PRESENTATION TO OUR EDITOR. HIS DEPARTURE ON A TRIP TO EUROPE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 11, 13 March 1902, Page 6

PRESENTATION TO OUR EDITOR. HIS DEPARTURE ON A TRIP TO EUROPE.

Wjhen it became known a few weeks ago that the Rev. Father Cleary, editor of the N.Z. Tablet, had been granted a twelvemonths' holiday for the purpose of visiting his relatives in Ireland, some of his friends decided that he should not be allowed to take his departure without some practical token of their esteem, and appreciation of the successful work performed by him as a Catholic journalist during the four years he has occupied the editorial chair. In that time not only has he raised this journal to the front rank amongst (Jatholic organs in English-speaking countries by the fearlessness and vigor of hia writings, but he has also devoted considerable time to, and spared no trouble in defending in the secular press, the Church, its doctrines, its ministers and people from the foul aspersions and vile attacks of assailants of every degree. It was only within the past fortnight or so it became definitely known that Father Cleary would leave co early in the present month, and consequently the time was rather limited in which to organise a presentation expressive of the esteem of the readers of this paper outside of the diocpse of Dunedin. Had the matter been known at an earlier date in other parts of the Colony the response would, we have every reason to believe, have been of a most widespread and generous nature. As it was, the gentlemen who had the presentation in hand must feel quite satisfied with the success of the undertaking, and the sum subscribed — upwards of £250 — in such a short time was ample testimony, if such were necessary, of the very high place which Father Cleary holds in the affections of the Catholic people. Up to the very last moment subscriptions were being received, and this necessitated the postponement of the presentation •until Sunday evening, the function taking place in St. Joseph's Hall immediately after Vespers. His Lordship Bishop Verdon preBided, and amongst those present were the Rev. Father Murphy, Adm. St. Joseph's Cathedral, Very Rev. Father Boyle. Rev. Father Coffey, Adm., Rev. Fathers O'Reilly and O'Malley, Messrs J. Laffey, P. Hally, J. J. Marlow, J. O'Neill, P. O'Neill, J. P. Armstrong, J. Collins, and Jas. O'Neill. The hall was crowded. , His Lordship Bishop Verdon said he had grfat pleasure in assisting and presiding at that meeting. They had come there to present an address and testimonial to Father Clsary, who deserved everything they could do for him. — (Applause ) Father Cleary had edited the Tablet for the past four years with conspicuous success, and during that time he had defended the Catholic interests and refuted many foul calumnies which had been hurled against their holy religion. In that time he had provided excellent reading in every way in the pages of the Tablet, and had given full satisfaction to the directors. Father Cleary was taking a well-merited holiday, and he (his Lordship) trusted be would come back with renewed vigor, and carry on his work as successfully as he had done in the past. — (Applause.) Rev. Father Murphy said they were there that night to make a presentation to Father Cleary on the eve of his departure for a trip to the Old Country, and after four years' labor as editor of the Tablet. They would all agree with him that his work during that time had been productive of immense good. Many were the wrongs he had been called upon to right, many the foul calumnies he had to refute, and every fair-minded, intelligent man must admit that he had done his work right nobly. (Applause). They had the consolation of knowing that they were not losing the services of Father Cleary ; that he was going on a visit to his friends, and that in a short time he would be amongst them again. Not alone had Father Cleary the confidence of the bishops, priests, and laity of New Zealand, but he was also held in the highest esteem by the hierarchy of the Commonwealth of Australia. It would be satisfactory to the readers of the Tablet to Know that they would not miss his contributions from its pages during his holiday, for no doubt Father Cleary would from time to time send accounts of his travels in many places which were new even to one who had travelled so much. Father Cleary held an altogether exceptional place in the esteem of the priests of the Diocese of Dunedin, and he deserved it. When it became known that he was going on a trip to the Old Country there was a spontaneous desire on the part of his lay and clerical friends to offer him a suitable token of their high regard, and, although the time had been very short, be was pleased to announce to the meeting that he had ready for presentation a sum of £250 — (Applause.) Father Murphy then read THE ADDRESS. Reverend and dear Father, — Your many friends among the clergy and laity of the Dunedin Diocese take the opportunity presented by your approaching trip to the Homeland to give expression to the sentiments of personal friendship and cordial good-will which are everywhere felt towards you, and to the warm appreciation which both priests and people have of the splendid services which, in your capacity a^ a journalist, you have rendered not only to this Diocese but to the interests of the Church throughout the whole Colony. It is now some four years since you assumed editorial control of the N.Z. Tablet, and in that position you have achieved a success which must certainly be considered remarkable. During that period the circulation, the influence, and the literary standing of the paper have made an immense advance, a result which is undoubtedly due to the tireless energy, great business capacity, and exceptional powers both of thought and of expression which you have brought to bear upon your work In addition to your official journalistic work, the duty has also devolved upon you of replying to the various attacks which have been made from time to time on the Catholic Church and Catholic body, and everyone kaows how nobly you have discharged that duty. Your profound and varied

learning, your wide experience, and your natural courtesy of disposition have enabled you to conduct all controversy in a way which has not only brought credit to the Church you represent but has won even from our non-Catholic friends many tributes of admiration and respect. For your services in this direction the Catholics of the Diocese and of the Colony are certainly placed under a deep and lasting debt of gratitude to you. Apart from your official work as priest and journalist, you have the strongest personal claims on our affection and esteem. Your generous and unselfish nature, your sunny kindliness of disposition, and your many other gifts and graces of heart aDd mind have greatly endeared you to all with whom you have come in contact, and have won for you an altogether special place in our affection. As a modest token of our kindly feeling we beg you to accept the accompanying puiae of sovereigns, and with it our sincere wish that you may have a thoroughly pleasant and enjoyable holiday, and may in due time oome back to us with renewed vigour to resume those important duties which you have bo faithfully discharged in the past. Signed on behalf of the clergy and laity : (Clergy) (Laity) J. Macka*, V.F. J. Laffey P. O'Leaey, V.F. J. J. Marlow P. Murphy, Adm. P. O'Neill J . Coffjey, Adm. J. P. Armstrong J. Collins J. O'Neill (Hon. Sec) Mr. J. Laffey, as one who had interested himself in the testimonial, expressed his pleasure at the success which had crowned the efforts of the committee. He hoped Father Cleary would have a pleasant journey, and that he would return to New Zealand in jhe best of health. Messrs. J. J. Marlow and P. Hally also spoke, expressing their appreciation of their services of Father Cleary as a Catholic journalist, and wishing him a pleasant time during his visit to the land of his birth. Mr. J. P. Armstrong, in the course of a characteristic speech, said he had known his dear friend Father Cleary since his arrival in New Zealand. In fact he had made it his business to call on him soon after his arrival as both of them had come from the same part of Ireland. Their late lamented Bishop had also come from the same place, and he was also a very dear friend of the speaktr. Though not a member of the Catholic Church he had read the Tablet since its ttart, and he could say that during the past four years it was conducted with marked ability. He was, as a personal friend of Father Cleary, very sorry he was going to leave them, but it was pleasing to know that it was only for a time. FATHER CLEARY'S REPLY. The Rev. Father Cleary, who, on rising to reply, was received with prolonged applause, said : — I should be more or less than human if I were not deeply touched by this splendid demonstration of personal regard. There are two special circumstances which greatly increase my sense of the overwhelming kindness which my lay and clerical iriends have shown to me on this occassion : One is, the great number of recent, present, and prowptctive claim b oi other kinds upon their generosity ; the other is this — that it is barely eighteen months since a similar demonstration of affectionate regard was tendered to me by the same people in this same hall. It is a rare experience ior a pneot — it in, I believe, unique for an amateur editor — to receive trcm the same people, in little more than a year, two such emphatic tokens of goodw ill as those which y< ur sheer goodness or h<art tas prompted you to accord tome. You have forestalled my intention ot slipping away quietly on the trip to the dear Oid Land which the kindness of his Lordship enables me to take. And you have done this, too, in a spirit which would ennoble even a small gift. But all the ciicumstances of your present splendid testimonial raise it so far above the ordinary level of such proceedings, taut it must leave an indelible impression upon my memory. There are acquaintanceships that ripen quickly. I have become ao rooted here ttuit I almost have the feeling of having grown up in the place ; and 1 aometimeb find it difficult to realise that it is only four years sinoe I came among you, a slender priest — chiefly bones (laughter) — from the Australian bush. Dr. Johnson has somewhere said that a man t-hould keep his friendship in constant repair. So far an my ieelmg towards my lny and clerical friends in New Zealand is oouceriied, that task i» an easy and pleasant one for me. Their constant friendliness to me has made the duty of reciprocation act automatically and without efforts — (Applause). They have made my stay in this favored country as pleasant as it is good for me that it should be. From his Lordship the Bishop, from the other members of the venerated hierarchy, from the clergy all over the Colony, I have received every form of helpful kindness and encouragement. By the clergy in this diocese above all, and by all those whom I have met and visited in other dioceses. I have been treated with that spirit of happy and affectionate camaraderie that constitutes one of the brightest charms of the social life of a priest. The Catholic laity here and elsewhere I have found kindly, sympathetic, generous. And to-night they have orowned a thousand previous acts of thoughtful kindness by this further touching evidence of that warm affection which has so long bound the Catholic people. — (Applause.) You have been good enough to commend such meagre services as a brief apprenticeship to journalism has enabled me to give. I cannot, however, lay the flattering unction to my soul that I have merited the warm eulogiums which your kindmss has prompted you to address to me. There remain many of even my own journalistic ideals to which it is not within my capacity or my opportunities to attain. And I feel thankful that heaven does not, bo to speak, exact a poll-tax from vs — does not require so much fixed service per capita, but pro rata, in proportion to the few or many talents given to üb.

It does, however, give me sincere pleasure to see in this demon" stration the evidence that you, and the many others associated with you in this testimonial, appreciate the work which Catholic journalism is endeavoring to do. The Catholic paper, properly and efficiently conducted, has been variously described as " the catechism Of the twentieth century,' • the people's teacher and guide,' ' the priest's assistant,' ' an insurance policy on the faith of every member of the household, 1 Pope Leo XIII. has Bpoken of 'the providential mission of the press.' And Bishop von Eetteler aptly said some time ago that if St. Paul were to come to life again he would publish a Catholic paper as a means of doing good. — (Applause.) Our elementary schools are for children up to certain standards ; our secondary schools see our budding youth through their teens ; but the church paper, rightly regulated, is a school for persons of every age.— (Applause.) In the course of your address you have touched upon an important function whioh the Catholic paper is called upon to exeroise in countries of mixed religion, such as these — the function of exposition and defence. In such countries the Catholic Church is, more than any other, made the target of misrepresentation and oalumny. And thus it has frequently fallen to my lot to play the useful part of a literary broom and endeavor to brush away sundry cobwebs that early prejudices and lack of acquaintance with the facts of our position had spun in odd corners of the brains of critics and accusers. — (Applause.) Except in the case of a certain class of noisome impostors of bad antecedents, such misrepresentations almost invariably spring from ignorance of our teachings and practices, very seldom, I am convinced, from mere wantonness or conscious malice. The Catholic paper serves in a quiet way the cause of peace and good-will among men by showing that the ancient Church is not the familiar old Btage bogie that she is sometimes represented to be, tricked out with horns and tail and cloven hoof .—(Laughter.) I hope, incidentally, to have Bhown that people can differ in a gentlemanly way, and that the due defence and exposition of truth can be made without rancor, and without needlessly wounding the reasonable susceptibilities of any manly and honorable opponent. For the rest, I can only claim that I have steered the N.Z. Tablet along a straightforward course, and that I have not allowed it to be a medium to attack and outrage the religious sentiments of people of other creeds. — (Prolonged applause). These things, however, are of the ABC of honorable religious journalism, and I have no more idea of claiming special credit for them than I should for keeping out of the lock-up. It is now 52 years since the first Catholic paper issued in Australasia saw the light of publication. They now number twelve, and there are several excellent Catholic magazines besides. And I speak with reference to the N.Z. Tablet when I state that taken altogether our publications have no rivals in sire and literary quality in the religious journalism of Australaeia. Much has been achieved in Catholic periodical literature in Australasia during the past half century, and especially during the past ten years. But much remains yet to be done, and I am convinced that there is a bright and promising future before Catholic journalism in these colonies. — (Applause.) I look confidently to the day when the true place of the religious paper in ecclesiastical work will be more fully realised ; when the Church will take it under her wing and make it, as recognised a part of her many activities as the convent and the Bchool, with the submarine cable and the overland telegraph as its handmaids. The apoetolate of the press is a great factor in the Catholic life of Belgium and Germany. It is a feature of the new awakening in Franoe. It will come in its fullness upon us here in G-od's good time. And it will have a great field for the best work that, under the Church's more direct guidance, it can do. In conclusion Father Cleary referred in complimentary terms to the active interest which Bishop Verdon displays in the work of the Catholic newspaper, and cordially thanked his Lordship for his constant kindness, and expressed a deep sense of his obligation to the goodness of his friends among the priesthood and the laity of the Colony. A vote of thanks to his Lordship Bishop Verdon for presiding brought the proceedings to a close. Great numbers of those present remained in the hall after the meeting for the purpose of personally saying good-bye to Father Cleary and wishing him pleasant times in the land of his birth and a safe return to New Zealand.