CHAPMAN-ALEXANDER MISSION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1684, 26 February 1913, Page 5

CHAPMAN-ALEXANDER MISSION.

RETURN TO NEW ZEALAND. Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman and his party arrived in Dunedjn on Tuesday last, A meetinc was held in Knox Church. The spacious building was packed somo time before the opening hour, and quite a host of people found it was not possible to obtain admission. It is estimated that thero must have been. 1600 ueople in the church.' In a brief interview with « "Southland Times" reporter on February 17. Dr. ChaDman indicated that after two/days 111 Dunedin a visit would be paid to lungston and Quoenstown, and six days would later bo allotted to services in Timaru,In .Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland a stay of three Greeks will bo mado in each city, and departure trill be taken for America on May 9. Next autumn Scotland will be visited, where a stay of a year is intended to lie made.

Eleven months. have elapsed since the Chapman-Alexander mission party was last in New Zealand, but oil that occasion Dunedin and Inverccrgfll were the only two-places Visited. • -After leavjng New ' Zealand, - Australia wijs revisited,, after-an absence of three years,, and there, Dr. Chapman said, excellent progress had been made. Wherever they had preached, gveat, crowds had attended, cyid Dr. Chapman was confident that the religious lifo of Australians was morn active now than il: had ever been. At Melbourne, ho said, they had tho biggest population to deal with, the largest auditorium for their reception, and it wus no uncommon thing to have to . preach to an audience of frdm eight to ten thousand people on' a single evening. Wherever the party travelled in Australia it had mot with great receptions, and Dr. Chapman wns confident that tho occasion of, its initial visit to New Zealand's principal cities would be as marked in tho warmth of reception and the success of tho mission generally.. Questioned as to the Bible-in-sciiools movement in Australia, Dr. Chapman said that wherever the movement had been introduced it had made great strides from the very outset. Personally he could siot for a moment conccivo that an innovation that was going to religions instruction could fail to appeal to the mothers and fathers of our rising manhood and womanhood. Of the Australian Slates,. New South Wales, Queensland, mid Western Australia, had adopted the system in their schools, and ,the progress it-, was making was. very .marked indeed. Victoria was, now fighting _ .strenuously for its introduction, and. ho'anticipated that beforo long that State.'would fall into line with tho other three which liad given so satisfactory a lead. ■ In conclusion,' Dr. Chapman made special reference to tlio very kind treatment ho and his associates had. received from the Australian people wherever they had travelled, from top to bottoiu of the Continent. What they had , been pamittfd to learn of New' during, their first short visit gave him the knowledge that the reception that would be accorded to them during their tvork hero would bo no less hospitable. ,