THE MAYORAL ELECTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 345, 28 November 1879, Page 14

THE MAYORAL ELECTION.

In his speech at the close of the poll on Wednesday evening, Mr. Fish, the successful candidate, is reported to have said that, " He was perfectly certain that, had that leader not appeared in the Tablet, he would not have secured the majoiity he had done that day, nor would so large a number of citizens have polled as had done — a considerable number more than polled last year." We believe that this statement is perfectly true, and are glad to know that so feared is the Tablet that merely to shake it in the face of bigotry is sufficient to rouse the folly and bigotry of a large portion of our fellow-citizens to frenzy pitch. No greater homage could be paid to our consistency and lo_\ alty to truth and justice.j ustice. We knew that our publishing the article alluded to would be turned to his own purposes by the man who, in all his election contests, never failed to make use of the powerful lever of [religious bigotry, who, in his contest against Mr. Griffin, roused the No Popery cry, as in the late election he raised the No Spiritualist cry. But we had a duty to discharge, a principle to maintain, and we did both fearlessly.

We did not oppose Mr. Fish on religious grounds, because he is a Protestant. We did not do as he did in the cases of Mr. Griffin and Mr. Walter — point to his religious views as a disqualification for the office of Mayor. But we opposed him because he had been in the habit of introducing religion into political and municipal elections, and because he has been the offensive and strenuous enemy of justice to the Catholic body on the education question, insisting that they shall be compelled not only to pay for the godless education of others, but that they shall also be compelk'l to send their children to godless schools, wherever their poverty, induced by monstrously unjust taxation, shall render them unable to establish a Catholic school. Bat if anything were wanting to justify our action, it is

to be found in the speech made by Mr. Fish on the eve of the polling day. Here are his words, and mark them well, "If he was correctly informed, and he believed he was, the editors of both papers (Saturday Advertiser and Tablet) were gentlemen who were apostate recreants from the faith of their fathers." This is the language of a vulgar and uncultivated mind, or of either an idiot or a madman, and not the language becoming in a candidate for the civic chair of a city of twenty-five thousand people made up of men of all denominations. Nothing further is necessary to show how wise we have been in our opposition to Mr. Fish ; and our conviction is that his election is a discredit to this city of Dunedin.