THE BISHOP'S RETRACTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 April 1922, Page 4

THE BISHOP'S RETRACTION.

We had hoped that on calm reflection the coadjutor Bishop of Auckland would have unreservedly withdrawn the bitter words he levelled against the citizens of the British Empire at Auckland recently, words that were both an offence and a challenge to all loyal citizens, and words that were calculated to cause the disintegration of all that the .British hold dear. Bishop Liston, in his letter to the Premier, has offered no' apology fbr the language he used. He has merely expressed his love for New Zealand and loyalty to the King. His only regret is that any of his remarks should have led those who do not know him to think otherwise, thus studiously avoiding the real point in question. It is satisfactory to have his assurance of loyally to the King, but difficult to reconcile that loyalty with the statements he made when describing the King’s soldiers who fohght the Dublin rebels in 1916, when Britain had her back to the wall, helping to stem the Germans, and preventing them from dominating the world—and, incidentally, New Zealand—as “foreigners” and “murderers”. The letter to the Prime Minister is couched in ambiguous language, which presupposes that there has been a misunderstanding of his statement. It would have been far better, and helped to allay the feeling his rancorous remarks have evoked, if he had completely withdrawn them and expressed regret therefor. There w r as no room for misunderstanding, for his words were explicit and definite- We hope the bishop will yet put himself right with New Zealand and the Empire, for such sentiments as he and Archbishop Redwood have expressed but provide fuel for the sectarian fire that has, unhappily, been started in New Zealand. We had hoped this fair Dominion would be saved this sectarian strife. There was never a time in the whole history of the country when the unity and co-operation of all sections and all creeds were more needed than they are to-day. The difficulties before us are considerable, and the problems grave, and the only way of overcoming and solving them is for all parties to pull together in a spirit of goodwill and forbearance. We 'do not want the alleged wrongs of a country 13,000 miles away to be obtruded and made capital of in this fair Dominion, which has troubles enough of its own, nor do we want the Mother Country, to which the great bulk of us are proud to owe allegiance, defamed. Let this sort of thing end, or else religious and political conditions here will become as bad as they are in Australia and elsewhere. Peace and reconciliation are the supreme needs to-day, not only of Ireland, but of New Zealand and the whole world, and all in authority or exercising any influence should work diligently to that desirable end, and refrain from saying or doing anything that will cause dissension, national embitterment or religious strife.