A CURIOUS COMBINATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4440, 12 June 1875, Page 3

A CURIOUS COMBINATION.

TO THE' EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. ■ Sib, —I nm surprised that the recent ordination has been allowed to pass almost 4 without comment. I presume that the recently ordained deacon was consecrated by the Bishop as an assistant to the two clergymen ministering in the English Churches in Wellington. With an increasing population, additional clerical assistance is much wanted, but I fail to perceive how the services of . the new deacon can be available for this purpose when on six days in the week he is occupied in secular occupations. A resident in Wellington for several years, I have nO J failed to remark the desertions from the Church of England. Where in our churches can bo found the representatives of the humbler classes? Well clad and highly respectable citizens with their families fill the seats, but where are those of lower social status and humbler garb who may be seen in the Roman Catholic Churches? They will be found in the ranks of the dissenting congregations, allowed to drift there by the neglect of the clergy. Into how many of the residences of new . arrivals of the poorer class do the clergy look for additions to their flock? Let me recall to your memory the letter of one of Brogden’s navvies, which appeared in the local papers some time since. As the mouthpiece of his shipmates, he remarked that though on their - arrival they were met by an array of officials, they never saw the face of a clergyman. I lived for years in a poor and unfashionable neighborhood, and during the whole time I never even saw a clergyman in the street. Amongst my neighbors were seveml who had been brought up in the Church of England, but had seceded to the Wesleyans, as they themselves informed me, owing to the utter neglect of the clergy. I can point out persons in the town with children unbaptised, and old men and women sinking tb their graves without a word of comfort or advice, but to Bnd out these I consider to bo the duty of the deacons, and not of yours, &c., A Layman.