REV. MR. GILLIES, TIMARU.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 89, 25 May 1877, Page 3

REV. MR. GILLIES, TIMARU.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE AKAROA MAIL,

Sir, —I was surprised to read a telegram in your last paper regarding the Rev. Mr. Gillies, of Timaru, to the effect that he had refused to officiate at the funeral of a Mr. Fulton because deceased had not been a communicant. I took it upon me to telegraph to Mr. Gillies to ask if this were true. He replied at once, stating the telegram you published, was " false." I may add, that no one acquainted with the principles and practice of the Presbyterian Church could commit such a blunder as your correspondent has fallen into ; because any service conducted by any of our Ministers on the occasion of a funeral is not a sort of certificate to the christian character, far less for the benefit of the departed, but solely for the warning, instruction, and consolation it may be of the living. I regret that you were led to publish without verification an injurious report not only devoid of truth, but even of probability.—Yours, &c, W. DOUGLAS. [A telegram published in anothercolumn fully exonerates the Rev. Mr. Gillies. The telegram in question was received by us from the Press Agency at Wellington, and we very much regret having given pubii--1 cation to an unfounded charge.—Ed. A.M.]