A Misstatement Nailed.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 21, 22 May 1902, Page 15

A Misstatement Nailed.

Thb following letter from the Most Rev. Dr. O'Dwyer, Bißhop of Limerick, appeared in a recent issue of the Ir>sh Times :—: —

In a rather prominent place in your issue of Monday, March 24, you print the following paragraph :—: — 'The Record last week drew attention to some extraordinary statistics which appear in the Missionrs Catholics- for 1901, and which are supplied by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. According to this document the Roman Catholic population in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand has grown during the past five years from 3,008,399 to 4,507,980. But the Rev. John Dixou, of Balmain West, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald produces figures from the census taken a year ago, showing that the whole population of Australia and New Zealand is only 4,555,803, and of these the Roman Catholics number 910,880. There iB, therefore a difference only of 3,591,100 souls between the state-

ment sent in by the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical authorities and the official records published by the statisticians of the several Btates of Australia. — Church of Ireland Gazette.'

Of course, your meaning in giving circulation to this charge, without taking the tronble to verify it, as that of the Church of Ireland^ Gazette, from which you copied it, and of the Record, where it seems to have been invented, is plainly to exhibit the Congregation of Propaganda, which is one of the most important organisations in the Catholic Church, and is composed of men of the very highest eminence, as recklessly and grossly misrepresenting the number of Catholics in the particular part of its jurisdiction to whicli this paragraph refers. Whether you will think that any reparation is due to the Propaganda or to" the Irish Catholics for so insulting a suggestion I do not know, bufc I trust you will allow me to inform your readers that the charge in question is, in plain language, a deliberate falsehood.

I have the book Mistiones Catholics for 1901 before me. It contains no such statement as this which you quote. On page 587 it gives the number of Catholics in each diocese of Australia and Tasmania, and then at the foot of the column the total, whioh is 708,770. It then adds ' Incolje in Australia et Tasmania sunt, 3,789,600.' At page 609 it gives the number of Catholics in each of the four dioceses of New Zealand, the total of which comes to 97,030, and the ' incolae ' of these same four dioceses are given aa 718,380. That is, the total number of Catholics in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, as given in the Missiones Catholica for 1901, ia 805,800. How then did the Record or the Church of Ireland Gazette state that the number is given as 4,507,980. And all of you try to stir the indignation of true Protestants at ' the extraordinary statistics which appear in the Missiones Catholicce for 1901, and which are supplied by the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda of the Faith ? '

If you just add together the two numbers given above aa representing the 'incolae' aa distinguised from the ' Catholici,' in the Missiones Catholicce you will come upon an interesting coincidence. ' Incolaj ' in Australia and Tasmania ... 3,789,600 ' Incolai ' in the four dioceses of New Zealand 718,380 Total ' incolse ' ... ... 4,507,980 Now. thia is the exact figure which the Record and Church of Ireland Gazette charge the Propaganda with giving as the number of Catholic? Can it be possible that these people did not know the meaning of the word ineolse ' ? Oa.the very page from which they quote it is dintmgui-hed from 'Catholioi.' Yet unless on this plea of gross ignorance of this kind I can see no escape rrom the conclusion that these writers deliberately misrepresented the official statements of the organ of Propaganda for the purpose of discrediting a most important institution in the Catholic Church.