A GIRL’S RELIGION.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1924, Page 4

A GIRL’S RELIGION.

STRANGE AUCKLAND CASE. ATTITUDE OF HER MOTHER. *A POWERFUL INFLUENCE.” GIRL RETURNS HOME. By Telegraph—-Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. Mr. H. P. Richmond, solicitor ir Mrs. Martin, writes to the Herald stating that the position wa« not quite correctly stated on Saturday in reference to the conditione on which Miss Martin was advised to return home. Mr. Richmond says Mrs. Martin was quite veiling to allow her daughter complete freedom of religious thought, including even attendance at the Roman Catholic Church if she so desired. Only two conditions were insisted on« The first was that her daughter should, for twelve months, completely sever herself from the personal influence and. attachment which had arisen in connection with her school life. This influence, Mrs. Martin had grave reasons to believe, was aJtoowerful one. and she considered her daughter could not possibly* return to a normal state of mind while it persisted. The second condition was that her daughter should not seek, the instruction necessary before entering the Roman Catholic Church until she had been at least a month with her mother. These conditions were recommended to the daughter as proper by Bishop Cleary. The daughter could not then see her way to accept any conditions restricting her intimate friendship with a lady to whose influence the mother objects. . \ “My client’s cause of complaint is not against the change of faith, if that had come to her daughter at a proper time and on clear and reasoned judgment,’* adds Mr. Richmond. “Her complaint ie against what she believes to have been the influencing of a schoolgirl’s mind, at first without the mother’s knowledge, and later in direct opposition to her expressed wishes. A further cause of complaint is against those who kept secret from the mother her daughter’s whereabouts, causintr her most intense and wearing anxiety.” Mr. Richmond says his client wishes to remove any impression that Bishop Cleary and his counsel did not at tho conference recommend Mrs- Martin’s conditions as entirely fair and proper. Miss Martin returned to her mother early this afternoon. None of the principals in the case desired to make any statement.