TIMARU ELECTION.

New Zealand Tablet, 23 November 1911, Page 2357

TIMARU ELECTION.

to the editor. Sir, —It was with the greatest indignation I read the letter on Messrs. Craigie and Angland in your issue of 16th inst. Mr. Craigie is the most liberal and fairminded Protestant man in our district. On every occasion of importance in connection with our Church he is always at hand. Indeed, for the recent opening of the new church he came specially from Wellington. He could not have refused to be at the Orange celebration. I feel the whole thing very keenly, and all my Catholic friends are equally annoyed.—l am, etc., Daniel Doyle.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,As a subscriber to your paper of long standing I must express regret and astonishment at the absolutely uncalled for attack published in your columns over the signature ' Irishman' on our town's chief magistrate, Mr. James Craigie, M.P. I hold no brief for this gentleman, who is well able to take care of himself, but as a Catholic I feel obliged to give the direct negative to every charge made against him. The truth of the inference to be drawn from the letter that the Catholics are supporting Mr. Angland may be judged from the fact that at this gentleman's meeting in the Catholic school only five persons, representing two families, turned up. This is the first time since the school was built that a political candidate had to abandon a meeting called for at the school. Hoping that a letter raising the sectarian flag will never again be seen in your columns. —I am, etc., A Timaru Thirty Years' Resident. Timaru, November 20, 1911.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —A letter appeared in the last issue of your respected paper signed ' An Irishman,' advocating the candidature of Mr. Wm. Angland as representative for Timaru at the forthcoming election. While admiring your correspondent in his effort to put forward the claims of Mr. Angland whom he describes as an advocate of the rights of Irishmen and a supporter of a capitation grant to Catholic schools, and while also recognising the various positions in public bodies that Mr. Angland has held, I think that your correspondent's ardour has vitiated his judgment when he drew comparisons between Mr. Angland and his political opponent, Mr. Craigie. ' Mr. Angland is head and shoulders above Mr. Craigie in every form and respect,' says your correspondent. I can assure you, Sir, in making this statement, he has drawn on the bank of his imagination and the draft will be returned dishonored. Your correspondent, wishing to get home on the green, and arouse Catholic voters, ' rings in ' that Mr. Craigie presided at an Orange function. Does 'An Irishman' forget that Mr. Craigie, as Mayor, is chief magistrate of Timaru over all classes, and that he could not diplomatically refuse any section of the community his services. Does he forget that Mr. Craigie met the Home Rule delegates at the railway station and gave them a public reception at the Municipal Chambers, and at the meeting avowed his firm belief in Home Rule? Does he forget that he was an honored guest amongst the dignitaries of the Church at the opening of our beautiful new church recently; and does he forget that Mr. Craigie has considerably enhanced the magnificent church property in Timaru by the beautiful avenue of trees ('Craigie Avenue') which he initiated and kept for three years and presented to the Borough Council as a handsome gift and on which the church property abuts? Does he forget that he also welcomed as a

cosmopolitan Mayor, Dolores, Clara Butt, the Salvation Army Band, and with a number of respectable burgesses welcomed Marie Narelle, ' the Queen of Irish Song,' to Timaru in a most cordial manner, the latter bringing upon him a lot of bigoted comments in the correspondence columns of the local papers? At no important Catholic function has he been absent; and when unavoidably away, his sympathetic telegram was ever there, to wish God-speed to the function. Now, sir, no word of mine would appear in your paper were it not that the Tablet is the Catholic organ, and its influence and prestige go a long way, and when ' An Irishman ' wishes to strike below the belt a gentleman who has always been a friend to Catholics and Irishmen I raise my humble voice in protest and candidly tell your correspondent that he had better leave the sleeping dog of bigotry lie or that dog may get up and bite, and Mr. Angland may have to say save me from my friends.'—l am, etc., Grateful Irishman. November 20.

to the EDITOR.

Sir, —We were deeply pained to see in last week's issue of your paper a letter over the signature of ' An Irishman' the avowed purpose of which was to damage and slander the character of Mr. James Craigie M.P. for Timaru. Here Mr. Craigie's upright integrity and devoted public spirit are widely recognised and appreciated. He is the district's parliamentary representative, is now in his tenth year as Mayor of the Borough, and has among numerous other public offices been chairman of the Timaru Harbor Board and member of the Hospital Board. In every position he has added dignity to the office and achieved success in the many progressive works undertaken. He it was as Mayor who brought forward and pushed through the town's underground drainage, electric lighting, erection of public abattoirs and municipal offices, Caroline Bay improvement, and water reticulation schemes. As a citizen he has contributed generously to every local good work, among his gifts being the planting, fencing, and upkeep for three years, of an avenue of trees, ' Craigie Avenue,' the future boulevard of Timaru, on which all the Catholic Church buildings, except the boys' school, front. As a member of the district, he has done great work, two inducing the Railway Department to pay £IOOO for ten acres of sea reclaimed land and obtaining for the borough Government loans aggregating £120,000 at an average of 3i per cent with a sinking fund of -} per cent, added, being alone sufficient to show how he looks after the interests of the district. These facts are all fully recognised here, but as the Tablet's readers are to be found all over New Zealand, it is necessary to state them else our co-religion-ists outside Timaru would think that we were, after all, defending a man who to judge by your correspondent must be a recent arrival from some den of religious bigotry and intolerance. To damage Mr. Craigie 'lrishman' made five statements about him which for pure malice, perversion of fact, and positive untruths would take a good deal to beat. What we Catholics have to consider —if the Catholics of the Dominion were to act on a spirit of boycott and intolerance as suggested in your correspondent's letter could the Protestant New Zealander say to us, as Mr. Swift McNeill said of Irish Catholics, 1 I would with implicit confidence trust to their honor and truth the liberties of Protestantism and my own liberty in life.' We sincerely do not think so.' Now as to your correspondent's statements. No. 1. ' Very few Catholics are supporters of Mr. Craigie.' This is pure bluff. Mr. Craigie has some of the leading Catholics of this district on his committee. Last election he polled heavily in the .Catholic districts he has done nothing since to lose their confidence (quite the reverse), and more Catholics are on his committee now than three years ago.

No. 2. * Mr. Craigie when the question re religious education was put to him by Bishop Grimes at the Catholic school shuffled out of it.' Absolutely untrue. No question was put to Mr. Craigie by his Lordship Bishop Grimes. No. 3. ‘Mr., Craigie presided at the'Orange celebrations.’

A wilful perversion of fact. Mr. Craigie as Mayor of the town took the chair at a purely concert programme on the 12th July. It was connected only indirectly with the actual celebrations. Mr. Craigie has presided and spoken sympathetically at the following : Farewell to Rev. Father Tubman on trip to Old Country, great reception on his return. Laying the foundation stone of our new church, and the official opening of the buildings, coming specially from Wellington for this last. He has also given official receptions to the Irish envoys—Mr. Joseph Devlin on his historic visit, and Mr. Donovan recently, and furthermore he spoke at each of their meetings in favor of the reasonableness, justice, and necessity of Home Rule for Ireland. It may be added that Mr. Craigie presided at a great banquet and official reception to the Hibernian delegates in 1904. No. 4. ' They (Catholics) are not doing justice to the position if they support an admirer and supporter of Orangeism.' A contemptible slander. The facts in answer to No. 3 are sufficient for this, and the further fact that an Orange organ has just called the attention of its loyal readers to Mr. Craigie's leanings to Rome. No. 5. 'Mr. Angland is head and shoulders over Mr. Craigie in every form and respect.' Every man is perfect to his friends. Mr. Craigie's positions occupied and works are as. before stated. Mr. Angland's on his admirer's showing consists of being member and chairman of the Pleasant Point High School Committee (from April 1896, to March, 1897 'it was made a high school in 1905), member of the Harbor Board (defeated last election), and member of the Borough Council. In conclusion we may say that ■ Catholics' rights do not require to be defended on the athletic arena. ' Catholic schools will never receive State aid if they have to wait for a 'Party of Independents' elected on that issue only to grant it to them. Nor do the undersigned think it is possible to get a representative more able and willing to get for the Catholics of this country fair play and justice than Mr. James Craigie. Two Timaru Catholics and Tablet Readers Since First Issue. November 18. [We are asked to —what is the factthat the above letter is forwarded by two prominent Catholics/ accompanied by the statement that they are prepared to vouch for every assertion made. A few lines of comment on these letters will be found in another column.—Ed. N.Z.T.]