THE TRANSVAAL GOVERNMENT AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 1, 4 January 1900, Page 4

THE TRANSVAAL GOVERNMENT AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Not very long ago a statement was made in some of the Irish papers that the charge of intolerance made against the Boers was unfounded, and that a number of Catholics were employed by the Transvaal Government, amongst those being the well known Dr. Leyds. This statement was questioned in several quarters, as it was well known that a stringent Test Act prevented any Catholio from holding a Government appointment unless he was false to his religion. A letter appeared a few weeks since in the Daily Nation from the Rev. Father O'Reilly, of Wynberg, South Africa, who gives an absolute denial to the assertion that the Transvaal Government showed the slightest symptom of tolerance towards the Catholic religion. Speaking from personal experience Father O'Reilly says : — '1. It is against the law of the S.A. Republic for any Catholio to hold office of any kind in the State, or to vote for the Raads, or the President, no matter how long he may have been in the country. Catholics and Jews are ranked with coloured people and " Illegitimate " in these disabilities. 2. President Kruger to gain their favour, quite recently proposed to remove Catholics and Jews from such a degrading category, but, whether he was sincere or not, the Raad rejected his proposition. Consequently, if the rather wild assertions of your correspondent were true, this would simply mean defiance of the law, and an enemy""would merely have to draw the attention of the Government to the fact in order to oust such Catholics out of their positions. 3. The only people who employ Catholics in the Transvaal, aye and liberally support Catholic institutions, too, are the muchdecried capitalists, who employ 100,000 people, irrespective of creed or nationality, and pay four millions annually in taxes to the Government. 4. A 1 * to Leyds, lie must have concealed his Catholicity very successfully. I for one should not be more astonished if I heard that Satan himself were a loyal son of the Church ! ' With regard to a statement also made in some Irish newspapers as to an alleged gift by the Transvaal Government to Catholio nuns in Pr< toria, Father O'Reilly says :—: — 1 As to the Pretoria nuns, the gift, if any, was from the British Government, which in 1881 stipulated for tbe non -disturbance of existing institutions, when handing over to the Transvaal Executive. My own conviction is, however, that there was no gift whatever, but simply com pensa don for destruction of property during the siege — the British garrison having occupied the convent as the best strategic position for the defence of the town.' Father O'Reilly's letter should hardly have been necessary (says the Xew Era), since the facts which he states as to the intolerance of the Transvaal Government were well known long ago, and the contrary statements which have appeared in several papers must be attributed to a too lively imagination We trust we shall hear no more of such nonsense after Father O'Reilly's exposure.