SONS OF LEVI, L.O.L.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 16, 15 July 1893, Page 12

SONS OF LEVI, L.O.L.

The members of the Sons of Levi Loyal Orange Lodge held their annual Twelfth of July gathering in the Protestant Hall, Liddel street, on-Wednesday evening. The building, the interior of which ha,d been beautifully decorated by the secretary of the Lodge, was well filled, and after the company had en joyed the good things provided by those AI caterers. (Messrs D. Kiugsland and Co ) they turned their attention to the programme of speech and song arranged for the after-meeting. The G.M. (Pro. J. H. Jaquiery) presided, and gave a short address, in the course of which he enumerated the qualifications required in an Orangeman. Archdeacon Stocker, the next speaker, said that Orangemen could seldom have met at a more serious time than the present, when measures wore, being brought forward in the Imperial Parliament which affected not only the constitution of the. Empire but also the liberties, the property, and, it might be, the very lives of their co-religionists in Ireland. There were few politicians, and certainly no statesmen, who would not grant to Ireland a very wide and liberal measure of local selfgovernment, but that was not what the advocates of Home Rule desired. It was suggested in some quarters that Ireland should be given such a measure of Home Rule as the colonies enjoyed, but the two countries were so close together, their interests so closely entwined, that it hardly seemed possible, and, again, it was not desired, the demand being for separation and an independent Parliament for Ireland. Such a Parliament would not be independent, would not respect the wishes or wants of the minority, but would be subservient to Borne, and, worse than that, it would have to be subservient to the Irish priesthood; for he took it that it was an insult to the Church of Rome to conceive that the priesthood of Ireland was a fair representation of the policy or Christianity of that church. The result would be the crushing out of Protestantism in Ireland. Of course it Would be said that the Roman Catholics would never be so mad as to persecute the minority and lose to Ireland much of its wealth and energy, but they must remember what had happened in France and the Netherlands, and in this case also history -would probably simply repeat itself. Home Rule would not only break up the unity of the Empire but would ruin Ireland itself. There was no greater, and unhappily no commoner, fallacy than the belief that a change of government would remedy every evil under the sun. While other nations, like Germany and Italy, were seeking to unite the discordant elements within them, were the British, above all other people, to be the only ones who were doing their best to unwind the thread of unity which had been woven by the ages, and rend themselves into feeble and mutually destructive fragments ? That was the last thought that should enter the mind of any Briton, be he English, Scotch, or Irish. The loyalists of Ireland were at this juncture surely deserving of their sympathy, and he thought that hitherto this had not been shown in as marked, decisive, and clear a manner as it ought to have been. The colonies had been visited by emissaries of the Plan of Campaign, who had collected money, and on returning Home boasted that they had the sympathy of the people of the colonies. But it was not so—if a vote could be taken it would be found that there was a huge preponderance of the colonists who would show their detestation of the Home Rule Bill. Steps should have been taken to let the people at Home know-what the colonists thought of the matter; but the measure would assuredly be rejected by the House of Lords, and before it was submitted to the country again at the elections the people in every town in the colony ought to declare, plainly, and emphatically, their allegiance to the Empire, their allegiance to their God, and their allegiance to those principles which had been handed down to them by their lathers, and taught to them at their mother’s knee.

Mr T. Denniston characterised the Home Rule Bill as a step towards the dismemberment of the Empire and towards placing the loyal minority of Ireland at the feet of their enemies. He was not for making this a question of Protestantism against Catholicism, but of loyalty against disloyalty, of treason against faithfulness to the Crown and and it was a peculiarity of the position that many of the Roman Catholic leaders at Home had come forward in defence of the Constitution. The closure was now being applied by the Government to force the measure through, but the people could trust to the wisdom and patriotism of the House of Lords to reject the Bill. Daniel O’Connell once exclaimed—- “ Thank God, we have a House of Lords,” and that acknowledgment was never more worthy of fervent utterance than at the present juncture. Finally, they would trust in an appeal to the robust good sense and now educated intelligence of the constituencies of Britain. In concluding, Mr Denniston said that if the people of Ulster should be driven into open revolt their only crime will be that they refused to part with their citizenship in the United Kingdom and the privilege of living under the protection of the British Crown. Dr Hodgkinson said that when lie told a friend —one who was a good Protestant, too — of his intention to be present, lie expressed the opinion that it was rather a pity to stir up old animosities. He (Dr Hodgkinson) would not have been present if such were the objects •of the Order, but as a matter of fact their principles were those of the Bible and of the

blessed Reformation. He was glad to- notice in the miles that Orangemen were enjoined to be careful to avoid anything that would needlessly give pain or offence to Roman Cathodes. It was quite possible to be a very strong Protestant, and opposed to the Romish system in every way, and at the same._time..tp, entertain the kindest feeling towards individual members of the Church, and persbnally he could say that some of the most lovable and amiable people he had met belonged to that communion. After referring to the action of a former member of the House of Representatives who had opposed the reading of the Bible in schools under instructions from Orange Lodges in Auckland, which Dr Hodgkinson thought was scarcely consistent with their principles, the speaker dealt with the recrudescence of Roman Catholic influence in America and Britain. In the latter country nunneries and monasteries were being planted in every direction, and it had been stated that the Pope hoped to win back Britain to his church. It was a feature of the policy of that church of lute years to ingratiate itself with the democracy, or indeed with anything that was in fashion, in the hope that it would be thereby enabled to ride in on top of the wave with the people. The chairman, after mentioning that a special service would be held in the Don st. Primitive Methodist Church, at 6.30 on Sunday evening, moved a resolution condemning the action of the Government in granting denominational aid by voting £SOO to the Magdala Asylum. This having been carried unanimously, he also submitted the following ; —“ That we pledge ourselves to vote at the next general elections and use our utmost endeavours personally and as an institution to urge others to vote only for those candidates who will promise to support the present system of secular, education and who will strenuously oppose in every possible way State aid to any denominational schools or institutions under their care, by whatever name they may be called, believing the present system of secular education to be by far the best for all parties concerned.” Dr Hodgkinson took exception to the resolution on the ground that it was inconsistent with the principles of Orangeism to object to the introduction of the Bible into the public schools, and suggested the following instead :—“That this meeting strongly opposes all votes of public money for denominational schools and any sectarian teaching of religion in the public schools, but approves of the public schools being opened with prayer, and also approves of a reading of a portion of the Holy Scriptures, without comment, subject to a conscience clause.” The chairman explained that the Auckland and Wellington lodges were afraid that if the Bible were read in the schools it would open the door to denominationalism, and they preferred the present system to that. The motion, as framed by Dr. Hodgkinson would, however, meet the case.—The motion, as altered, was then put and carried, Dr. Hodgkinson remarking that to continue to exclude the Bible would tend more than anything else to bring about denominationalism. The Rev. J. Sharp, P.G. Chaplain, followed with a vigorous address on Orangeism, and after a vote of thanks had been passed to all who had taken part in the proceedings, the gathering closed with the singing of a verse of the National Anthem.

During the evening songs were given by Misses Hewlett, Peters, and Findlay, and Messrs Faith, Peters, and Aitken, one of the selections being “Rouse Ye, Ulster,” which the chairman stated the Coldstream Guards had been prohibited from playing*—The accompaniments were played by Miss Peters. A dance followed, at which Mr P. Brass efficiently discharged the duties of M.C.