THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 1893. TEE TABLET AGAIN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2484, 1 April 1893, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 1893. TEE TABLET AGAIN.

In another column will be found a leading article and two letters taken from the Tablet. It took good care not to publish our article, because it could not afford to do so, but we can afford to publish its attacks because we have nothing to fear from them. It is a case of " Conscience makes cowards of us all" with the Tablet. Only clean hands and a clear conscience can treat an attack as we do. We feel extremely glad that we have not labored in vain, and that we have made the editor of the Tablet remember that he is a graduate of a university. It would have been better for him to have behaved as a university graduate than boast of being one. That, however, is a matter of taste. Anyone who compares his present reply with the previous one will see that the castigation we gave him has made him give up slang and write the English invariably taught in the universities. Perhaps he has hitherto labored under the delusion that slang was good enough for Catholics, and now, finding they look upon it with a feeling of loathing, he thinks it desirable to be more choice. At any rate, the change has taken place. The article quoted elsewhere is couched in good English and cleverly written. It is the best we have seen in the Tablet for years, and we wish to compliment the writer on the adroitness and cleverness with which he has suggested to Protestants and Catholics that they ought to boycott this paper. A few years ago he called on the farmers of the Temuka and Geraldine districts to boycott us, because lie said we were advocating a policy that would make chem State serfs, so it is not the first time i he has tried to do us business injury. I This is a nice Christian spirit to exhibit in Holy "Week. Is this calculated to foster Christian charity and goodwill? He would crush us if he could, but the | farmers have not yet adopted his suggestion, and we shall be surprised if they do so now. We have alwaj's striven to do justice to Protestants and Catholics, i and what has brought upon us this quarrel is that we have frequently protested, in a priyate way, against the awful, terrible bigotry, intolerance, and abusiveuess of this ex-Protestant graduate being allowed to besmear the columns of the Tablet. That is the whole secret. The quarrel is personal, and has nothing to do with anything else. Any one who read the first article can see the venom of personal bitterness in it, and hence the whole thing. We like to live in harmony with all <eia.<* >&, «re recognise that other.) mny honestly differ iroJii iiiid we don't like to sua them abused.. We i.qej M' a * we have rendered a uervice deserving of j giafcitnde in making this university! graduate write decent English, and unless he is a wolf in sheep's clothing,—and it may be that he is—the lesson we hive taught him will cause him never to fo-get •niversity training again. We have • Hl * **-'■> find with his present article, no faUio Tv -o of the sentences are too except that c n „£d. \VV.e can admire long and too coi„ '»*.otide<i to injure i cleverness, even when i '-«»._ I us, but we cannot tolerate s>i,. '

now as regards the assertion that our article was sent from Temuka by one who asked the Tablet to reply to it. all we desire to say is that we do not believe it. The people interested in the mutter are all very sorry indeed that the Tablet ever published the article, for they think that it was its duty to set a good example to others, at any rate, in this season of the year.

As for the letter purporting to have been written by a Temuka man, it has simply been made up in the Tablet office in Duiiedin. It is an old trick with the Tablet to back itself up with annonymous letters like this, and we shall not be surprised if it does keep them up now for the next six months. No Temuka man wrote this letter. Temuka men have too much respect for themselves to do so. We challenge the Tablet to give the Temuka man's name. And now as for the Christchurch correspondent of the Tablet whose classic effusion appears elsewhere, it is a God-send to us. Only that we required it to show the cruel injustice of the Tablet we should not have published it, and we trust when our readers have heard our side of the story they will pardon us for troubling them with it. This correspondent was five years apo correspondent for the Tablet in Christ-

church. At the same time, the Welling- | ton Catholic Times kept a paid corres- J pondent in Temuka, who was also the Ternnka correspondent of the Tablet. Now this man stated in his letter to the Catholic Times that the Christchurch correspondent of the Tablet was a woman. This was all. He simply said she was a woman. Now this lady jumped to the conclusion that the editor of this paper was the writer of the letter in tho Catholic Times, and she published in the Tablet an attack which was almost word for word the same as that she has written now. The man who had called her a woman wrote to the Tablet stating that he himself had written the letter in the Catholic Times, and that wo had nothing to do with it. The Tablet refused to publish his letter. We then wrote to the Tablet denying having written the letter in the Catholic Times, but the Tablet refused to insert it. The consequence is that this Christchurch lady is, up to the present time, laboring under the delusion that we had the bad taste of calling her a woman. We have borne all this and a great many other wrongs in silence, and now, is it to be wondered at if we have turned to defend ourselves at last .' At about the same time the London Times refused to allow Mr John Redmond space to deny an accusation made against him, and the New Zealand Tablet denounced the Times' conduct as a cruel injustice. Just exactly what the London Times did to Mr Redmond the Tablet did to us, yet it prates about justice and injustice. This is the justice of a wolf in sheep's clothing. And now as for the lady's attack, it may all be summed up in the word "frog." We have always flattered ourselves with having been a favourite with the ladies, and the fact that a lady has looked upon us as a frog i 3 a cruel, crushing blow to our vanity. Perhaps, however, we have a right to feel thankful that this lady did not admire us in our younger days, or the consequences might have been more serious. In our younger days to have been called a frog by a lady would have had, perhaps, a serious effect on our life, but now it has only developed our religious instincts. We have inserted a new petition in our litany, and in our matutinal orisons we always pray " From such ladies 0 Lord deliver us." We could reply to this lady more effectively than we did to the Tablet, but if, as she says, we can never be a gentleman, we can, at least, behave like one and let her pass. When now she learns that she has been labouring under a delusion all this time,' and that her attack on us has been unjustifiable, her duty as a lady is to apologise. If, however, she will not do so, and she persists in taking a pride in such literature as she has favoured us with, by all means let her indulge in it. It may amuse her and it cannot do anyone else any harm. Last week we were a beggar on the back of a jackass, which, by the way, is a word to be found in every issue of the Tablet; this week we are a " frog in a ditch." Verily the Tablet is setting us a nice example in Holy Week ; but we are not bound to follow it, and we shall not. The Tablet talks about the commendations it has received for its patriotism, but it does not deny that it makes patriotism pay. We can tell the Tablet that the Temuka Leadeb was quoted in the House of Commons, and also in a book on Home Rule published in Dublin. The Tablet has published the attacks on us, but it will not allow the other side to be seen by its readers. We have published both sides, and people can judge for themselves. They can see that all our charges against the Tablet remain unanswered, and we are satisfied —more especially as we feel that we have done good in forcing the university graduate to use polite language. He will, however, adopt other tactics. He will manufacture anonymous letters, and keep them up for weeks ; but we shall not notice them in future. It is fortunate for us that nothing worse than that we are frog can be said of us. This gives us the whip hand.