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Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5375, 16 January 1929, Page 3

For. a very short time after the settlement of the Dominion '(until 1858) adherents of the Church of. England were a little more than 'half of the total population, but although that is still the largest church numerically, its adherents ar,e now only 41.2 per cent, of the population, with teriarts numbering 24.6 per cent., Roman Catholics 12.9 per cent., and Methodists 9.0 per cent. Ther,e is indeed only one case in which the; adherents of one religious body are a majority of a whole district, and that is the case of. Southland, where Pres? byteriahs number a littlq mqre than half of the total population. And the most striking fact after this one of the absence of a majority faith is what ,the Report calls the relevancy between religious faith and industrial distribution. Although Anglicans show “no very definite departure from normal trends,” Presbyterians show a noticeably high and Roman Catholics a noticeably low r.atio in primary pursuits, Methodists a rather high r.atio, in manufacturing, and Baptists a tendency to turn to commercial life and the professions. Finally, it is shown that if there is; an employing, as opposed to a wage-earning, faith, it is that of the Confucians, with the Hebrews next, while Seventh Day Adventists and mqmhers 'of the Salvation Army come last.