BISHOP NELIGAN'S SERMON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 56, 31 March 1909, Page 3

BISHOP NELIGAN'S SERMON.

To the Editor. Sir,—Monday's issue of your paper contained a synopsis of a sermon delivered by Bishop Neligan in St. Mnrv's last Sunday evening. His Lordship undertook to show that Britain stands alone, excels all other nations, in her methods of colonisation; Rome. Greece, and Spain failed, but Britain claims the proud distinction of having steered clear of the rocks upon which older nations ■suffered shipwreck. Spain failed because she attempted to force her religious system upon the natives nf her colonial possessions. liritain has never adopted so suicidal and narrow-minded a policy, etc. Alas! for his Lordship's tlie-ds, the history of his native country, Ireland. shatters in fragments the imaginary picture he has drawn of Britain's boasted love of freedom. From the day when Henry VIII., of pious memory, threw oil allegiance to the Pope, almost down, to our time has it liofe been the consistent policy of England to force its religious system upon the Irish people? Consult Leeky, consult Greene, or any standard author for proof of this assertion. In the face of such historic facts, Bishop Neligan would have ns believe that "Britain never sought to enslave the national life, but to free it and develop all that was good in the lives of the people with whom she came in contact." Extermination is not development. There is no country in the world that has suffered more than Ireland for conscience sake, and still she is the only one that has never resorted to persecution on the score of religion. If "we ask ourselves what has Britain done for the native races in her colonies, we find them gradually melting away, disappearing, under her fostering care. The natives of Australia are gone, the native* of Tasmania are gone, the natives of New Zealand and of Brifish South Africa are disappearing Vast. Let us look facts iu the face, get rid of cant, and cast the beam out of our own eye before searching for the mote in our neighbor'*.—l am. etc.. .lAS. .McKEXKA.