METHODIST CHURCH.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1221, 1 September 1911, Page 5

METHODIST CHURCH.

NEW ZEALAND SEPARATION. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Brisbane, August 31. In the legislative Assembly the NewZealand Methodist Confcrenco Bill was read a first time. This Bill provides for the separation of the New Zealand Conference.

THE SEPARATION PROPOSALS. At the General Conference of tho Methodist Church of Australasia, held at Adelaide in June, 1910, a motion was carried by 10(i votes to 13: "That this conference agrees to tho recommendation from the New Zealand Conference that it should be constituted an independent self-govern-ing conference, subject to a working scheme being subsequently approved by this General Conference." The mover, tho Rev. S. Lawry, said tho question had been talked about by tho Methodists in New Zealand for 40 years. 11l 1831 a resolution was adopted by 31 votes to 9 by tho New Zealand Conference in favour of separation. Amonj; tho chief reasons were the distance of New Zealand from Australia, and tho desire to have a supremo court' there. In 1886 the proposal was reaffirmed by a practically unnnimous vote, nnd it had been frequently endorsed since. In tho quarterly meetings 73 per cent.,'and in tho'synods 68 per cent., of the people who voted woro in favour of it, and at the recent annual conference 70 per cent, voted for it. If the request were not granted that day it would come up again and again. There was no personal feeling in the matter, and the New Zealand Church pooplo only desired to separate because they felt it. would enable them to do better work for the Master. The present arrangement involved a heavy cash expenditure, for which New Zealand had never been nble to discover an adequate return. The present General Conference would cost thorn over ,£SOO, but New Zealand would not grudge one penny of it if the request was acceded 10. Only*by granting tho request could Methodist union lie effected in New Zealand, for the Primitive Methodists would not come into tho union until he New Zealand Conference was independent. He felt that in view of the overwhelming opinion of New Zealand in favour of separation, unless it was agreed to, there could only be a mechanical union in future. The General Conference consented to tho separation of the New Zealand Church, subject to the consent of each of the six annual conferences concerned, and to the sanction of the Parliaments of each of the Australian Stales and of New Zealand.