CORRESPONDENCE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 2 December 1914, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE

MR MASSEY'S MEETING

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Perhaps you will allow me, a plum, hard-working dairy iarmer, "to say a word or two in reply to Dean tower's extraordinary message to his peupie, regarding the Premier's recent speecii in iiaweta, and the causes which led ■ the reverend gentleman to lash oat. It seems the main • cause ol' the Dean's anger was Mr Massey's method of smashing the waterfront strike by allowing tne farmers of the Dominion to assemble in Wellington and sea that no interference was permitted in shipping their hard-earned produce to London. And for this, and eh« fact that Mr. Massey said at his Ha-wera meeting that under similar circumstances he wouid do it again, the Dean is so very angry. Listen, "only Almighty God knows how near we were |to this (provoking a riot) at the moment when a compact body of young j farmers-in the centre of the hall set up a roar of triumphant hate in response to Mr Massey's heartless jeers that the farmers had done the frightening last year, and wo aid do. it'again." One, sir, would hardly think it possible that a plain statement of fact like that I could anger the Dean. Is the statement not absolutely true that law and order was forcibly upheld by the specials? and is it not a fact that almost every dairy farmer in Taranaki is prepared to do the same thing again under similar circumstances? So why rage at the hundreds and hundreds of farmers around the Dean's own town of Hawera, who will tell him plainly to his j face, for the asking, that they "are prepared to repeat the dose each and every time th© Red Feds issue their challenge. All honor, we say, to Mas- j sey for having bravely faced the .diffi- j eulty and smashing the diabolical* attempt by the Red Feds to ruin the dairy industry of a fair and happy i province. i DAIRY FARMER. To thb Editor. Sir,—l have read the substance of Dean Power's political sermon delivered from the pulpit in Hawera as reported by your paper, and would like to make a few comments thereon. The Dsan states that hitherto he has abstained from pubiic disc* ssion of political matters. What a pity that he should have broken such a good record by staiting now. He contends that the Premier, in his speech, is stirring up antagonism between the farmers and the working classes, when Mr Massey said, in answer to an interjection, that the farmers did the frightening last year. This was not part of his prepared speech, and was merely a quick retort to an undeserved aspersion of his character as a statesman. When the Premier and his Government had tho moral courage to summon the farmers to preserve law and order m our ports during the strike he was combatting not labor, but labor's disease, the Red Fed organisation, which, it allowed to grow, would have turned into a virulent cancer, sapping [ the life of the whole Dominion. He is not, and never was, labor's antagon- i ist, but her best friend, and he has conI tumally and practically shown this during his Premiership. ! Tl*3 Premier iras labor's doctor and tne-farmers his lancet, to such good effect that Wc?r'a conditions, in spite of in| stated 61' 6 n6Ver I#n '*> more ~? m* LABOR'S BEST FRIEND. (To the Editor.) Sir.—ln reply to "R.C.," I have to assure him that I am not a religious hypocrite. No one regrets more than i-i our Pastor and our church should be dragged into the maelstrom of party politics. The fault is not mine, hut solely the Dean's. From my heart I reverence all things sacred, | and have more than ordinary respect foii. <>l?rT,^i^ thood-- l > in conjunction with 'R.C.," have inherited from the generation that preceded us a legacy we would not wantonly surrender, and it is a duty we owe to each other to keep our altars unstained. Politics, especially the kind that is served to us m this Dominion, is not a fit subject to be dealt with in our churches. We go there to reverence God and all things holy, and not to have our political feelings embittered by an unjustifiable attack" on the i*rei£.i?r of the Dominion by our pastol 4 from the altar. "R.C." interprets the concluding remarks in my first letter as conveying the idea that our pastor i° centric. Reading the D^v,,, late-t production in yest^- * B per would enS e n <?! le *-J told that opinion. **"1' says "the Dean in his re*iaarks did not seek to injure the interests of the Reform party." I ask 'R.C." could the remarks made by the Dean have any other effect: not so much in Hawera, where the Dean j is known, but his sermon was rushed into an Opposition paper in New Plymouth with indecent haste, and no | doubt similar papers thimighout New I Zealand will only be,too pleased to make what use of the sermon they may think fit, and that certainly Will not be to the advantage of the Reform party. "R.C." says "the R.C. party are non-political:" This is news to me, as is also his statement that half of them are reformers. I do not wish to seem rude, but must from my own knowledge and past experience say emphatically I do not believe either statement. "R.C." says I ridiculed the Dean's idea of a riot. I did then, and do so now. I will ask "R.C" one pertinent question, viz.—Doe3 the Dean possess some occult power denied to us lesser mortals which enabled him to see in the centre of the hall "a compact body of young farmers," etc., from the position the Dean occupied, seeing that the centre of the hall could not he seen from that position.

HAWERA ROMAN CATHOLIC. P.S. —I do not intend to touch on this subject again no matter what the provocation. —H.R.C.