A Tableau

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 16, 18 April 1907, Page 22

A Tableau

You may make ' pure fruit-jam ' out:- of any thingeven, -out of fruit. But ; you -might • -as well try to evolve sunbeams gut of cucumbers .as Christian * courtesy and charity out of the.'ralM elements that for -some time jpast have been blistering the : public life of Victoria' with sectarian hate " and rancor. The spirit of fanaticism which inflames them found regrettable expression at the recent great .Bendigo Carnival. In that splendid display on beMlf of .the lecal public chariilies, all creeds and classes have hitherto' joined in perfect harmony and- good will. . TMs year, however, the Protestant Alliance;' (which is practically the - benefit , branch of the Orange Society) organised for the. great procession an « Gpen Bible ' tableau, with ' a number of • bannerettes bearing an inscription which was highly calculated, in such a connection,"" to give offence The whole affair was , designed by an emphatic" brother who is given to writing frantic No-Popery letters to the | local press. It was in ; manifest effect, and presumably in intent, a vulgar challenge to Catholics, and especially to Irish Catholics, and a public flaunting of the - supposed superiority of the . Protestant ■ Alliance creed or creeds over the one of all ' others with which they are notoriously in open war. A Signified protest by the Hibernians resulted in , an order by the'marshal of th*e" procession (a non-Catholic city councillor) ordering the offensive, tableau to be withdrawn.' According to the * Age ' report, the Alliance people then waited on the mayor (a defeated nominee of the lodges at the late elections-) and received his permission to • procesh ' with their tableau -through the streets. The Hibernians (who are every year the largest body in the procession) and the Catholic band thereupon withdrew from

1/he .parade, - returned their rooms, and their representatives in dignified^ and temperate terms made, -a protest- which was published in the local anh metropplitari papers. In, the meantime the offending- tableau was' proceeding, gaily through" the streets.' On' arrival at the show grounds .(the- scene of the principal dem-onst-a'i;ion oh the day) the various sections in" the parade passed"^ with / all their cojored braver-y through the gates. But the "marshal - jarred ; the way to the Alliance and. its decorated car. ' The mayor,' said he, ' may have -control over the road, but his authority ends at these gates.' So the Alliance and "aIL its L'ippery hard to return crestfallen to' its lodge-room.-It-is safe to. predict that) their offence will not be repeated.