Untitled

Auckland Star, Volume IV, Issue 988, 19 March 1873, Page 3

BISHOP CROKE'S DEMONSTRATION. (To the Editor of the Evening Star.) Sib,—lt was with a good deal of surprise that I perused in the columns of your morning contemporary, the Herald, a letter from Dr. Croke, apologising for not having taken part in the farewell demonstration to the Governor and Lady Bowen. I think the members of the Bishop's own communion will regret that he should have written such an intemperate epistle. The writer must have been in a very unhappy frame of mind when he penned it, and, on reflection he will see that he has not acted wisely or prudently. It would be well if the ."meek and lowly" gentleman would curb his natural impulsiveness, and calmly consider the effect of such injudicious conduct on he public mind. A short time ago he grossly insulted the brethren of the "mystic tie," and now the members of the Orange Institution in Auckland are the objects of his sweeping denunciation. He could not take part in the demonstration to do honor to the representative of Royalty because forsooth it was announced;that the Orangemen-a class of men who have ever been in every part of the world where they have existed conspicuous for their loyalty and their attachment to the throne of England—were to join with their fellow-citizens m paying a wellmerited mark of respect to the Governor. Lady Bowen, and family. He pourtrays. in the most offensive manner, the so.called "Characteristics" of the Orangemen of Ireland but I do not think the Governor or any person who has lived in the North of Ireland, or any other loyal part of it, will endorse the writer's estimate of the members of the Orange institution, or his statement of the motives by which they are actuated, lhe Doctor has written in utter ignorance, as 1 cannot think he would wilfully make such unfounded statements regarding a body of men who have always been the upholders of law and order and whose existence, it has been more than once acknowledged in the Imperial Parliament, has had a wholesome check upon the rowdyism and lawlessness of illegal societies in the old country,—of whose existence the Bishop may have some little knowledge. I am not a member of the Orange Society, but I have read the code of rules adopted tor their guidance both in their private and public life. They breathe a Christian spirit, and inculcate " peace and goodwill towards men." I ask you, Mr Editor, or any unprejudiced reader of Bishop Croke's letter, if its tendency is not (to quote his own words) " to foster and foment social discord, and to

ajrra-y bile section of the people in deadly hostility against another." In conclusion I would take the liberty of reminding Dr. Croke that he cannot with impunity openly insult a large pection of the community, and that the effects of his unseemly and uncharitable conduct will recoil upon himself.—l am, etc., A North of Ireland Man.

Auckland, 19h March, 1873