THE ORANGE SOIREE.

Auckland Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2296, 14 July 1877, Page 2

THE ORANGE SOIREE.

(To the Editor of the STAR.)

Sir.,—l trust that in the interests of justice and fair play you will not deny me space in your journal for the following remarks on the speeches delivered at the Orange soiree on Thursday evening,_ as they have been reported in your last night's issue :— The Chairman's speech is undeserving of notice except to give a categorical denial to his concluding statement, viz., that the Catholic Church " denied the blessings of an open Bible." I can very well excuse Mr Burns for making such a statement, knowing that he did so in invincible ignorance, and that he knows no more of the Catholic religion than he does of the interior of the seventh Heaven, which Mahomet is said to have visited. Of course if Orangemen will exalt a man to the position of Right Worthy Grand, and he proves a Wrong Unworthy Grand—inaccurate and ungraniniatical —that .is their business. Mr Westbrooke evidently is a very amiable gentleman, and his sermon to the brethren, I hope, will produce salutary effects. And now for the irascible Dr Maunsell. This venerable gentleman is to be pitied. His horror of Catholicism leads him into the most extravagant assertions and ridiculous syllogisms. Were it not that many good-natured people might be misled by his remarks, it would be well to pass them by with a sympathising smile.' He says " There are many Roman Catholics of great respectability." Good Gracious! Why, really, one would think by this that we were generally an ungovernable lot' of vagabonds, aud that a respectable Roman Catholic was almost lusus naturae. It is to be regretted that the Doctor should have made the following unwarrantable, untruthful, and very vindictive statement: " The Roman CathoL-cs a'lowed the priests to put, their hands into their pockets. They put money in the bank, and the priests came and took just as much as they liked, and spent it as they liked, and gave no account of it." I cannot at all comprehend whence the gentleman got +his information ; nor can I hold him blameless of propagating unmerited calumny, since he took no pains to convince himself of the truth or falsity of the assertion before making it. Dr. Maunsell should be well aware that ordinary people usually give a certain amount of credence to statements made by gentlemen in his position, and it is very imprudent on his part, to say the least, to disseminate slanderous accusations against, a large number of colonists who do not offer him or his faction the slightest molestation. These mis-statements of Dr Maunsell's are not uncommon. I cannot in charity accuse him of uttering falsehoods deliberately and knowingly, so I will call them mis-statements. It now seems to be an impossibility for him to make the slightest allusion to Roman Catholicism without falling into some grievous error, and many of these errors, he ought to know, can never be retrieved. Country people present at the soiree on Thursday evening have gone to their hemes convinced of the truth" of what he stated in his speech, and thus a grievous wrong, has been perpetrated. I can assure Dr. Maunsell that no Catholic in New Zealand, has ever dreamed of invading his civil or religious freedom ; he may rest assured that he might continue to preach antipopish sermons from this to the millennium Avithout the slightest hindrance, if he were so disposed. "Dr Maunsell further says we "pin" ourselves to the priests. 0 Hinc illae lachrymae ! " Let us not weep, but stretch out our anus to our large-souled. brethern to rescue us from this servile state. Amen." Orangism is a. very pernicious plant, an exotic which will' require very sedulous culture indeed to produce the* results hoped for by its promoters. The free breezes of the Pacific arenot conducive to its growth. It is antiquated and effete, and: most of the young fellows who marched on Thursday I do not doubt knew or cared as little for its origin or aims as the Mussulmen do ; and a* for the soiree ;t was simply the dance with the country girls, and not the speeches, whic.i was the greatest attraction. To my Orange brethren, pax vobis !. you are quite welcome to your banners, and your sermons, and your speeches,, and your buns, and tea, and your dance, but really do try and learn to speak the truth. —Yours, etc., Lycukgus.

[We have other letters on the subject, for and against the demonstration, but this must suffice. The correspondence is closed. Ed. E.S.]