THE CHRISTCHURCH IRISH BANQUET AT THE FORESTERS' HALL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 56, 23 May 1874, Page 9

THE CHRISTCHURCH IRISH BANQUET AT THE FORESTERS' HALL.

This seems to have been what is usually eilled a great success, and we are led to hope for something even grander next year from cerlaiu hints thrown out by some of the speakers. In a civil banquet like this, why introduce St. Patrick at nil ? Is it in good tasto, or does it show consistency ? They who do public honor to St. Patriot, certainly do honor to the religion and principles he taught and bequeathed to his spiritual children. Can Protestants consistently do this ? I cannot think so. St. Andrew appears to be in the background in this Colony among Scotchmen ; they barely recognise him in a festival way. Then why should St. Patrick be allowed to fill so very prominent v position in the public eye, and be so honored even by Protestant and men of all creeds and nationalities iv the Colony ? I confesJ I cannot explain this ; and can you or any of your readers do so ? He is inserted even in the Dunedin calendars, und above St. Andrew, too. Apropos to these remarks, the Auckland ' Cross ' professes to b» a secular and non sectarian paper, ana yet it admits the most rabid anti-Catholic quotations into its pages. Poor man 1 The publication of such tilings only beurs testimony to the advance of Catholic principles, and to the terror which Catholic progress is now creating in the mind of "secularists," of whom the 'Cross' is one of the chiefs in this hemi>phere. A quotation from the great Spurgeon appeared in the ' Cross ' lately. It was characteristic of the man and the age welive in, und might have d->ne credit, to the magnanimous Luther himself. It seems an ungracious act thus to criticise the conduct; ijf those who " toasted" St. Patrick at the Chnstchurch Foresters' banquet. It looks like an attempt to prevent future harmony and good fellowship prevailing between Catholics and Protestants. But that is not my purpose. lam merely discussing v general principle in a friendly way. It was to me rather amusing to see St. Patrick introduced at the Foresters' Hall as a "Coloniser" by the Deputy-Superintendent. He could not, being a Protestant, honor kt. Patrick as a successful missionary to Ireland. He could not look upon him as a man of God, because he came from the Pope, and taught what Protestants deem an idolatrous religion. Ho therefore hit on the expedient of eulogising him as a coloniser — a kind of ancient immigration agent for Ireland, I suppose. St. Patrick still lives in hi» spiritual descendants, the Catholics of Ireland, and perhaps it wae & compliment to the Irish Protestant immigrants of New Zealand to

represent the saint aa a mere coloniser. But Irish Catholics loot on St. Patrick in a much higher light than that. He is associated in their mind with the creed he taught, and for which for ages they hnvo suffered so much. The Catholics of this Colony still suffer for it. He is the representative of Roman Catholic princples — civil and religious— in all countries. It seems, then, something inconsistent for Roman Catholics nnd Protestants to unite in publicly honoring the name of St. Patrick. It implies a compromise of principles on the part of Protestants to join in such a mark of honor, and looks something like an absurdity. For the sake of peace men should not disguise their real feelings, and publicly honor as a man of God and a puhlic benefactor one whom in their heart they believe was an idolater — the teacher of principles incompatible with liberty and socinl progress. The less Protestants have to say about St. Patrick, the better for their own credit, in my humble judgment. If the Saint were now in the body, Protestnnte — such of 'hem as are represented by the Press of this Colony— would certainly look on him as a conspirator against the Constitution of New Zealand and the British Government generally, and the enemy of all social progress. There can, indeed, be no question but that his spiritual children, the Irish Caiholies, are " colonisers," nnd of the right stamp, too ; but then wherever they colonise they bring the Catholic faith with them— plant it firmly, and it grows apuce : a fact which cannot be very graceful to the Protestants of Christchurch.