Two Orange 'Yarns'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 37, 14 September 1905, Page 1

Two Orange 'Yarns '

The Rev. Wools-Ru'tledge is apostle or prophet or minister of the Lord to a small conventicle situated somewhere in or albout Melbourne. His mental eqlaipmeht test fits him to blush unseen in friondly obscurity. But he hapfpens- to have 'delusions abdut ' Papists ' and the public service, awl he sees ' Romish ' plots , and ' conspiracies ' and political ' truckling '— like .Macb'eth's phantom- dagger— in the air of Australia. And this mental and visual quality, together with a fine faculty for wiM anjd thumping assertion, mates the reverend pastor's mouth a decided aoqMisition to the platform of an organisation whose* first ' obligation ' bwids members to keep ' Papists ' out of public life. He is therefore in considerable demand among the Orange fraternity whenever particularly vociferous whoops are desired, nnid he assiduously draws ' the holy red herring ' across the ptolituoal track whenever opportfunity offers, but especially when the circling year brings around the dog-days of July and the '-glorious, pious, and immortal ' Twelfth. A year and a half ago, or theireaJb)Diuts, he unfolded one of his pepper-and-Jbirim-stone ' discoveries ' to a delighted assembly of saffron sashes in Melbourne. It was a painful yarn and ran in substance as follows : There was in New South Wales (his * ftnd'S ' are generally made far afield) a man who while ha remained a Methodist, failed with dismal iteration to secure an appointment in the public service of that State. The disappointed applicant then turned

' Papist,' and he was forthwith jerked into a comfortable; position at a salary of £400 a year. The press -justifying, its title- pressed ' the parson for thea&me of the canny ex-Methodist, whose religion, like Artemus Ward's politics, was of a a exoeedin' accommodate' character.' Australian Catholic journalists clamored for the one detail which would hiave enabled the public- to test the truth of the Wools-Rutledge tale But not a detail would he give. His mouth, hitherto so open Bftd voluble, closed like a slammed door. His lipsl were sewed over it. And he became dumb just when speech was most demanded of him. He had, no do-uWy ctfgont reasons for keeping his story from ' the keen edge of the public dissecting-knife. He called his former Methodist co-religionist X— the unknown xjkuantity in algebra. Ami Xho still rcme&ns-an impalpable and shapeless shadow without a local habitation and a name. Which led a Sydney contemporary to suggest that, in the oipiirion of many, the reverend enthusiast of the Melbourne Orange lodge ' discovers ' Ms imaginary Methodists as he goes along. On July; 10— the latest local celebration in honor of the little Boor monarch— the same reverend , Grand Panjandrum announced another of his hadr-radaing ' discoveries ' to the Picninnies and the Jbblillies and the Gary-iilies of the lodge that sat with open mouths within tjhe ra-diius of his \oice to hear the latest portentous ' abomination 'of ' Rome.' It was in sundry respects an improvement on the ex-Methodist snake-yam thatl had fcoen hosed with such an ice-cool stream of journalistic ridicule in' 1904. This time the story was about another man— not a Methodist— Who was unable to/ olbdain employment in the public service of New South Wales ' until he joined the Roman Catholic Church. 1 Immediately after his secession to Rome (and, inferentially, because of it), the neo-iconvert was landed intota cosy position at a cool thousand a year ! The official quotations for sou/p-converts in the Mother State seenu to have gjone up in qfuite a remarkable way since the impalpable Mr. X. got hoisted into ' Popery ' at £400 a year in the year of grace 1904. Once more the fieryeyed orator declined to name names. Wild horses would not draw even X or V or Z out of him. But, a week or two ajgo, in some unguarded moment, it turned oait that his latest story of rice-conversion referred to Mr. HaU the Acting Government Statistician of New South Wales. And then the murder was out. People had at Last something more tangible than the shadowy Mr. X, of a place called by the Scots KeniiaJqVi'hair, wihieh lies throe leagues past Amauros, or the Vanishing Point— in plain English, Nowhere.

W« dealt with the story here simply because it has received some warped prominence in a section of the New Zealand press, and because it furnishes a fair average sample of the methods of the Orange platform clergy. The matter was taken up in the New South Wales Parliament by a Labor Member, Mr. Arthur Griffith, 'lie moved for the appointment of a seleit commit Lue to inq.uiie into the allegation of the Roy. Wololsl-Riiitlodgo. His motion elicited a clear statement of the facts of the case by the State Premier, who ' declined to agree to an inquiry on a charge notice of which had come to him only through the press.' lie then gave the House the following information furnished by the Chief Secretary, Mr. Hogue :— ' Mr. Hall joined the service in 1871 ; he lost his position in 1893; eighteen months later, when Mr. Reid was Premier, ho g:ot a temporary appointment in the Land Tax Office, and held that till 1897, when he was, on the recommendation of the Public Rer\i r je Board, given a permanent position at £300 a year. It was not until fifteen months after that that he changed his religion. When Mr. Oov/ilan ((}o\ernment Statistician) went to Enp(band Mr. ILogue appointed Mr. Hall as acting Statastycaiain. His salary is now £425, and he never received more.' It turned oit, in the course of the debate on Mr. Griffith's motion, that on a particular occasion Mr. Hall was entitled ho an increase of salary of £50 a year. ' Having regard to Mr. Coghlan's sensitiveness,' says a report before us, ' Mr. Hall mentionod tO him that he had become a Catholic ; whereupon Mr. Copjhlan declined to recommend the increase lest he should be charged with favoritism.' The Chief Secretary said :— 1 No sectarian influence had been used ; Mr. Hall's ■appointment bad nothnv* to do with his change of religion, and he had received no increase of salary until lonpj afterwards, tout 'by virtue of his ability and 'good conduct he was entitled to promotion, and he was appointed assistant-status t and sufoi editor of the Government year-books. He (Mr. llogAie), when Mr. Coigjhlan left for London, gave him the position oi Acting Stiartdstktan. It would, he adided, 'be a dark day if appointments, promotions, or increments in salary were dependent to an extent on a man's religion.' And thus the Oraiige clongyman's story of the circumstances and results of Mr. Hall's conversion and of the amo nit of his .salary were officially' declared to be so many falsehoods. The tone of the debate was strongly hostile to the Rev. Wools-Riit-ledge. By 37 otes to 21 the House agreed to the inquiry, in ordor (as Monitors expressed it) to give the accuser ' a chance to support his state-men t on oath ' ; to ' prone his statement 'or apologise '; to 1 make early repajUAioii ' if niiainfloinud ; to keep parsons to their proper business ; to meet the ' campaign of calumny ' : ami to ' m&l c clergymen and others weigh well their utterances in connection with such matters ' * In the face of the official declarations piven above, the work of the select committee should be short and easy. But we t\\\n\ those Members are hugging an. illusory hope who expect either proof ot apology from tiho Rev. Wools-Rulloctg,e. These are the only alternatives open to men gifted wit<h the normal kense of fairness. But recent events in our own Parliamentary life show that there is a third resort lor an accuser who has boon ' caught out ' : to demand a puibiic inkfuiry, at the public expense, in order. to ascertain how the deuce he came to make such a mistake !