THE TRUTH AT LAST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 17, 16 August 1889, Page 13

THE TRUTH AT LAST.

TO THE EDITOR N.Z. TABLET. SlB, — I have received by the last mail a copy of the Freeman's Journal, Dublin, of June 13, which contains the following letter purporting to emanate from yourself .—. — " The N.Z. Tablet Printing and Publishing Company, Limited, " Octagon, Dunedin, April 13th, 1889. •' To Most Rev, Dr. Moran, " My Dear Lobd Bishop, — At the desire of the Dunedin Committee, I enclose you an order for transmission to the Secretary of the National League in aid of the Parnell Defence Fund — details as below. " The other side in Weale's affair describe him as drinking and gambling, and leaving his wife to depend on the clergy although paid a high salary. . . .—I am, my dear Lord Bishop, very faithfully yours, John F. Pebbin." It is unnecessary for me to insist on the gravity of the charge contained in this letter, though I willingly recognise that the communication bears evidence on the face of it that it was of a purely private nature. I am also satisfied in my own mind that the letter must have been handed to the Freeman's Journal in error, and that it obtained admission to its columns only through the carelessness of someone or other of the staff. At the same time tbe Freevia?i's Journal has an extensive circulation in these colonies, where the publication of so libellous a statement above your signature is calculated to do me no little injury in circles where hitherto I have continued to enjoy the esteem of all whose good opinion is of any value, notwithstanding the inBidious attacks of opponents. I am, therefore, compelled to beg that you will give the statement, to the report of which you have put your name, an authoritative denial in the columns of your paper, by which means alone you will be able to check and undo in a measure the mischief your letter is calculated to work. At the same time, now that you have been the occasion of publicity being given to one Eide of the dispute which led to the severance of my connection with tbe Catholic Times, I shall ask your indulgence if I venture to trespass on your space to the extent of recording fuller particulars of the affair, which you will at once perceive are of real public interest. When in October, 1887, I accepted the editorship of the Catholic Thine a, in spite of the remonstrances of many friends who were, it \«ould now appear, bat too well acquainted with the promoters of the new paper and comprehended tbe full meaning of the unfortunate controversy which led to its foundation, it was with the determination to counteract as far as possible any designs such as its promoters were (unjustly, as I then thought) credited with, while loyally fulfilling my duties according to the terms of my agreement. I regret now to have to confess my error, and own to the existence of such designs — that, all protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, it was the distinct object of its promoters to run the Tablet out of the field, and destroy its influence within the limits of the archdiocese and of the diocese of Christchurch; and that, all outward show notwithstanding, it was planned for the direct purpose of making the National spirit subsidiary only to colonial sentiment. lam proud to know that I was successful in counteracting, to a very considerable extent, these aims ; and though I failed to exclude certain articles against the Tablet and the diocese of Dunedin, I succeeded, at any rate, in keeping the Catholic Times from being made the organ of a small cabal oi annual- Irish " respectability " in oppoeition to the large mass of the Irish National element in Wellington. In making these assertions I am anx'ous not to transcend by one iota the bordei -limits of strict justice, wherefore I am bound to exonerate His Grace the Archbishop from, full participation in the carrying out of these designs, which only fully matured after his departure for Rome. During the last eight months of my editorship of the Catholic Times it was systematically attempted to make me depart from the lines of the programme agreed to at the inceptiou of the paper. Irish topics were no longer to form the subject-matter of editorial articles, the weekly budget of Irisj news was to be considerably curtailed, the local branch of the Irish National League was to be ignored, the Catholic Literary Institute, when not ignored, condemned — such were the instructions constantly poured into the office, bolstered up by inspired letters of complaint, which, if genuine, bear telling testimony to the success and ttliciency of the work of denationalisation which has been carried on in tbe archdiocese of Wellington during the past few years. My persistent refusal to act upon these instructions, and on other occasions to write to order, led to the rupture that eventuated in my dismissal from the post of editor, after my declining a pressing invitation to resign. This will be a sufficient outline of the dispute for my purpose, which is to give your readers an insight into the motives which have actuated the promoters of the CatJwlic Times throughout, and quite consistently in the matter of my dismissal. In conclusion, I must beg of you to privately communicate to me the name of the informant on whose authority your statement to Liq Lordship the riishop of Dunedin was founded, in view of legal proceedings pending in connection with my dismissal from the editorship of the Catholic Tunis, when I shall be prepared to repeat on oath every statement I Lave made in this letter, and will undeitake to establish a number of other circumstances corroborative of tt esc statement?, and far more discreditable than any I have yet made public— l am, etc., J. Ctbil M. Wealk. Sydney, N.S.W., July 21, 1889. P.S. — Since writing the above, I have been sent a copy of the Freeman's Journal, Dublin, of June 14, in which his Lordship the Bishop of Dunedin publishes the following letter of explanation :—: —