The Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1885. REV. FATHER KEANE'S PAMPHLET.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1416, 10 November 1885, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1885. REV. FATHER KEANE'S PAMPHLET.

In the preface to Father Keane's pamphlet on Masonry the following sentences appear : —" The necessity for a vindication of Borne kind has forcibly strudc me recently upon observing that iu a public lecture, delivered iu my district, the cry of 'shame' was raiseji, received with applause, and re-echoed in the press against the Church for her condemnation of this bociety. I requested the local journals, in the name of simple justice, to insert some iettfm by way ol defence ; but in Vain. The pocket was more dearly regarded than the interests of religiou ; the Catholic Church may have been slandered andcaluminated in their columns but they shall give no place to attacks on Masonry." As a rule we never read prefuces to books, and consequently this escaped our notice until our attention was called to it, There can be no doubt, that the Rev. Father Keane's bitter wonts wer<-directed towards this journal. No other local journal could have any interest iu the reiigion to which he refers. Be has thus made public a fact, which had hitherto remained a secret s< far as as we were concerned, viz. : I'hai he addressed to us a letter on the subject of Freemasonry, and that we refused to insert it—and const quently we feel no longer under an obligation to lefrain from referring to it. It is true that we refused to insert a letter addressed to us by the Rev. Father Keane on the occasion referred to, and we shall do so again if necessity for it arises. We 6hall always refused to give space to communications calculated to create ill will or disturb the peaceful relations of our fellow citizens. A* regards the insinuation about the pocket being '.' more dearly regarded than the interests of religion," the Rev. Father Keane knows too well that it is cruel to prefer such a charge against the person at whom it is aimed. He knows full well the same person has suffered more than once through having strictly ad- j hered to the principles he accuses him of disregarding. However, this would not have been worth mentioning only j that the accusation made against us is calculated to do us injury—probably more than Father Keane would desire to do. The pamphlet is well calculated to kindle two fires, between which we may not escape uusinged. But neither the fear of injury, nor any other influence will ever cause us to move one inch off the course which we think is the proper one in respect of the conduct of this journal. We have hitherto tried to conduct it to the best of our ability without fear, favor, or affection, and we shall continue to do so. Neither person, party, class, nor clique shall ever control it .so long as it remains under its present management. We deny that we ever allowed the Catholic Church, or any other Church, to be slandsred or oaluminated iu its columns. There is not in ', New Zealand a paper conducted with greater circumspection or care with regard to religious matters than this. ' Not even a joke or a light word referring to religion or its ministers is ever allowed to appear in its columns. We have the profoundest respect for religion and its ministers, but we mean to defend ourselves against attack, no matter how exalted or sacred may be the rank of the person who may make it. As regards Freemasonry, our experience is the opposite of the theory set up in the pamphlet. A few months ago there was published in opposition to us a paper, the proprietor of v>hich was a Freemason, and what was the result ? Simply that the Masons stood by us more firmly than ever, till our Masonic rival had to fly from the field. With >uch experience can we entertain any feeiing other than that of gratitude for such people? They have worked hard for this paper, they have pat everything

titty could in its way, and they certainly upheld it against its rival. We have had no better friends ; we would not ask fi.r better, because wc haye always found them (rood citizens and •rood neighbors. We know nothing of their secret?, their aims or aspirations, and we do not dtsire to know ; we speak of them as we find them. Anything else they may be has nothing do do with us — we only want men amongst whom we can iive peaceably, and harmoniously, and such, so far as our experience goes, are our Masonic fellow citizens. THE DISTRICT RAILWAYS. Thk Waimate Times recently disputed the accuracy of the assertions we made wiih regard to the Waimate District Railway. The following is extracted from the evidence given by Mr Maxwell, General Manager of Railways-, before the Select Committee of the House of Representatives on the subject : The (Jhairman : Oonld you tell us the present condition of the line? Mr Maxv/ell : It is in good order so far as the state of the line is concerned. It is doing very little business as far as the traffic is concerned. I think we run two trains a week. The Chairman : On the Waimate line? Mr Maxwell : Yes. The company has the discretion as to how many twins shall be run. They were consulted. We took their opinion on that. The Chahman : Two each way. Mr Maxwell : Yes. The Chairman : And what is the character of the traffic on the line 1 Mr Maxwell: I believe there is some wool goes over in the season. The Chairman : Principally wool. Mr Maxwell : Yes. The Chairman : Not much grain 1 Mr Maxwell : No, 1 do not think there is much. Th 3 Chairman : Can you give us the returns of revenue and expenditure ? Mr Maxwell : I am rather in a diffi cnlty about giving you any fair statement of what the revenue and expenditure has been, because the line last year had a mishap. It was insufficiently constructed in some respects, and suffered ver} T much from floods ; and large sums of money expended in reconstructing it were charged in the working expenses. So that our statements of what was spent on the line are not fair samples of what the working expenses should be. Th« Chairman : That is, lastyeai's ? Mr Maxwell : Yes. The Chairman : But the previous yearV? Mr Maxwell : I think traffic was suspended for some time during the previous year. I can tell you what was doue iu the first four months of this year in revenue and expenditure. We are doing very little traffic on it. The recoipts were £llO for the first four periods ending the 18th July, 1885. The Chairman : For sixteen weeks ? Mr Maxwell : Yes ; and the expenditure was £126. The Chairman : That includes repairs to the line 7 Mr Maxwell: Yes; leaving a debit balance of £l6 against the line. During the coming four mouths we shall get something better than that, because the wool will give more traffic. The Chairman : Could you give any ide» as to the pn.bible traffic ? Mr Maxwell : I think it must depend very much upon whether or not settlement is going on in the country round and beyond the line. Whether that setilement will tike place or not it i 3 impossible for mo to say. But I believe it is a very good agricultural counrty from what I am told. The Chairman . Are the rates charged by the Company on this line higher than on the Government Hues? Mr Maxwell : Yes. The Chairman ; Materially higher ? Mr Maxwell : Yee, a gre it deal higher. The Chahman : Could you give us any idea what effect the lowering of the rates would have on the line 1 Mr AJuxwell : I should say that you would get less revenue. The Chairman : Would it be likely to increase the traffic ? Mr Maxwell : Ir might do ao. The Chairman; You think that if bo the present Directors would have taken chat course ? Mr Maxwell: I should think so ; they are local men and would know all about the country. Dr Newman : Did they start at these rates ? Mr Maxwell: Yes. Dr Newman : Do you think there would be any saving effected in working expenses if the line was taken over by the Government—of Directors' fees, for instance, and for supervision, and to what extent ? Mr Maxwell : There would be no Directors' fees, of course, and no expenses on accoint of the Company's staff (of which I know nothing); but 1 do not think there would be any diminution in the other expenses. I think the only way of doing anything more on that line at present is to run a more frequent service and try the effect. We cannot do much traffic as long as there are ouly two trains a week. The natural result of that is that people do not use the line. It is only nine miles for them to go to Waimate. And this is what we. have got for L33,900—a railway useful only to bring to market a few bales oi squatters' wool. Comment is needless. The purchase of this line is an iniquitous job. The following statement published in the Waimate Times shows the revenue and expenditure yearly, from the 4th February, 1883, to the 31st March, 1885, inclusive :—.

If the Waimate Times wanted to back up the line it ought to have suppressed these figures. But it does not ; it would denounce it as disgraceful only that as it is a local affair it does not like to do eo. We sympathise with our contemporary inns effort to back up 60 disgraceful a iob.

Beceipts. Expenditure. fc'eb. 4, to Maroh £ s. d. £ s. d. 31, 1883 .. ... 70 10 3 229 1 7 April 1, 1883, to March 31,1884 429 11 4 1,419 14 6 April 1, 1884, to March 31,1885 434 6 11 761 12 10 £934 8 6 £2410 8 11