Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1876. A PUBLIC SCANDAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 181, 15 September 1876, Page 10

Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1876. A PUBLIC SCANDAL.

Centralists are on their trial, and already has the country got a taste of the good things intended for it by Abolitionists ! These gentlemen have outraged the public conscience, and scandalized all honest politicians. Our leading law-makers have been for several years also our leading law-breakers. And yet, so shameless and audacious has impunity rendered these gentlemen, that they blush not, the moment they are caught in Jlagrante, to ask the Legisla-

ture to pass a Bill of Indemnity to save them from the consequences of their illegal proceedings. This is a monstrous state of things ; and if ministers be permitted by the Legislature, by means of an Indemnity Bill, to defy the existing law, and continue to hold their high and responsible offices, a shock will be given to public confidence that cannot fail to have a most injurious effect on public morality, and the administration of the affairs of New Zealand. It is to be hoped, therefore, that Parliament will refuse to listen to the proposal of ministers ; and that these gentlemen will see the propriety of resigning their seats and testing the opinion of their constituents. Is this sort of thing never to cease ? Is it possible that New Zealand does not possess a sufficient number of men qualified according to law, and intelligent and honest enough to govern the country ; or, is it absolutely necessary, owing to a dearth of moderately able administrators, to select as ministers only such as cannot hold office till relieved from disabilities by an Indemnity Act? Surely it has not yet come to this, and yet it is t difficult to say if this is not the opinion of a majority of our Parliament. This majority must either have a very low opinion of itself, or it must be in fear of a good many actions iv the Supreme Court, if it consent to indemnify ministers.

Last Session an Indemnity Bill was passed — a proceeding which surprised and alarmed the people, and it was fully expected that the lesson then given would not have been forgotten, it was, it appears, a vain expectation ; and this Session the Disqualification Act has been more outrageously violated than ever. It is not one member of Parliament or one minister that is now compromised, but the entire Cabinet and the party that supports it. This is a serious state of things. What security can there be for a pure and wise administration of the affairs of the country when our chief administrators themselves are the chief violators of the law 1 and when these highly-placed law-breakers are not ashamed to ask Parliament to pass a law in their favor, having a retrospective effect, and to save them personally from fines incurred by their breach of the laws, which they were more bound than all others to respect, enforce and obey 1 It has been said that ministers broke the law through, ignorance and inadvertence, and this has been pleaded as a reason why an Indemnity Bill should be passed. But to our mind this is no excuse. Men should not assume or accept office who are either so ignorant or so careless as to violate a primary and important law in reference to their office. Inadvertence in such a matter is inexcusable, and ignorance argues a recklessness that is most criminal. The plea that ministers broke the law through ignorance or inadvertence is, under the circumstances, one of the strongest proofs of their criminality, and of their utter unfitness for Executive offices. And if Parliament condone this offence the people may justly fear that decay and corruption have already laid hold of the core of our political system.

they might give in their adherence to some system adapted to this age of enlightenment and further advanced than Christianity, and consequently it is now elate. Great things seem on the eve of being accomplished. No doubt many of our readers will remember in their juvenile hours having set a crib to catch birds during the winter season of the old country. They will recollect going into a hiding place at a little distance from this crib, and ■watching breathlessly while unsuspecting finches and sparrows hopped about amongst the straw that tempted them to destruction, but at the critical moment some interruption frequently occurred, the birds were frightened away, and the hopes of their would be captor dashed to the ground. The government of Victoria has set its crib and is now in waiting. Certain imprudent persons, however, it appears rashly desired to spoil the sport, and did their utmost to drive away the hoped for prey frum the very verge of the trap. An attempt was recently made to obtain permission for ministers of religion to give instruction in the State schools during some part of the day, but the attempt failed, and one of the reasons assigned for opposing it was that Catholics, who had for some lime held aloof from the schopls in question, were now beginning to look favorably on them, to send their children to them, and to have themselves elected on the Boards of Advice ; but that if religious teaching were to be introduced into the schools, such Catholics would take alarm and retire pell-mell from the situation. The paternal government thus convinced the meddlers of their rashness, and the matter fell through. Now this was really giving way far too much to nervousness and vain imaginations. The folk called Catholics, who show a disposition to fall in with the government system of education in Victoria, if such there be, are not at all likely to be easily frightened. We should say, that not only would no visit of the ministers of any Christian sect deter them from their course of action, but that Heathen, Turk, Jew, Infidel, or Mormon might openly disseminate their doctrines amongst the children without calling forth a remonstrance on the part of these people, for no man bearing the name of Catholic could by any possibility send his child to a government school, as regulated at present, without forfeiting his right to the title, and proving himself totally destitute of principle. It is a common failing of mankind to keep on declaring that the accomplishment of a devoutly desired event is at hand, and thus there is a continual clatter maintained respecting the immediate disaffection of large bodies of Catholics, but the fact is that they who are properly so called are thoroughly steadfast. In the old countries violent persecution has not shaken them ; in the new scheming will not avail to make them traitors to their faith. And hereafter, when the history of these colonies comes to be written, bigotry, should it then prevail, will again have an opportunity of learning the vanity of all attempts, such as that made by the government of Victoria, to rob Catholics of their religion. But bigotry is, and ever will be, unteachable.