NAPIER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7, 15 February 1900, Page 5

NAP I E R.

(From our own correspondent.)

February tv

The Napier Catholics have just underline the ordeal of having in their midsf a man who. having f ilhn through his intempi rate habits from the digivty of the priesthood, now strives to avenge himself by vilifying the religion ot his foiefuthers and calumniating the go> (i mime ot tho^e who haw m»uU<t lln 111 1 lives Lo Lin service of their Master. The Very Rev. Dean Groiran, hM . addressed the congregations at the \<ui>>uh wniutun ihis uwilUi. and exhorted every Catholic to kerp -iway from the Slatterys lectures As the people left the church, leaflet were distributed amongst them containing extracts from the N Z T.\ isl^t exposing the career of the man and woman. To the credit of the Catholics of Napier be it said that not oue attended these lectures, much to the lecturer's chagrin. His meetings were \ cry scavtily attended, the respectable portion of the Protestant community being conspicuous by their absence. The local clergy did not attend, and Slattery was reduced to the expedient of appointing his own agent as chairman at the meeting. From beginning to end his lecture* consisted of venomous utterances airain«t the Catholic Church, intermingled with occasional prurient references, and strong appeals to his Orange brethren to support him in his mission to wipe out (as he put it) the Church of Rome. The pamphlet entitled The Romance of an I'lifrocknl Pm\t, by the editor of the N. Z TABLET, was distributed by the Dean amongst all the respectable portion of the Napier public during the Slatterys' stay here, and materially assisted in severely handicapping them, and thinning the attendance at their meetings. It may be safely said that Slattery's visit to Napier was by no means a financial success. He left with his female companion by the boat going south on this date. The Theatre Royal here was refused him. and so would the Gaiety Theatre, had the proprietor known the purposes for which it was wanted at the time of engagement.