POLITICS AND RELIGION.

Northern Advocate, 12 January 1912, Page 2

POLITICS AND RELIGION.

ALLEGED ECCLESIASTICAL PRESSURE. AND AN EMPHATIC DENIAL. Since the General Election there has been (says the Dunedin "Star") a good deal of rather free talk about the votes of Roman Catholic electors, and many people have not hesitated to go the length of alleging that ecclesiastical pressure was brought to bear on the Roman Catholics with a view to securing the return of Ministerial candidates To put the matter plainly, as all such charges should be made if they are worth making at all, it even ' has been said that Roman Catholic clergymen actually instructed their people to vote for certain candidates at the General Election. Readers may remember having heard the following reason being given for the defeat of a prominent local Prohibitionist: "The Roman Catholic vote did it." It would seem, that such allegations are not confined to Dunedin. The Christchurch "Press" editorially referred to the question the other day, and asid inter alia:

"We feel it a duty to draw attention to one aspect of the contest which, we fear, is likely to leadi to trouble and bitterness in the future, unless those who are in a position to avert the evil resolve to do so. We refer to the manner in which ecclesiastical pressure was brought to bear on this election with a view to Influencing members of one particular denomination, no matter what their political views might, be, to support the head of the Government, mainly, if not entirely, on the ground of his religion. A Kumara correspondent:, whose letter we published recently, describes the extraordinary efforts made on the West Coast by clergy of the Roman Catholic Church to secure the return of Mr Seddon, who was supposed to be more favorable to Sir Joseph Ward's Government than Mr Michel. A Dunedin correspondent on whom we can rely* informs us that every Roman Catholic in Mr Millar's constituency was seen in his behalf dvring the last two days before the election." It will be noted that the reference to Mr Millar's election is very noncommittal in itself, but only a dullwitted person could fail to draw from ie a broad inference. In view of all that has been said locally and elsewhere, a reporter went to the fountain head, so to speak, and asked the Rev. Father Coffey if he had anything to say about tha allegations. He had, and what he had to say was Lrief and emphatic: "I give such allegations an absolute, unqualified denial. In no case did a single clergyman, liirectly or indirectly, make any efi'ort on behalf of a candidate. As for the statement that 'every Roman Catholic in Mr Millar's constituency was seen in bis behalf during the last two days before the election,' it is a downright lie. Not one elector was seen by a clergyman of the Church. And not cne word was said in the church or outside of the church to an elector on behalf of Mr Millar."