IS THE NORTH ISLAND GOOD FOR PRESBYTERIANISM?

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2936, 23 November 1916, Page 7

IS THE NORTH ISLAND GOOD FOR PRESBYTERIANISM?

WAYS OF LIFE LESS FAVOURABLE THAN IN THE SOUTH.

On the debato on the statistical report before the Presbyterian General Assembly, tho Rov. J. R. Shore' said that, while not knowing why it was, it was an established fact that a Presbyterian from tho south, settling in tlio North Island, did not;; as a rule, remain so good a .Presbyterian as he was ill tho Sout-li. Away from tlioso early influences and associations which wcro so supporting, a man coming north was apt to lose his zeal for tho Church, and becouto moro lax in Christian observances. In tho caso of tho settler 011 the land, he probably had to work harder to establish himself, and away from tho fino churches of the Soutli, and without the good preachers that ho had probably been used!to, ho found the service in a wliaro and tho efforts of a young lav preacher not much to his liking. Then tho temperatures wero higher in tho North Island, and' tho temptation to sleep during the sermon was greater than it was in tbo South. For those reasons it was lamentable that their church 'membership was not as great in tho North Island as it might be, and many good Presbyterians from the' South became less zealous and careless over their church duties than formerly.