AN INDISCRETION

Evening Star, Issue 12873, 24 July 1906, Page 1

AN INDISCRETION

[SPECIE, TO THE STAB.] WELLINGTON, July 24. The. 'Post' devotes the following leader, under the heading " Intolerance," to the resolution lately passed by tha Orange lodge of Invercargill:—" A week ago it was stated in the Nelson Press that the local Orange lodge had decided to ask the co-operation of other lodges in the colony in sending a petition to the Governor against Sir J. G. Ward being appointed as Premier. How the proposal was received by the Orange lodges generally we do not know, but the Invercargill lodge has spoken very dofinitcry on the question. Appai-entry it has not waited for any formal notification of the, resolution. It has resolved that it is totally out of sympathy with the opinion alleged to have been expressed by th& Nelson lodge, on the sufficient ground that it is absolutely against the principle of the Orange institution. In the absence of the text, of the resolution carried in. Nelson it is impossible to say : exactly what the local branch of tfaolodge did, or what reason, if asry n is ss-i signed for its action, and it may be that* some of the denunciations hurled against)' it- are unwarranted; but it seems atleast to have been guilty of somEthJngj more than indiscretion. There is, bow~ ever, nothing doubtful or ambiguous in the resolution adopted by Che Invercargiil lodge, which is the more gratifying, inasmuch as it claims to be in accordance with the constitution of the society. There, arc Orange lodges in all the centres of the colony. They inemde m t&eir merrjbership prominent and respected citsr Kens, and the members are not addicted; in New Zealand, at all events, to starring; up sectarian strife and bitterness. The religious tolerance of Britain, the result of a long struggle for freedom, is one at her glories throughout the Empire. So far as civil rights are concerned all aa-ft equal, whatever their creed or absence of creed. The man who is appointed to any public office is in honor bound to observe a like tolerance, and any public servant who, in the exercise of his power of appointment or promotion, should «sscriminate in favor of any particular creed would be guilty of a gross breach of trust, deserving of impeachment. No honorable man would so commit himselfIf, as seems to be the case, the attack on Sir Joseph Ward was on account of his religious belief, a purely private concern, it was un-British, trodemocratic, and, m the worst taste. Secret societies and. league? should not intermeddle with pontics, and would be well advised to kj' personal religious convictions alone. Ta do otherwise will bring them into merited contempt. The indiscretion of the Nelson Orange lodge may have been <iX3ggerated; if so, that body should lose no tano in pitting itself right with tho pubhe. It is satisfactory to know that even tfcough apparently unconfirmed' by arithonty its action has been officially condemned by a aster branch," rThB Dunedtn lodge, even before the Invercatgfll took action, condenmed the resolution or the N-elson branch.—Ed. E.S.T