THE RUNANGA INCIDENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18678, 7 April 1924, Page 7

THE RUNANGA INCIDENT.

Sg,-~Tj*era has been a good .deal of talk 1 abcqt ; '.ljheffßunanga incident, £of - which",', as -eveiybody -knows, the -explanation given was, well, . a bit; too .lams'' to be satisfactory. ;; v.The . .letters sent to-you indicating distrust of the Roman Catholic authorities give hut a slight ideqT of tho widespread feeding that exists on .the suojeqt. Very :; few people 'write to -- news-' ; pipers. A'great many people talk. s And '; •the. facfc, f that the bulk;? of . the Roman Catholics in New Zealand are from Ire-'' land. • the .Rinanga incident, tile J silence of the priests, .mostly ; all from Ireland— and they can be vocal enough when they like—and the:- treasonable utterances- of' the notorious Cardinal Mannix, "all these, things, put together, m&k* those o£ us who are ? not Roman f Catholics,''-, and '• are / loyal subjects. of j the -i King - more'- than suspicious. If we art wrong, let authori- : tative ■?. voices say-to and. give ' evidence thai'- will convince us that we arss wreug. The : .writer over the jwnir. d<j v pfeffie/ of " Presbyterian" has: succeeded •in drawing .; a red herring across tho path .'of,- the discussion, ' whether wittingly or not . it. is not for me to say;'asd the letter signed N. E. Bourke mates no. oHrtributipij to t lit To say, ail he ventures to do, that I the other -letters £ that appeared are trash j and ' coma' from :: wajped-minded bigots, and that anyone who suggests : thai . the r prieswJaret'ti». causa of -the; trouble at Runanga is sot familiar with the Rosaan - Catholic 5 Chuxdi, is no J. jirgamaniC;,;.:,';' It' -? is impudmca. The iess Roman Catholic apologists ■ talk about bigotry the better. vcfiWeit know there' arc iayal ; Catholics, ; r but we : suspect they are fin » minority in New Zealand. ,N. R. Bourke tells us there are disloyal non- ; Oaiholicsf;*^ Nobody said t there i weren't.; Bat „ what ; has',. that to do. with the question at issue? No one suspects Baptist " or Presbyterian or Methodist ministers as a class of . disloyalty. ; ' It is ' Roman >?, Catholic priests, ' and ' tha Roman Catholic influenCe generally flh New Zealand, that is under suspicion, j I was at' the pagi»ant in , the*' Domain 'last - Saturday ; aftotߣ*n.'; When .the ; National i Anthem Was, played * .all. the men and boys within viewiof;);, where I stood removed their Jieadltear. Three lads belonging to a .Roman Catholic college kept then* on. Everybody else had the decency -to be still; ■ they carried on A conversation; YJff. ■■ -