DEAN POWER IN MR. MASSEY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 1, 30 November 1914, Page 4

DEAN POWER IN MR. MASSEY.

A SCATHING DENUNCIATION. In the course of a very powerful sermon at Hawera yesterday morning, Dean ; Power referred in strong terms to Mr. Massey's speech there on Friday night. He said: "I have never tried to influence a vote, either directly or indirectly, during the last 27 years in New Zealand. I have taken no part in politics, except to vote according to the dictates of my conscience, and to urge the same course on my parishioners; but now, as the senior chaplain in this town, and jealous of its honor, I feel constrained for the moment to abandon my retirement, and to state that, in my opinion, the speaker of Friday night was mainly, if not entirely, responsible for the discreditable incidents of the meeting. Indeed; during the whole course of his speech I could not help asking myself if lie had not come with the direct intention of provoking a riot. Only Almighty God knows how near we were to this at the moment when > compact body of young farmers in the centre of the hall set up a roar of triumphant hate in response to Mr. Massey's heartless jeers that the farmers ha,l done the frightening last 'year, and would do it again. His idea of a fighting speech seemed to be one in which he could hurl insults indiscriminately. I would respectfully suggest that at all future meetings the Mayor should keep one ear for the speaker, and by firm ruling protect the burgesses, whom he represented, from being in- | suited by speakers who come from without, and I would suggest to the speaker of Friday night that smart and insulting repartee is neither wit nor wisdom, and that an exercise of flippancy, which may bo tolerated in an underling, degrades an official in whom we expect to find dignity and self-restraint. I would urge my friends, the working men, to • possess their souls in patience under ' every provocation. Their day is coming, ; please God, by a bloodless revolution—in other countries, perhaps, by a bloody

one—but when it does come no one, I am convinced, will have more reason to rejoice than tlie farmer. This is why I am also convinced that he is an enemy of his country, and of his kind, who would travel from electorate to electorate, stirring up strife between the farmer and his brother, the working man."