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New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6827, 4 October 1883, Page 4

A courespondeitt in yesterday's paper j « Citizen," refers to the coming 1 ° f ,, Mr vf' R Redm °nd (whom lie calls a sedition-monger") urges that « some signs of disapproval should not be wanting rrom the inhabitants," and that as a practical expression of such disapproval the public halls should be closed against him. We hope the advice of our correspondent will no t be followed and it is not likely to be adopted if the reasons against it are fairly considered In the first place, if Mr. Eedmond says

anything that is false in U-eb, or indulges in any bad argument, there are people in Auckland able to deal with it. Surely the citizens of Auckland have not so lost confidence in themselves that their only expedient -with a man who is arguing a bad and uapopular cause is to shut his mouth, and. prevent him from speaking tothoae whoare willing to listen to him and to pay an admission fee for that purpose. And we must remind our correspondent that in preventing Mr. Redmond from speaking, we are interfering, not only with his liberty, but with the liberty and rights of all those of our own-

citizens who might desire to hear him, who might wish to hear what he hasto say on behalf of the Land League or any other organisation. By preventing Mr. Redmond from appearing in. public, we are interfering, not only with his liberty of free speech, bat with the liberty of free hearing of not a few of our own citizens. But above all, it must not be forgotten that our liberty, our progress, and everything we hold dear, depend on free discussion, and if that is stifled we shall become a race of slaves. Besides, we never can feel sure that any set of opinions which we may stifle may not contain some portion of truth which may be beneficial to us. Error is seldom pure arid unmixed jiny more than truth, and those opinions which appear to us the most detrimental may, and very likely do, contain some very precious particles of truth. shows this most abundantly. And we believe that, on this score, it might be pointed out that the Irish agitators have something in their charge which the world may be the better cf recognising. They have given prominence to this truth, that the land of a country is not solely created for the benefit and support of those who call themselves the owners—that the people who live on it must also be considered. These ideas are rapidly spreading over the world, and their progress is shown in a thousand ways, even in New Zealand. And it may be that, half a century after this, we shall be able to see that all this horrible Irish business had in it something which was of benefit to the world. The excesses of the French Revolution frightened two generations, but we now see that that event was the most beneficial for the world that has , occurred in modern times. Again, to close public halls against Mr. Red- : mond, as was done in some parts of Australia, is a very paltry method of dealing with him, and is very likely to give rise to a sympathy which he does not deserve, and which \?e should be sorry to see excited. There is a great difference between prohibiting a meeting in Ireland and virtually doing the same thing here. There an excited speech may be the means of causing violent and lawless acts, but the worst that can happen here is that some amongst us may be stimulated to put their hands into their pockets to fetch out a few shillings for the funds' of the Land League. We are sorry that the Redmonds have come here, and should be grieved if they found much support cither in Australia or New Zealand. But we are not disposed to make martyrs of them, or to do foolish things: because of their advent.