SCHOOL COMMITTEE ELECTIONS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 17, 29 April 1909, Page 663

SCHOOL COMMITTEE ELECTIONS

A TRICKY MISREPRESENTATION AT HAWERA

Some anti-Catholic capital was sought to he made out of this week's school committee elections at Hawera. A letter from a ' friend ' was published in the local Siar by Mr. E. Dixon (a Methodist local preacher and local representative- of the Education Board) complaining that ' a letter has been recently issued by a Hawera solicitor to a large number of Roman Catholics urging them to attend meetings for the election of School Committees and to endeavor to place on the committees men who will be favorable to the appointment on the Board of Education of another Hawera .solicitor.' Mr. Dixon's 'friend' professed to find in this something dark and sinister, and warned the public that. ' unless some immediate step is taken there will be a danger that partial control of our education system will fall into the hands of those who are endeavoring to undermine it.'

.The 'other Hawera solicitor' referred to is -Mr. O'Dea. The Very Rev. Father Power, the local pastor, then took an effective hand in the proceedings. In a letter to the Star of April 24 -he pointed out that his relations with Mr. Dixon, for tie past eleven years, had been jurist friendly; he referred to the high' "intellectual attainments of Mr. ODea, whom he had known for the past fifteen years, 3mt was not aware till April 23 that the latter was a candidate for a seat on the Education Board. Father Power then continues in the following outspoken and straightforward style :— ' I have just seen for the first .time, and only in the Star, the letter written by a brother solicitor to some friends, bespeaking their interest for Mr. ODea, and I have' been assured that that letter was sent, not "to a large' number of Roman Catholics," but to twenty-one persons in all, of whom only five were Catholics and not one "of these a Roman. Now, having cleared the ground, and having read the correspondence carefully once more, I give it as my candid opinion that' it is . not in the exercise of sound judgment that Mr. Dixon's friend, whose name we do not know, has" been able to see in the circular letter an attack on New Zealand's system of education, and an

attempt to take partial control of it by "those" (whoevex tnese ma 7 be) "who are endeavoring to undermine it.'? lam quite 'satisfied that any person of average intelligence who reads carefully the circular in question will see in the commentary on it -by Mr. Dixon's correspondent, endorsed to my surprise by Mr. Dixon himself, only an exhibition of that hysteria which unfortunately crops -up here at election times, which appeals for want of better arguments to sectarian bigotry, and which is entirely unworthy of those -who aspire to a position that demands imperatively the exercise of sound judgment. The cause of education would be materially served by Catholics anihitioning to sit on School Committees and School' Boards with, their non-Catholic fellow-countrymen, and those who raise the sectarian cry when Catholics become candidates, for any office are wittingly or unwittingly the greatest enemies of their country. My constant -advice -has been: Let every candidate for political, municipal, or educational favors be taken on his merits ; and my firm conviction is that Catholics least of all need that advice.'

The Avriter of the circular (Mr. B. McCarthy) writes in fclie same issue of the : Star, stating that he ' through personal friendship for Mr. ODea, apart from any religious motive, issued the circular to twenty-one personal acquaintances (members of School Committees), whose names lam prepared " to submit for your perusal.. On noting that a sectarian issue was sought to be raised I looted through the list of names again, and now find that only five out of the twenty-one are members of the Catholic Church. I have known Mr. ODea from boyhood, and consequently claim that J was justified in endeavoring to advance his candidature. In view of the above facts I would ask Mr. Dixon to be generous enough to withdraw the imputation with' reference to -religious bias.'