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Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 139, 9 March 1877, Page 6

[We quote the folloAA'ing letters upon the same subject from the Guardian : — ] TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — I was hoping that Bishop Nevill in his reply to Dr Stuart would have made the amende honourable. My disappointment is increased by his insinuation that my mission Avas unsuccessful. This would be a delicate matter for me to refer to, and it has been very kindly taken up and answered by Dr Stuart. I may just be allowed to refer to the fact that since my residence among them, I have for five years kept up regular communication with them, and have always had accorded to me a respectful and attentive hearing as I endeavoured to declare to them in their own tongue the wonderful Avorks of God in redemption. And long may it be-, Sir, ere the shadow of sore sickness darken his threshold, as it did mine year after year when liAmig there. Even six months of residence on that Avet hillside in Avinter might be found as hurtful to the health of ! his family as it Avas to mine, Avere he to try it. As to the three reasons he gives for occupying the ground without the coirsent of our ChUrch, all your readers must be struck Avith their Aveakness. 1. If there I was no resident minister, there Avas a Adsiting minister and a resident catechist. Many a mission district is wrought and kept hold of ill this way, where there are more adult residents than the 30 or so at the Kaik, 2. As to baptisms, for the Bishop's four, I can slioav him a list of five times that number baptised by me, which will constitute, according to his OAvn shoiving, a very strong claim for the Presby--terian Church in the future. Neither did I baptise indiscriminately, without personal knowledge of the parents, and ascertaining that they had some intelligent apprehension of the nature And design of the holy ordinance-.

3. As to Maori prayer-books, if that constitutes a claim, I ordered them myself from Auckland, and saAv that cA r ery household was provided Avith a Bible and prayer-book in Maori. More than this, I often used it in conducting service,, but

did not lean upon it, lest it should do- j generate into form.' Passing from those I things, I notice his. statement that " the Presbyterian Synod proposed to grant money towards the restoration of theMaori church." This is contrary to fact, and indeed quite impossible to havo happened, as the sequel will show. The Synod meets in January, and the first we heard of the matter was in June last. I have a Maori letter from Bartholomew, dated sth June, 1870, in which he tells me that the repairs were near completion, and appealing to our love of their church to aid them with a grant of money. He goes on to tell the cost, and desires a speedy reply. I replied on the 15th, and told him 1 had reason to belieVe his application would be favourably entertained, but it must be first laid before the Mission Committee, which would meet at Balclutha on the following week. Bartholomew came to our next meeting of Presbytery in Dunedin, July 5, to support his application, and he stayed under my roof on that occasion, as on many others, so that the matter was clearly understood.

Passing on, 1 notice the extraordinary proposal that Bartholomew ■■ should have full opportunity afforded to hold such services as* might be desired by the body to which he was attached," and it Avas his (Dr Nevill's) " desire that a friendly relation should be maintained with him," and I remark there is a conspicuous absence of any expressed desire that a friendly relation should bo maintained with me, so that opportunity should be afforded me of holding such services as might be desired by the body to which lam attached. But for the 20 or 30 adults statedly resident there, such proposals are hardly requisite. Such a rending asunder of the little body as might ensue upon the setting up among them of rival denominations, I could not contemplate. In the case on record of a dispute regarding tlie property of a child, one said, let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. ■ I feel inclined to say with the mother on that occasion-, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. Bishop Nevill must know that there is wide difference between ministers looking . up and keeping together members of the I different sections of the Church existing in I these Colonies, and stepping into a mission field occupied by another body. Missionary work among foreign races is upon a different footing from labour in our Home parishes. That this particular mission passed from the hands of the Bremen Society into the hands of the Presbyterian Church is well known, and has been proved indisputably. If baptisms and claims constitute a claim, the Wesleyans might have a preference to the Episcopalians, for they have a Maori prayer-book and hymns ; and three of their men — Creed, Kirk, and Stannard — laboured among the Maoris and baptised. Indeed if Bishop Moran looks into the matter he may have a claim too. Such an act as Bishop Ncvill's, in stepping in where another body is in rightful possession, would be resented as an interference by any missionary body in tlie world. Bishop Selwyn did not do it in his time, and would not do it • and I regret the shape matters have taken all the more that reliable information was so accessible to Bishop Nevill. We live quite near enough each other, and I should have been most happy to have given him any information he desired.-— -I am, etc., Alexander Blake.