PROTESTANT POLITICAL ASSOCIATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17320, 21 May 1918, Page 2

PROTESTANT POLITICAL ASSOCIATION.

ADDRESS BY THE REV. HOWARD ELLIOTT. ~ n^he r address, under the auspices of tho Protostont Political Association, was given in His Majesty's Theatre lust night ■by the ltev. Howurd Elliott (national lecturer for tho association). The building was again crowded to excees, and many people oould not gain admittance. iho Rev S. Morris (North-liast Valley, baptist), who occupied tho chair, said tho association stood for freedom. It did not stand for an isolated company, but represented all. It said: "If the demands of other people aro right and according to 1 ntish policy we shall be among tho first to encourage them to receive that which they consider to bo their right."—(Applause.) ihey stood for tho broad, trreat principle of Freedom—freedom for tho people for the day that is and for the day that is to be, when, they trusted, all such meetings as the present would not bo needed, because they would become so enlightened that they would watch, and so prevent any trespass upon their privileges and upon their British liberty.—(Applause.) Tho Rev- S. G. Griffith delivered an address on The Abomination of Religious liigotry. He wished to explain his position. He was not a member of the association, nor was ho in any way bound by any promise to say those things which were in accord with the principles for which tfte association stood. He counted himself Quite independent and a free lance, without any restrictions whatever placed on his tongue to say exactly what his convictions led him to say. In the course of remarks extending over about 30 minutes, the speaker touched on a variety of topics, opeaking of ono aspect of the war, -ho said there were gome Irishmen of whom any wue Irishman must be proud.—(Applause.) ±>ut there were Irishmen and Irishmen.— (Applause.) Referring to tho sentence passed on the Rev. Mr Chappie, he said ne -had not a word to say in favour of a man who stood before the people and said anything that would hinder tho full strength of the Empire being thrown into the balance in the cause of justice and righteousness, and he believed that that man, clergyman though he was, got no more than his desserts when 11 months were placed against him to spend in incarceration.—(Applause.) The Government, however; should also take action against those who said even stronger things than Chappie had uttered.—(Applause.) Ihere was opposition to some of the speaker s remarks. "It is a rather good thing said Mr Griffith, "that soml of the other people have got in. I hope they the word homo to the authorities. Applause.) He wont on to say that members of a certain denomination occupied D °a V ■ Potions in the public service. A v oico: Give us one instance H ° Elliott: Keenan, of the Post Ulhco.—(Applause.) Several people in the audience threw in interjections, which held up the meeting tor a brief space. The speaker's statement with regard, to the Ne Temere decree also caused dissenting remarks, and the chairman warned a man that if he did not keep s ril. ho woulcl be put out. Ihe Rev. Howard Elliott spoke for over f" JV° Ul ' -?u nd ,^ ha i f - He dealt' at some A V j Office inquiry in Auckland, and repeated that an improper censorship had been established in the interests of a certain denomination. Incidental to the inquiry was the matter of the contents of some of 'the letters which were opened by the postal authorities. In one letter reference was made to a nun and he regretted that the letter had been used as it wae, because it had hurt the leoimgs of the parents of the girl. However, it was not he who had made the contents public. The postal people opened a j r »<r ?? ey llad no "2ht to do so, and Mr Herdman read it in the House, and so published ii broadcast, with the result that it became public property It was certainly never his wish that the'contents of that letter should be made public, and ho had done nothing to make them public. Speaking of the progress of the associa!i on 'rJ tS a 33, 4116 P° sit i° a was such that r-vr , was £°'?£ to bo the uplifting of New Zealand politics and the regeneration of her life.—(Applause.) In making a few comments on the press correspondence which has appeared recently, he said the association never used calumnies in connection with its campaign. It did not desire to use calumnies against the Roman CathoChurch. It had a case good enough without that, but it was conducting investigations, and when it had completed its investigations without any calumny it would make the results known.—(Applause.) Heiornng to the relation of the association , rr l^ ur i k®. said he had been accused of splitting the Labour Party because he had stated that the official Labour Party was in alliance wfth Rome. He contended that there were evidences of the leanings of the otticial Labour organ in New Zealand to Romanism, and quoted instances in support of his view. An attempt was being made in New Zealand to get hold of the labour unione. An attempt was being made to get Roman Catholics as secretaries, and to get them on to conferences of unions. And if the Roman Catholics got into these positions they would run them not in the interests of Labour, \y\\t in the interests of the Roman Catholic Church. —(Applause.) With genuine union-P-P.A. had hearty sympathy. With genuine Labour, with the men who stood for social regeneration, and with the amelioration of every hard condition in the lot of the worker the P.P.A. had everv sympathy.—(Applause.) It hoped that, at the next election, it would secure Protestant Labour men who would stand on the P.P.A. platform, who would, represent Labour and who would go into Parliament °? n organisation.—(Applause.) Let Protestant unionists take an interest J? i , th ?? r S? ioni * a " d , «=e that the Roman" Catholic Chuich did not get control of them or of the union executives, or dominate the Political Labour Representation Committee. He knew very well there were thousands of working men in this country who repudiated the statements of the official Labour organ.—(Applause.) It was a lie to say that the association was opposed to the working men, and the guile, ° f , behind such a statement, liie Jr.ir.A. was a democratic movement because the people could control it. . * n regard to the public service, he said it was not possible to tell how many members of the service were Roman Catholics At one time it was necessary for an applicant for employment to state his religion but that column in the application form had now been struck out. From the facts in his possesswn it would appear, however, that at least 53 per cent, of the Civil Ser vice was Roman Catholic, and yet the Roman Catholics were only 14 per cent of the population of the dominion. It might be ncccssary yet for the association to sLv We insist that the Government shall see that there is not more than one-seventh of the ; Civil Service who are Roman Catholics. If the number allowed got out of proportion it was a dire menace to the country.

Alluding to the Ne Temero decree, he said it was a thing that touched every man and woman in the Empire. It constituted an insult.to every Protestant in the land, and the Protestants of this oounti-y did not know just what was being said or what it meant, or they would not have taken it so quietly. The P.P.A. had for ite dccllra tion, this: lam a British subject and a Protestant. I am not married! to a Roman Cathohc, nor will I marry one."-(Ap-plause.) They were asking: the Protestant men and women to find wives and husbands among their own people.—(Applause.) They were asking their young men and women to stand by their own faith in the matter of the marriage relation and to tread the p.ith that led more ccrtamly to conjugal happiness than any other. The history of the mixed marriage was a history of matri monial unhappiness Oil and water would not mix. borne things never would mix and among those things were Protestantism' and Romanism.—(Applause.) Let tho Protestants stand together and realise that there were vital interests at stake. Le them see that the Government was a Protestant Government which the will of the Protestants and administered the laws not in tho interests of one section but in the interests of all. Let them £ a political organisation that would enoompass New Zealand, and as far as they oonld they would make tho Parliament aJnd the administration what is ought to be bv re turning tho right men to represent'them — (Applause.)