A HOME RULE CONTROVERSY

New Zealand Tablet, 18 May 1911, Page 914

A HOME RULE CONTROVERSY

,v: Following on the leader in the Christchurch Press on the mission of the Irish delegatesto which editorial reference was made in our last week's issue—there has arisen in the columns of that paper a brisk, and on the anti-Home Rule side, a somewhat bitter controversy. Reasonable criticism and discussion on the Home Rule question no one, of course, can object to; but a piece of literary villany—'wliich was freely granted the hospitality of the Press columnsperpetrated, under the mask of anonymity; by a correspondent signing himself 'History,' was beyond all bounds of reason and decency. The object of the production was to bluff and bully-rag Messrs. I. E. Taylor and ,T* H. Davey, M.P.'s, out of taking 'official part in the delegates' Christchurch meeting. These two gentlemen are . very well able to look after themselves; but that does not release the friends of the cause from the duty of strongly protesting against the controversial methods . adopted, , and in particular against the licence permitted by the Press to this anonymous slanderer-at-large of the

Irish people and of the Catholic Church. Edwin Markham has made us familiar with ' The Man with the Hoe '— the letters of 'History reveal the writer as^the man'with the muckrake. Lies there are in legions. Mr. Michael McCarthy is quoted '* as ' himself a Roman Catholic '; although, as is generally known, he has ceased to be even a nominal Catholic, and when last heard of-—about a couple of years ago— lecturing in England on behalf of the Protestant Women's Alliance. ' The Irish Nationalist members are spoken of as being ' in the grip of the Catholic Association'—although that organisation never had any real tangible existence, and to-day is as dead as the long-deceased Caesar. The moment its suggested objects were published in Dublin, they were condemned by the Irish Bishops; and at the present time the association is simply non-existent. The Irish Party and people are described as creatures of the publican and the brewer — there is probably no country in the world which is being literally swept by temperance sentiment as Ireland is to-day. The letter concludes with a reference to Mr. T. E. Taylor, M.P., as Tommy Among the Papists'and this literary hog-wash is published in full, without excision or modification of any kind. We print elsewhere a vigorous protest against such editorial remissness made by the Very Rev. Father Price. The editor of the Press attempts a defence, in the course of which he evinces good intentions and a certain amount of friendly feeling towards the Catholic body, but the defence is palpably inadequate. The bad taste of the production in question is admitted; and the justification advanced for permitting its publication is, that if an editor rejected everything which he did not personally approve there would be an end to free discussion. That, of course, is not the question. The editor of the Press must admit that it is both his right and his duty, to draw the line somewhere and . when a letter includes grossly insulting references to the Catholic Church and the Irish people, as well as a personal attack on the Mayor of the city and on a brother M.P., it is time for an editor to have some regard for the feelings of his readers. At the very least it should be insisted on, in such a case, that the writer should sign his real name. In this particular instance, we have, for ourselves, little doubt of the identity of this correspondent. It will, we believe, be found to correspond with that of the small-souled individual, with a mania for anonymous scribbling, who some time ago over the signature of ' Carpus' attacked his brother ministers in the columns of the Otago Daily Times; the same who, later on, in the same paper over the signature of 'R.W.' delivered a series of wanton and malicious attacks on almost everything Catholic; the same who, only the other day, vented his anti-Catholic spleen in the Christchurch papers, once more over the familiar signature of ' R.W.' It. is satisfactory to reflect that all this mudstirring and mud-slinging will have the very opposite effect from that which is intended. It will not only arouse Irish enthusiasm to the highest pitch, but will serve in every way as a magnificent advertisement for the delegates. Out of evil good will come; and the Christchurch visit may now be confidently regarded as an assured success. ,