THE HIBERNIAN ‘OATH’: AN ORANGE DISCLAIMER

New Zealand Tablet, 23 July 1914, Page 34

THE HIBERNIAN ‘OATH’: AN ORANGE DISCLAIMER

In a recent issue the official publication of the Orange Society disfigured its columns and insulted the intelligence of its readers by printing a copy of the silly and sanguinary production which has been hawked around in parts of Ireland and England, and also in New Zealand as the ‘ oath ’ taken by the members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Ireland. We have already sufficiently exposed this stupid forgery, and have conclusively refuted the calumny by publishing the actual and only declaration taken by the A.O.H. The ‘ oath ’ was printed in the Orange paper simply and baldly as ‘ The Hibernians’ Oath.’ Appearing thus in a New Zealand paper, in an article which contained not the faintest reference to any other country, the ordinary reader would naturally take it that the imputation of taking this gory ‘ oath ’ was being laid against the Hibernian Society in New Zealand. The H.A.C.B. Society is a registered society ; and registered societies are empowered by the law to take proceedings for libel, in the same way as an individual may, when slanderous statements are published regarding their organisation. The District Executive of the H.A.C.B. Society in Auckland accordingly placed, the matter in the hands of their solicitors, who in turn communicated with the directors of the company which is responsible for the issue of the publication in question. The directors at once expressed their regret, and promised to make the necessary amende. The following is a copy of the secretary’s letter: ‘Wellington, N.Z., June 21, 1914. ‘ Messrs. Devore, Martin, and Prendergast, ‘ Auckland. * Gentlemen, —Your letter of the 19th inst. has been duly received and carefully considered by my directors. They desire mo to say that they regret very much that the paragraph should have been supposed to refer to the Hibernian Society of New Zealand. A reference to paragraph 2 on page 14 of the issue of the JV at ion to which you refer will satisfy your clients that nothing of the sort was thought of. The directors also desire mo to add that they will, in the next issue of our paper, publish a statement which will make this quite clear. This statement will be given a like prominence to that given to the paragraph to which your clients take exception. You will probably agree that any further publication would not be likely to serve any good purpose, and would only be the means of disseminating the paragraph more widely.— On behalf of the directors, I am, yours, etc., ‘(Signed) George Petherick, Secretary .’ * Under the heading, * A Disclaimer,’ this promise was duly fulfilled in the last issue of the paper in question. After mentioning that in its previous issue it had published, on page 3, an article headed, ‘ The Hibernians' Oath,’ it continues: ‘Owing to an oversight, wo omitted to state at the end of the article that it had been extracted from a British paper, but this fact was stated in a separate paragraph on page 14. Lest, however, any of our readers failed to observe the explanatory paragraph, we desire to say that the article in question did not in any way refer to The Hibernian Catholic Benefit Society of New Zealand or its members, which is an institution registered under “The Friendly Societies’. Act.” We make this explanation in justice to The Hibernian Catholic Benefit Society of New- Zealand.’ It is highly satisfactory that, thanks to the prompt action of the Executive, the Orange paper should have been compelled publicly to disclaim

the odious imputation which its article was certainly calculated to convey. How the editor of the paperwho is. a Christian minister, of some educational attainments could imagine that any cause could be sustained or advantaged by tho publication of such unmitigated rubbish as this bogus ‘ oath/ or how he can permit himself to be a party to this crude and illiterate propaganda, is one of those things which the reasonable and intelligent citizen can never hope to understand, Iho same issue of the paper which contained the Hibernians’ ‘‘Oath”’ contained also, in its leading columns, some grave imputations against the members and heads of the Catholic Federation ; and these, too, are now engaging legal attention. The editor is not doing himself justice in engaging in this unworthy work of fomenting bigotry and stirring up religious strife in this young country ; and if he continues in this policy, he will find, as others have found, that the way of tho transgressor is hard.