A NEW ZEALAND CATHOLIC BENEFIT SOCIETY.

New Zealand Tablet, 3 July 1913, Page 31

A NEW ZEALAND CATHOLIC BENEFIT SOCIETY.

To the Editor. v ' ; 5 Sir,— Darby deserves all praise for the able manner in which he has put forward the claims of Catholic New Zealanders to a benefit society of their own. A benefit society in a country like this should not be tied to any particular nationality,. and it is painfully ludicrous in the initiation of a member to charge Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, and others to ‘ cherish the memory of Ireland.’ Irishmen are supposed to be so quickwitted that I am surprised that they don’t see the incongruity of all this. We have nothing against Ireland or Irishmen, but why should, a New Zealand society require the name of a far-distant country to prop it up? I would be in favor of calling our new, society the New Zealand Catholic Benefit Association, and the different branches could be called after saints.—l am, etc., . r Francis de Silva. Cook street, Auckland, June 20. " To the Editor. Sir, —Your esteemed correspondent, Dean Darby, has drawn down upon himself the ire of official Hibernianism, simply for urging that which the Church in every age taught, viz., the universality of her doctrines. A Catholic society, in these young countries, where all nationalities-are represented and open to admission, should have a more universal name. Why not Catholic alone? True, the Hibernians have endeavored to foster the spirit of Faith and Fatherland, but the new gospel of Irish nationality is a union of all creeds and classes. It is claimed by some that the Hibernians are a great aid to the Church. Will , they be less so with more enlarged ideas of its boundless charity and the universal brotherhood of all nationalities?—! am, etc -j Shane O’Dala.