A PROTEST IN AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 50, 15 April 1898, Page 6

A PROTEST IN AUCKLAND.

Another letter dealing w ith the same subject appeared in the Auckland titur of April 4. The writer, '-.Tustitia," who writes under the same date, af.er having quoted Lord lianfurly's reply to the Orange address, has the following on his Excellency's references to the " old traditions ' and " the d.irknens of the past " :—": — " In the history of Colonial Governors no parallel can be found to the foregoing. No less than four Royal Commissions have condemned this 'loyal' lnstitution. In the thirties it conspired to put upon the throne the Duke of Cumberland, and to set aside Princess (now Queen) Victoria. Are these the ' traditions ' our Governor 'is glad to know ' have been introduced into this democratic country ? In 1860 the Prince of Wales declined to in any way recognise this (Institution.' It i> proscribed in Canada, and in 1882 the Dominion Parliament rejectee! a bill to legalise the association. Within the last two years a relative of Lord Kanfurly's (Mr. V. Knox, M.P.) has successfully, by aid of Parliament, removed the civil disabilities of a majority of his constituents in the City of Derry, m the face of the opposition of those whom ' the iife long knowledge' of our Governor would lead us to believe were the most tolerant of men. Lord Dufferin (an Ulster Protestant). Governor-General of Canada, replying at Toronto to an address on his retirement from office, from a kindred body to that which addressed our Governor at Dunedin, said : 'No one can have watched without feelings of terror the recent feuds and religious animosities, from which, for many a long year, we have been comparatively free. Now, gentlemen, this is a most serious matter. Its import cannot be exaggerated, and I would beseech you and every Canadian in the land who exercises any influence amid the circle of his acquaintance — nay every Canadian woman, whether mother, wife, sister or daughter, to strain every nerve, to exert every faculty they possess, to stifle and eradicate this hateful and abominable root of bitterness from amongst us. Gentlemen, I have had a terrible experience in these matters. I have seen one of the greatest and most prosperous towns of Ireland— the city of Belfast— hopelessly given over, for an entire week, into the hands of two contending religious bodies. I have gone into the hospital and beheld the dead bodies of young men in the prime of life lying stark and col 1 upon the hospital floor ; tie delicate forms of innocent women writhing in agony upon the hospital beds, and every one of these struck down by an unknown bullet, fired by those with whom they had no personal quarrel, towards whom they felt no animosity, and rrom whom, had they encountered them in the ordinary intercoms of life, they would probably have received every mark of kindness and goodwill. But where these tragedies occurred, senseless and wicked as were the occasions which produced then, th^-re had long existed between the contending parties traditions of animosity and ill-will, and the memory of ancient grievance-. But what can be more Cain-like, more insane, than to import into this country, unsullied as it is by any evil record of civil strife— a stainle.-s paradise, fresh and bright from the hands of ita Maker, where all have been freely admitted upon equal terms— the bloodthirsty strife, and brutal quarrels of the Old World / Be wise, therefore, in time, I say, while it is still time, for it is the property of these hateful quarrels to feed on their own excesses.' " Want ot t-pa-e forbids me quoting further from this speech of the great Ambassador. Enough, howevtr, has been given to show in what light L-ird Dufferin views these insensate quarrels which ever follow in the wake of the Orango Society. Applicable to the Dominion, in like manner every word and sentiment of Lord Duffenn's applies to our lovely island home. They are the views of a statesman with lofty imperial ideas acquired in many lands when in the service ot his countiy, and far removed beyond the circumscribed sphere of the paroohial and par.y politician.— l am, etc., - Auckland, April 4th, 1 81)3." '• Justitia."