WELLINGTON DIOCESAN SYNOD.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4854, 12 October 1876, Page 2

WELLINGTON DIOCESAN SYNOD.

Tuesday, October 10. The Synod met at the usual hour. TheBishop took the chair, and prayers were read. The minutes of previous evening’s meeting were read and confirmed. WANGANUI ENDOWED SCHOOL. The President laid upon the table a report in reference to the Wanganui Endowed School THE NATIVE MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH. Lieut.-Colonel Gorton moved, —That this Synod has heard, with very great pleasure and deep approval, the reports read by the Revs. A. Knell and J. Me William showing such marked progress of Christianity among the native members of their districts, and requests the President to cause copies of this resolution to be distributed among the native members of the Church in this diocese. He spoke of the importance natives attached to anything coming from a meeting of representatives, and thought much good would be done if the resolution were carried.—Mr. H. T. Clarke seconded, and said he had intended to ask the Bishop’s permission to. have the reports translated and sent amongst the natives.—The President said he quite agreed with what had fallen from Colonel Gorton in reference to the importance natives attached, to anything coining from a body of representatives, and thought that instinct or feeling should be encouraged. As to Mr. Clarke’s proposition, he should have great pleasure in co-operating with him in giving it effect.— Motion agreed to. TRUST LANDS. Mr. Powles moved, —That it be an instruction to the Diocesan Board of Trustees to prepare and lay before the Synod, at each session, a report showing the localities in which Trust X,ands are situated ; the acreage of such lands ; how used ; if let, for what term and on what conditions ; also a balancesheet, duly audited by the Diocesan Auditor, showing what rents or other monies may have been received during the year, and how such monies have been disposed of.—Agreed to. MELANESIAN MISSION. Mr. Powles moved, —That Mr. H. S. McKellar be appointed Treasurer of the Melanesian Mission Fund for the Diocese of Wellington, and that he be requested tolay before each Synod an annual account of the same.—Agreed to. TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. The Rev. B. W. Harvey moved, —That it is desirable the Standing Committee should take steps, as suggested in- the report of the committee appointed to enquire into the desirability of establishing a Church of England Temperance Society in the Diocese of Wellington, for inaugurating a movement for carrying out this object. He said he believed there had been no subject debated in the Synod more important as regards the results likely to occur to the Church than this, and went on to speak of the inconceivable vastness of the drinking evil,, and the necessity for grappling with it once. The method of grappling with the evil proposed in the report was free from the fanaticism with which many teetotal societies had been carried on, the main features being that abstainers and non-abstainers might unite, and according to the ordinary rules of these societies in England were to unite in the work of government. It shut out that rabid feeling which placed teetotalism above religion, and bound together not only abstainers, but those who, while they were anxious to put a 'stop to excess in drinking, still liked to enjoy in a moderate manner wines and other alcoholic liquors; It kad' been suggested that it 'was not within the province of the Synod to take the question up, but he quoted from various papers printed in relation to the inauguration of the Home Church of England' Temperance Society, to show that the clergy in. England took the matter up as part of theChurch work. In concluding his speech, he said ho was not a total abstainer—in the eyes of teetotallers- he was much worse, being a renegade, having after many years of total abstinence given it up,- as he felt he had' been acting on improper principles. However, if in augurating such a society his example as -a total abstainer would give the matter a greater impetus, he should'be quite willing to-’again-become a total abstainer. The Yen. Archdeacon Stock seconded, and in speaking to the motion said he thought the example of temperate men was quite as forcible, and’quite as. potent for good, as that of total abstainers. He dwelt upon the necessity of 1 the- Church- grappling with the evil, and regretted very much that ■ the Legis-

latnre- was - not : '. in ” earnest in its endeavors to suppress the evil. He should like to see stringent laws passed to prevent adulteration. It was of no use imposing fines of £5 when an , adulterator was by chance found out under the existing law. Let there be a systematic inspection, and heavy fines imposed when adulteration was discovered. Publicans should also be fined for allowing persons to become intoxicated in their houses. If a society were formed, it should have an influence upon the Legislature in inducing it to pass more stringent laws. The Rev. Mr. Towgood addressed himself at some length to the subject, and spoke of the great extent to which drunkenness prevailed in the country districts. In the locality of Marten, he had heard £IO,OOO a year was spent in drink-; and he called attention to the fact that in the country districts the police did not do their duty. They naturally became very friendly with th.e publicfinsj find did not carry out the law with that strictness which they should. The magistrates, under the present state of the law, had no control over the police, and consequently charges could not be brought home to the publicans. Referring to the prevalence of drinking habits in Marton, he related some ludicrous incidents as to the way in which the police shielded the publicans. He expressed great distrust of the Rechabite and Good Templar societies, which were generally composed of men who for their misconduct and shady transactions in business had been turned out of other societies. It seemed to him that men joined these societies, hut drank when they pleased, trusting to a fine of ss. to whitewash themselves again. Young men had come to him and asked whether they should join these associations, and he had advised them not to mix themselves tip with such men. Mr. Didsbury pointed out that the General Synod had, by resolution, requested Diocesan Synods to take the question into their consideration. He spoke strongly against the practice of “shouting,” and hoped steps would be taken to discourage it. If such a society as this were formed, it would be the channel through which pressure might be brought to bear "upon the Parliament in favor of legislation such as the recently rejected Local Option Bill. The Rev. Mr. Harvey mentioned that the Church of England Temperance Society discouraged treating. The President said he should like, before the motion was put, to indicate what his opinions on the subject were. He would not do more than indicate his feelings—to express them .fully would take more time than he cared to ask the Synod to spare him. .He had heard nothing said that evening to induce him to alter the opinions he had always held in regard to the question, opinions which were at variance, he was sorry to say, with those of some of his personal friends, Bishop Abraham, and others, and perhaps it was not to be expected that views formed after years of reading and thought would be quickly changed. He spoke under considerable difficulty, because, as he had been misunderstood and misrepresented in the past, it was reasonable to expect that he should be misunderstood and misrepresented in the future. He had been misunderstood when be spoke on the subject at the General Synod; and, the hon. Mr. Pox had spoken hard things of him because he had declined to agree with a resolution brought in by the Dean of Christchurch, presuming that great drunkenness existed among the members of the Church of England as a body—because he. had declined to agree with a resolution which commenced with the preamble “ whereas great drunkenness exists among the Church of England.” He had not felt 1 inclined to sanction that, and he - had made some further remarks. For this he had been severely taken to task; but the critics were eminently unfair; for while he was as anxious as anyone to repress drunkenness, he did not feel himself bound to accept declarations which he knew to be repugnant to truth. . He did not believe drunkenness specially existed amongst members of the Church, of England, and could not agree_ to such a proposition. Looking at this resolution from his point of view—namely, that its acceptance involved an admission that drunkenness was the besetting sin of the people of the Church of England—he could not agree with it, and he considered all the remarks of Mr.. Harvey irrelevant. He did not see why the Church in its corporate capacity should specially deal with one specific sin—one specific evil, which might affect the community. He recognised that drunkenness was a sin. He considered a drunkard a beast, and scorned a man'who so degraded himself below the level of humanity ; but a man who drank wine in moderation when he required it was simply doing what his Creator intended be should do; and sooner than lend himself to adopting a resolution such as that on the paper—if_ it went the length he believed it did in declaring that the members of the Church of England were especially guilty of the sin of drunkenness—he would resign his See. He should never agree to the Church of England as a corporate body sanctioning the inauguration of any system or organisation to deal specially with one sin. He did not agree with such societies as that which it was proposed to establish, for he considered it utterly repugnant to the principles and ideas of the Church of England that a man should he put under a law ■when he could not be influenced by principle. He considered the duty of the Church, —and it had many duties devolving upon it, —the duty of every clergyman and every member of the Church, was to try to promote real sincere religion by every possible means in his power, but not to resort to such schemes as this, which he could only regard as empirical, and resembling the efforts of an ignorant physician, who instead of attempting to restore the whole system of a patient, resorted to a plaster here and a salve there to cure what were really only the symptoms of a general disorder. .Drunkenness was not the only vice the Church had to contend with, nor was it a more prominent vice than other •vices in colonists. Perhaps it prevailed to an alarming extent amongst the miserable loafers, the refuse of the streets of the worst parts of England, who were landed on our shores, and corrupted on the public works by being paid wages they did not want - and did not know how to use ; but the people brought up in the colony were not drunkards, they rejected the dirty liquor —did not care about it. There were other vices which were as pernicious in their effects as drunkenness, and to deal specially with drunkenness was to ignore their existence. If such an ’association were founded why should there not be also an antismokiDg association ? To some people, himself included, excessive smoking was just as annoying as excessive drinking. He detested the company of incessant smokers just as much as he detested that of excessive drunkards, and at the same time thought it was equally as proper for a roan to drink in moderation as to smoke in moderation. Moderation in each case was to be admired, and it was as reasonable to debar a man from smoking at all as it was reasonable to debar him from taking liquor at all. Why not form an association to put down extravagance m dress, and that night after night attendance at the theatre, and other evils, which, to his mind, were quite as pernicious as excessive drinking ? Theatre-going was just as bad as going to the public-houses, for money was in that way spent which could not he afforded, and which people had no right to spend, to the impoverishment of their butchers and bakers. He related his own personal experience to show that total abstinence for a lengthened period —he having tasted no beer for a period of twenty years, nor wines or spirits for six years—might undermine some constitutions, and considered there was more harm to be feared from a destruction of freedom of action than good to bo anticipated from discouraging people taking that which God had provided for them. The Church had no right because fools abused the gifts of God to even attempt to impose upon others abstinence from using those gifts. Par better would it be were they to devote their energies to rais-, ing the spiritual tone of the people by earnest work,.by attention to the Sunday-Schools, and by the distribution of good books. , ,

The Kev. Mr. Hakvet said he had too much respect and affection for th# Bishop to attempt to answer his. speech in detail; he

should content himself with one remark—the. Bishop had misunderstood the . principles |of the Church of England Temperance Society. He asked permission to withdraw the motion. The President said as there had been such an expression of opinion on the subject it would be rather unfair to withdraw the motion. .. •• ■ , Leave to withdraw the motion having been refused, Colonel Gorton expressed full concurrence with all that had fallen from the Bishop. Tho motion was then put, and a division taken, the list showing—Clergy :■ ayes, 4 ; noes, 2. Laity; ayes, 5 ; noes, 3. The motion was therefore rejected. ’ ' CHURCH NEWSPAPER. Mr. Didsbury moved,' —That the proposals contained in the report of, the Church Periodical Committee be adopted, and that .it be an instruction to the Standing Committee to, carry them into effect at the earliest date practicable. There was a very general expression of approval of the project, and hope that it would be successfully carried out.— Motion agreed to. Other matters having been . disposed of, the business of the session was brought to a close, by a short address from the President ; after which the benediction was pronounced, and the Synod rose.