The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1915. A LIBELLER BROUGHT TO BOOK

New Zealand Tablet, 26 August 1915, Page 33

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1915. A LIBELLER BROUGHT TO BOOK

fVERAGE fanatics have, like sharks, cold hearts, big gapes, and no brains worth speaking about. Democritus put out his eyes so that he might the better think. But serious thinking is as inconsistent with bigotry as kindly feeling is foreign to its. savage nature. It is a keen hunter, and v like the shark, ranges widely and swallows with omnivorous and eager gulp every digestible and indigestible fish, flesh, and putrid seacarrion that comes its way. Your no-Popery bmot has, in other words, a voracious appetite for ‘ the monstrous and impossible, from romances about, walled-up nuns to the coarse brutalities of nonCatholic gaol-birds and fallen women like Maria Monk and Margaret Shepherd. Having glutted his appetite,, and, to change the metaphor, gathered his ammunition^..

the fanatic cannot 'be happy till he has discharged it. He seeks the first opportunity to disseminate his baseless lies, and enters upon an organised or personal campaign of vilification, of which attacks upon ladiesgentle, defenceless nuns for preferenceconstitute an invariable feature. He— or —is not ashamed to act quite literally upon the ironic advice embodied in the scathing words of Newman: Therefore, ye Protestant champions, be sure to shoot your game sitting. Keep yourselves under cover. Choose someone who can be struck without striking, whom it is easy to overbear, with whom it is safe to play the bully. Let it be a prelate of advanced age and habits, or some gentle nun, whose profession and habits are pledges that she cannot retaliate. Triumph over the old man and the woman. Open your wide mouth, and collect your rumbling epithets and round your pretentious sentences, and discharge your concentrated malignity on the defenceless. Let it all come down heavily on them to their confusion, and a host of writers in print and by post will follow up the outrage you have commenced.’ * It was some such programme as this— a necessarily restricted scale, of —that a raving fanatic, Letitia Jane Hood, alias ‘ Gordon Andrew Martin, Author of Romanism and Crime, etc., etc.,’ had set herself to carry*- out throughout Wellington city and province, and which has had as its inglorious but fitting finale a sentence of six months’ imprisonment in Wellington Gaol. By arrangement with the secretary of the’ Catholic Federation, Mr. Girling-Butcher, an admirably clear and succinct account of the facts, and of the legal proceedings in connection therewith, has been prepared by Mr. P. J. O’Regan, who acted as solicitor in the earlier proceedings and in working up the case until it officially passed into the hands of the Crown Prosecutor. This report, which appears in full elsewhere in this issue, was submitted to and revised by the Crown Prosecutor, and may therefore be accepted as absolutely accurate, reliable, and authoritative. It is not necessary for us to here repeat the evidence so luminously set forth, or to refer to the facts in any detail. It will be sufficient to say briefly that this wretched bigot posted, of course under a false name, to prelates, priests, members of the laity, and officials of the Catholic Federation, including the young lady who so capably acts as assistant secretary to that organisation, letters containing, pi grossly indecent terms, disgusting charges against priests and nuns. In doing so the woman laid herself open to at least three distinct charges: (1) Of sending offensive matter through the post; (2) of publishing defamatory libel; and (3) of publishing defamatory libel knowing the same to be false. Under the first head a number of charges were laid in the Magistrate’s Court, and the accused was convicted on each charge and fined £lO on one, and was ultimately imprisoned for one month in default of paying the fine. To the charge of publishing defamatory libel she pleaded guilty; and was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. On the charge of publishing defamatory libel knowing the same to be false, the jury, after five hours’ retirement, failed to agree; and as the proceedings had already amply vindicated the honor and character of all concerned in the charges, the Catholic authorities generously waived their right to call for a new trial. Interest centred chiefly on the charge of defamatory libel, with which the name of a good nun of Wanganui Convent had been associated. Miss Dalziell (Sister Agnes), a convert from Presbyterianism, had been ten years in the convent at Wanganui, but her parents had never got over the shock of her conversion and of her decision to become a nun. For the past three years stories had been bandied about to the effect that she was being illegally detained in the convent against her will. It was in vain that she visited her parents in their own home, showing how entirely free she was to go and come. It was nothing that she was to be seen, going day after —with ample opportunity to ‘ escape ’ at any moment she desired — the Aramoho School to teach the children

to whose -instruction and education she had devoted herself. The calumny persisted, and others, even more cruel, were added. But it was impossible to trace the slanderers. No one could be found who would- put anything in writing, or make a statement in the presence of others, so that a charge could be laid. At last Letitia Jane Hood, ‘ Author of Roman Catholicism and Crime, etc., etc.’, gave the desired opportunity. It was promptly seized; and the vindication was triumphant and complete. The result is in the highest degree satisfactory, and calls for congratulations all round. The Catholic authorities at Wellington, for the courage and firmness with which they dealt with the unpleasant situation; Dean Holley and the good Sisters at Wanganui for having at last settled scores with their detractors and calumniators; the police and solicitors for the skill and acumen with which the cases were prepared and conducted ; and the Catholic Federation for their ready and invaluable assistance in collating evidence and in attending to the detail work— all are entitled to sincerest thanks and felicitations. Special mention should be made of the address of the Crown Prosecutor, Mr. V. Meredith, in the Supreme Court cases, whose presentment of the facts was a masterly and particularly effective effort. * The prosecution and conviction of this wretched vilifier of priests and nuns has taught a salutary lesson, and we may take it that the anonymous slanderer will not be heard of again for many a day. Decent and fair-minded Protestants will, we are sure, reprobate and deplore as heartily as we do ourselves the cowardly and contemptible tactics of this miserable ill-minded creature ; and public opinion and public sympathy will be entirely on the side of those whose character and good name have been so successfully vindicated. NoPopery fanaticism, at least of the Orange and Letitia Jane Hood types, is happily passing. Its agony may be long, but its death is sure. Times have changed, and people are busy shuffling off the wild and insensate views of the Catholic Church that were propagated in the stormy period of the great religious revolution of the sixteenth century. The world goes up and the world goes down, And the sunshine follows the rain ; And yesterday’s sneer and yesterday’s frown Can never come over again.’ But to preserve this happy state of things, intelligent organisation and keen and watchful alertness are ever necessary. It is for this reason that we have need of, and have reason to be thankful for, the machinery provided by the Catholic Federation.