Notes

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4, 25 January 1906, Page 18

Notes

Sir Frederick's Blunder A short memory oiten proves a long aUhetion. Sir Frederick "Barley, Chief Justice of New South Wales, may not have realised this a tew weeks ago. He knows it now. In the course ot an interview with the Melbourne ' Age,' Caidmal Moran said :— ' A regrettable circumstance about Sydney is its strong spirit of provincialism, and the fashion m which old traditions still surwve and continue to be represented there. I may cite as an instance the recent utterance of our State Licutenant-Govemor, Sir Frederick Darley, who took occasion to declare that the Home Rule movement evidenced our disloyalty as a people to the Empire.' Sir Frederick challenged the Cardinal's statement. And the Cardinal, who has the cautious habit of speaking by the book, quoted the iollowing offensive extract from a letter ot Sir Frederick's, written in the State Government House, Sydney, under date Juno 22, l!) 05, and addressed to the Sister Superior of a North Shore charity :—: — I do not now fi't-1 called upon to give any money to the Roman Catholic charities ot tins Slate, * inasmuch as the Cardinal is able to donate no less a sum than £1000 a year (which might be de\otcd to the charities ol hi.-, Church) to an object which 1 not only look upon as disloyal, but also as one that causes unrest, and woiks untold misery to my country.' The ' disloyal object ' was Home Rule— a sort of ' disloyalty,' by the way, to which the greatest and most progressive party in English politics, and the Legislatures of Australia and the Dominion of Canada are as much devoted as is the Cardinal. One of the primary duties of Governors and Acting-Governors in the British dominions is to presene an uniolate neutrality on political questions, and to maintain a strict impartiality towards tho.,e over whom they arc supposed to rule. The King lurnishes a good example in this respect. Sir Frederick Darley sorely needed the reminder and well deserved the rebuke. We ourselves ha\e, in this corner of the Empire, effected some good by a like reminder and rebuke. We are pleased t o have done so in such good company.