"ROME AND REDS."

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18427, 10 March 1922, Page 6

"ROME AND REDS."

lESSONS FROM AUSTRALIA. ADDRESS BY REV. HOWARD ELLIOTT. There was a crowded attendance at st. raw's Hall last evening, wuen the Rev. Howard Elliott, national organiser oi the Protes.aut Political Association gave an aadress, his suoiect being “What Rome and the Reds nave done tor Australia.” The chairman, Mr. R, B, Horsley, expressed graiincalion at the large attendance. It showed, that the people of Wanganui had not lost interest in the P.P.A. (Hear, near). in his opening remarks the Rev. KLiiott said that there was now a teen and intelligent body ot people tn New Zealand determined on upholding and maintaining constitutional authority. The P.P.A movement was spreading rapidly throughout the Dominion. At the commencement of a scathing indictment of the Red Labour administrations in Queensland and New South Wales, Mr. Elliott pointed out that proximity caused the influence of happenings in Australia on thought and life of other parts of the Empire, to be felt sooner in New Zealand than anywhere else. The experience of Queensland and New South Wales was an indication of what could happen in New Zealand it men in this country who held views similar to those of the Australian Red leaders were given an opportunity of obtaining political power. Another reason to guard against Red Labour, the speaker claimed, was that in Queensland the extreme Labour Party only got into power by reason of the Roman Catholic

Church. I The difference between Red Labour and real Labour was referred to. -Mr. Elliott said that no word he would utter was intended to challenge the right of real Labour men, the real unionists, to a place in politics, and nothing he would say might be interpreted as being opposed to the legitimate claims of Labour in this country (Applause.) Speaking of the evils of caucus Government, Mr. Elliott pointed out that it was not the men who were elected to Parliament that ruled, but really an irresponsible body outside Parliament, the Political Labour Executive, which in Queensland and New South Wales consisted largely of men who had failed to get into Parliament. Therefore the first thing for people to guard against when voting for Rome and the Reds was getting into their heads the idea that the men they sent to Parliament were going to govern Mr. Elliott proceeded to examine Queensland and New South Wales Governments on lour tests that might be applied to any government, name-

ly. financial, legislative, social and moral; and be showed that judged I on each and all of these they had failed. He dealt with each aspect in detail, showing how an orgy of expenditure had increased indebtedness and taxation and made the condition Of working men in Queensland and New South Wales worse than that of working men in any other Stale of Australia or in New Zealand. In Queensland legislation repudiating contracts with English capitalists had destroyed the credit of the State and the Government had been unable to raise a further loan within the Empire. The Queensland Parliament had passed legislation dismissing all the Supreme Court judges—because they had disallowed the legality of certain measures the Government had enacted. Tbis meant the end of the freedom oi the Supreme Court from political influence. Mr Elliott also pointed out how men who cried "down with the capitalists” and parasites gathered the dollars to them .when they got into power As an instance, Mr. Dooley, a working tailor, considered himself worth £11445 per annum and three guineas a day travelling expenses as Premier of NewSouth Wales. Queensland had such a rotten reputation that they could not borrowon the London market. So bad were the conditions in Queensland that at Townsville one seventh of the population was getting relief. Capital was being driven out of the country and taxation was being increased. The Governments ot New South Wales and Queensland stood condemned in the judgment of all rightthinking people. The argument to be deduceu was for Protestants to be . alert as there was allegedly a union between Rome and the Rens, but the only way they could get into power would be through the apathy or the Protestants. He appealed to Protestants to realise tnat although much had been done, mere was still much to do. The P.P.A. offered an opportunity for united action for the benefit of New Zealand and the Empire. (Applause). One of the things he looked forward to on his visit to Australia was to meet Miss Partridge (Sister Ligouri) A tact that greatiy impressed him was that during the whole 2J hours she sat with her feet and knees together, bauds clasped and head slightly lowered—a picture of the disciplined nun Asked why she had not told the w-hole story in the court proceedings against Bishop Dwyer, she said, ‘ How- could I with the evil eye of him on me?” Explaining this, she said she had then only recently left the convent, after being in it since she was seven years of age, and had never read a newspaper in her life until she saw her own case reported, ana no book except the Book of Devotions. She believed that the Bishop iepresented God and that the priests could do no wrong. The nuns were taught that the greatest thing in life was obedience, and believed that if they offended- they could be sent to a place where the marrow would boil in their bones like bubbling water. She believed that the Bishop, by his curse, could send her to everlasting hell, and she could not speak. The speaker blamefl the met. who were managing her case for allowing certain facts to be -impressed If she haa told the whole story there would have been such a case for the opening of convents and their regular inspection that no Government in Australia cpuld have disobeyed. He saw Sister Ligouri the day after her return from kidnapping, and, he gave the particulars of it as she told them. When, on the morning following the kidnapping, after signing a paper affirming her adherance to the Roman Catholic Church, she was allowed to go out for a walk with her brother and another man, she desired to remain in the streets on the chance of being recognised and

enabled to escape. Her companions pressed her to go into the public gardens, and had she done so she would have disappeared, as a launch was waiting to take her up the Parramatta River to the Papal prison. The i otten Government of New South Wales had refused to prosecute the men responsible for the kidnapping Until Miss Partridge wrote or told the true story, Mr, Elliott said she was in danger of being kidnapped or disappearing, but if they knew that sipry was going to be told in its simple truth they would leave her alone. In conclusion, the speaker made an impassioned appeal for the inspection of convents in. New Zealand, so that women in them might be free to leave or remain as they wished.