Humors of a Controversy

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 37, 10 September 1903, Page 18

Humors of a Controversy

■ What somebody has called the ' divine saving grace ' of humor has been by no means absent from the controversy between Dean Burke and the Anglican Bishop of

Dunedin. Perhaps we may classify as unconscious theK| humor which was imported into the discussion by ki s « Lordship's bewildering changes of title. He began, in 11 our columns, by correctly styling himself ' Anglican Bis-Jfl] hop of Dunedin. In the • Otago Daily Times,' some days f' later, he appeared for a brief moment under the newly- [ found designation, • Catholic Bishop of Dunedin. 1 His ] Lordship next 'verted to ' S.T., Dunedin. Of the conscious and intended humor that marked the controversy, a few good flashes appeared in Dean Burkes letters, while a pleasant and merry strain was supplied by another clever Catholic writer whose brief letters also displayed a keen insight into the merits of the discussion. The new title assumed by his Lordship elicited ' from the writer last referred to a fresh and witty criticism on the controversy ' between the Catholic Bishop of Dunedin and the Protestant Dean of Southland.' We rather fancy that his Lordship's abandonment of the title c Catholic Bishop of Dunedin ' was not wholly unconnected with this gentle but persistent raillery. Horace laid down the principle : ' Ridentem dicere verum quid vetat ? '— why should not a man set forth the truth although there be a smile upon his face ? Among the wise men of the world we rightly raink the conscious humorists.