there should be any interference with these rights. The speaker went on to remind his hearers of what had occurred in Ivlalta some months ago, and mentioned that it was no transgression of the canons of Christian charity to take such action as they deemed necessary to prevent any encroachment by a minority on the rights of the citizens. When the Republicans took office after the abdication of the King of Spain, one of their first decrees was that the people should have liberty of conscience, —surely a relief to the citizens of a country where an outbreak of anti-clerical animus had. been brewing for years. All the world oyer Protestants claimed the inalienable right of every man to hold his conscience free before God. Fortunately persecution had not the power to-day that it had in days gone by. There was undoubtedly an attempt in New Zealand at the present time for the minority to dominate the majority, but the Protestants were not going to sleep and they were not going to allow their liberty to become circumscribed. nor the principles of fair play in the field of politics to be encroached upon.
Mr Ashman dealt principally with the exemption of the members of certain religious orders from the .provisions of the Unemployment Act. The members of these orders had no more right to exemption, he considered, than the members of any other religious organisation, and the burden of the unemployment taxation should be borne equally by every member of the community. Referring to politics, Mr Ashman declared that at the last general elections, the United Party had received the block vote of the Roman Catholic community.
The Rev. P. B. Fraser; supporting Mr Ashman’s remarks with regard to the unemployment levy, stated that to a letter he had forwarded to the Minister of Labour he had received a reply that members of religious orders who were forbidden the possession of property, as well as students attending theological colleges and not in receipt of salary or “wages, were exempt from payment of the levy. He had made further inquiries into the matter, but he could not get a square and straight answer regarding it, and he could not understand why a list of special exemptions was not available if the exemption was an honourable and straightforward thing. Mr Fraser went on to say that somehow or another, by some method not easily understood, Roman Catholics were able, not only in New Zealand, but in many other countries, to take public offices in numbers far out of proportion to their numerical strength. Moreover, he had reason to believe that owing to manipulation of political power, Roman Catholics had gained a far greater representation than they were entitled to in the present Government.
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Otago Witness, Issue 4032, 23 June 1931, Page 10
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710PROTESTANTS AND POLITICS Otago Witness, Issue 4032, 23 June 1931, Page 10
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