KAIAPOI PARISH.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 590, 10 May 1876, Page 3

KAIAPOI PARISH.

To the Editor of the Globe

Sib, —In a spirit of fair play I trust you will allow me a space to notice some facts in reference to the late parish meeting at Kaiapoi which do not seem to have been noticed by your contemporaries, and the unfair way in which the result of that meeting was telegraphed to the other provinces by the Association agent in Christchurch. Although the result of the meeting was in favour of the Incumbent’s party, I have no hesitation in stating that it was “packed,” and the result was gained by very questionable if not unfair means—at any rate in a way quite unbecoming and unworthy the countenance of a Christian clergyman, or members of a religious body. In the first place I ought perhaps to state that under the Constitution Act of the Church of England in New Zealand, without any qualification it provides that males over the age of twenty-one by signing a declaration. “I declare that I am a member of the United Church of England and Ireland in New Zealand/’ are thereby entitled to vote at a parish meeting. , . ~ Taking [advantage of being able to register a sufficient number of persons to carry the day, several people were quite busy for some days prior to the meeting—the palm probably being due to one certain individual, in effecting the registration of anyone at all likely to give the cause a lift. In the number so registered the parish may now claim the honor of recognising drunkenness disorderly conduct, use of obscene language, assault, theft, and felony. In the present list of church members I am fully prepared to prove that at least six or eight persons have been convicted before the magistrate, and one for being drunk and using obscene language was fined only a few days before the meeting by the Incumbent s own churchwarden. Beyond this element, in the meeting were others who knew they had no right to be present, members of other demoninations, to wit, persons residing in other parishes, or of no announced creed, with a select school of so-called materalists, who disbelieve everything except what they see or can recognise in a material sense. In regard to some who have figured before the Resident Magistrate, it was not.|to] be

j wondered at that they should vote against him as peoples’ churchwarden, when a remark was caught previous to the meeting—j “there’s so and so has been before Whitefoord, you bet he won’t vote for him.” Although four J.P.’s voted against their brother magistrate I cannot think they endorsed this sentiment, for it would be highly reprehensible for one magistrate to urge a convicted criminal to vote against another member of the Bench, even in an election of this kind. It may be urged that those persons to whom I object, were, having signed the declaration perfectly entitled to vote, I reply, emphatically, No ; for proof was abundant to those who encouraged this wholesale and discreditable business, that many, as in the case of nonconformists, were declaring what was absolutely false, and persons who had severed themselves from the Church by reason of their offences, if they had not the decency to abstain from taking part in its affairs ought not to have been urged to declare themselves nominally members of a Church, under its civil laws, when, under its moral law, they were alienated, if not virtually excommunicated, If the regular Church members only had been permitted to vote, even the Carlyonists say they would have been defeated. The introductions to the meeting alluded to were an insult to the older parishioners; when it was discovered that persons taken off the street, as it were, who might bo said to have no fixed place of abode, aud in two instances at least of the vagrant class were placed on a level with decent people, who for the past sixteen years have honestly maintained the Church and kept up the minister’s stipend. Truly the state of Denmark was rotten! The business began with a collect, “ Prevent us, 0 Lord, &c.,” and ended, not with the benediction, or a vote of thanks to anyone, but with such remarks as “We licked you,” applied to those who intended to return at least six members of the vestry in favour of rorestraining the ritualistic and meaningless practice of the Incumbentandafight between two men in the churchyard. During the meeting we were informed of the increase in the receipts and expenditure rendered obvious in consequence of the furnishing of a new Sunday school and reshingling the Church, but Ritualism had run into grease, judging by the candle account. The first division of the sheep and goats shewed plainly the composition of the church members, and the respectable minority made up its mind to leave the room when the second division came on one blurting out that he would “leave the Church to Birch and the Pope.” Then came a novel application of the ballot. Twelve were nominated for the office of vestrymen of which six were to be elected. It was resolved to decide the matter by ballot. Thereupon the proposer of the first six handed out to those seated on one side of the room slips with the names proposed by him with the names inscribed thereon, and the parishioners seated on the other side of the room were unable to obtain a supply of paper, but were insulted with taunts to take what had been prepared. Seeing this state of affairs, as I said before, fifty of us went out or declined to vote. The aforesaid papers were then collected and methodically counted by Mr Birch, in the presence of the Incumbent (the second scrutineer, Mr Beharrell, declining to act). Sixty-nine of these papers were issued, and out of that number only two names were erased, but no others sent in, and the six were declared duty elected amid cheers from the said sixty-nine who had thus exercised the so-called free and independent privilege of voting by ballot, and a general adjournment to the public house. This, Sir, is a specimen of ballot voting at a Kaipoi parochial meeting. Ballot forsoo'h ! Save the mark ! In any other benighted community the twelve names would have been put on each paper, and the voter required to strike his pencil through those of six or less whom he did not vote for. Or in another way blank paper would have been issued with a request that each one voting would write the names of six or less on each paper. The ballot affair was quiteon apar with the whole proceedings and as the clergyman’s churchwarden takes credit for his application of the ballot system so may I not also give him credit for it. This is a deliberate statement of the manner in which Church affairs go on here, anything to the contrary per resolution of the vestry notwithstanding. Our Church service on Sundays is enriched, in the musical portion, with a couple of fiddles in addition to the harmonium, and the choir is to be put in surplices. If any of your readers are curious on ritualism let them take a drive to Kaiapoi, or advocate the Sunday trains ; and don’t let them forget the three-penny pieces, because the seats are made free, with a view to fill the Church rather than make a gain thereby. Yours, &c, M. Galloper,