NOT TRUE OF BULLER.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 226, 24 September 1929, Page 5

NOT TRUE OF BULLER.

ANOTHER MINISTER'S VIEW. TEN YEARS' EXPERIENCE. {By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) ■ CHRISTCHURCH, this day. "His job is difficult. The mining townships are not garden cities, and, all things considered, in my opinion the religion of the miner is as good as the religion of the average man." With these words a clergyman, now a resident of Christchurch, who lived for ten years in the Buller district, concluded a statement on the sermon preached by the Rev. H. G. Gilbert, at Hamilton.

Commenting on the summary of the sermon published yesterday, the clergyman said Mr. Gilbert did not live on the Coast; he was only a tourist. Mr. Gilbert had referred to Westland. The speaker did not know anything of Westland, but if the Buller district was meant, then the statement made did not fairly represent the situation in the mining townships during the years he was there. It was in the Buller district that the majority of the mines were situated.

The minister said he had officiated at several funerals of miners, and he had never heard of a body heing put in a grave without any religious service. "Some Drink After Hours." "It is true that there is some drinking after hours," he said, "but it must be remembered that the miners have very little opportunity to drink during hours," added the speaker, who happens to be an active member of the New Zealand Alliance. He pointed out that up till the 1014 poll a majority had been gained for national prohibition in the big mining townships of the Buller district. The Rev. R. M. Ryburn, a well-known Presbyterian; said: "Mr. Gilbert made a mistake. The least said about it the better."