THE Evening Star. PUBLISED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 1880.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3441, 5 January 1880, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 1880.

As will be seen by our telegrams all the persons charged with participation in the Boxing Day riots at Timaru hare been committed for trial. Prom the evidence adduced at the trial, we are confirmed in bur surmise that the attack on the Orangemen waa deliberately arranged, and it would appear that O'Driscoll, the publican, was one of the-moving spirits in I the fracas. That full and severe punishment should be meted out to the oflen-! dera, is the spirit of public opinion throughout,the length and breadth of the colony. The following remarks on the riots in Canterbury appear in the Christchurch Evening Star :—Yesterday our columns contained an account of one* of the most wantpn—one of the most atrocious —outrages which could bring disgrace upon any civilised community. Christchurch has been called the Cathedral City; it is also known as the city of taany churches; and the order-loving, law-respecting, God-fearing character of our people has stood high. That it should be shown—-as it has been shown—that we hare in our midst a number of human beings so lost to the proper appreciation of the blessings of liberty which they enjoy in this free land as to perpetrate the dastardly attack of yesterday, must be regarded as truly deplorable. It has been said that this outrage musk be looked upon as the act of a number of ignorant frenzied .labourers, who in no way represent the sentiments of their co-religionists. We do not believe for a i moment that the intelligent and respectable members of any religious! body-— Boman Catholic or Protestant—-in this Christian land, could ever be induced to , lend their countenance to any line of conduct which, in the remotest way, tended to violence, and certainly the leaders of .the Roman Catholics in Christchurch are the very last who should adopt such a course. Upon several occasions—notably upou the visit of the B^ev. Father Hennebery, when two or three thousand of that faith, wearing their colours, inarched in procession upon a Sunday evening through the streets, and upon the still more recent visit of Bishop Redwood—were they enabled to make whatever public display they chose without insult. Not the ■lightest approach to interference was attempted.