THE WELLINGTON ELECTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 14, 22 January 1892, Page 15

THE WELLINGTON ELECTION.

TO THE EDITOE N.Z. TABLET.

Blß,— Long before this reaches you, you will have known the result of the Wellington election, and I am sure you will have been pained to know the attitude some of our Catholics have taken in regard to it. I bare now before me all the particular issues of yonr paper relating to this diction. I admire the editorials. They impress one with that trne and pure sincerity which belongs to the advocacy of any just cause. From my boyhood I have admired the Tablet as a paper breathing and living on everything good, noble and Catholic. Very different from a would-be Catholic paper. How Catholics who take the Tablet and give public expression to their opinions in it consider themselves consistent with their present action in this Wellington election is beyond my comprehension. Without the shadow of donbt, Mi McLean owes his election to the Catholics of Wellington. Had they abstained from voting, Mr Bell would certainly have been returned. Our fellow-Catholics boast of it. Of those who voted, the greater number voted for McLean, exasperated at the action of certain would-be somebodies, bnt who do not and never will possess the confidence of a single Catholic, and who always cause dissent wherever they interfere. Fancy a prominent bell-toppered Catholic with a Bell ticket in front of bis belltopper laying down the law and advocating Bell's cause at the polling-booth against his more numerous poorer bnt rashly exasperated fellow-Catholic McLeanites ? Saints, have you wept at the sight 1 Irishmen, how have you restrained yourselves from hooting so contemptible an existence? More to your credit that you have done so. Sir, the advice of the Tablet would have been acted upon in the main were it not for those persons, some of whom write, aye, and append their names, advocating the doctrine you have propounded, and the real solution of this education question. When we find such men as " Gael " and his brother-in-law in oar community, men who do not act up to their principles, defeat must be the lot of your noble propositions. Would that your noble paper were located here, the effect would be magic ! How many Catholics in Wellington take your paper. Few in comparison to their number. Many of them are too poor to do so, therefore they have been left almost in ignorance of your advice. Were it possible to form an association to distribute in pamphlet your grand editoriald and paragraphs bearing on the education question and other important questions effecting Catholics, a great and good work would be accomplished. I have read with great pleasure Mi- Maskell's letter in your last issue. It contains a lot of home truths and thrusts. I would submit the above proposal to his careful consideration, feeling ■ore the good would outweigh the difficulty and expense. Hoping I have not trespassed on your valuable space. — I am, etc. Wellington, January 16, 1892. Memorabilia.