MR. NAPIER'S CANDIDATURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9366, 24 November 1893, Page 3

MR. NAPIER'S CANDIDATURE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—The persistency with which Mr. Napier is questioned about his views on the religious education question seems likely to lead to misunderstandings. Roman Catholics have exactly the same interest as other citizens in returning to Parliament men of good antecedents, upon whose words full reliance may be safely placed, and who will deal honestly and fearlessly with all questions, political, social, and economic, as they arise. The object of Mr. Napier's catechists is, doubtless, not so much to secure from him a pledge one way or the other as to prove to all parties that he is not worthy of trust. I do not wish to secure votes for Mr. Napier; | he seems to me a most unfit man to send to Parliament—in fact the most objectionable of all the candidates ; and it is because he may benefit by these particular efforts to discredit him that I recommend his questioners to let him alone. Our Roman Catholic fellow-citizens know Mr. Napier. It is unwise and unfair to give him a chance to pose as their champion, and thus to drive them to give him support which he would never get on his merits. Let Mr. Napier have no fortuitous help such as this. Let him have nothing to depend upon his own glib tongue and unbounded conceitwith such side lights as are reflected upon his words by his actions. — am, etc., Ivanhoe.