THE CHURCHES IN NEW ZEALAND.

Southland Times, Issue 738, 18 October 1867, Page 2

THE CHURCHES IN NEW ZEALAND.

" Dunedin, July 18th, 1867.

"My dear Lord Bishop,— l have just received your letter, and, on the principle of striking while the iron is hot, as you seem to take so kind an interest in what I said, I will, at the risk of being tedious to Von, enlarge a little on the subject which has clearly occupied your mind somewhat, and occupies mine a good deal.

" The Presbyterian system, as you lrntw, was tried here at the settlement of the colony, just as the then fashionable form of Anglicanism was tried at Canterbury. Both at Canterbury and here, then, there is a Church which will some day be very rich. Not State Church in any sense, but a Church richly endowed by the State. Both systems have been weighed and found wanting The Presbyterians have clergy everywhere throughout this Province where it could be reasonably expected that a clergyman should be posted, but I am bound to say that they not only fail to take aliens into their fold, but they have also lost all that influence over their own people, which is so unquestionable in Scotland, and makes it the most ' priest-ridden country' my experience has made me acquainted with. The mere fact of such a change as c every emigrant must undergo Unsettles him so much, enlarges his notions so much, that Presbyterianism, the dryest, narrowest, least humane of all religions, loses all hold in . him. Unfortunately there is nothing better to replace it.

" N.B. I should have excepted the diggings, in which there is no (or next to no) Presbyterian garrison. Tbe diggers are mainly- English and Irish, with a colluvies gentium as a third element, Chinese, Negroes, Hindoos, Greeks,Spaniards, Norwegians, , &c, &c, &c, such as has never been assembled since Babel.

"In Canterbury there is a quasi parsonage established everywhere where you could reasonably expect such an establishment, always again excepting the diggings, the West Coast, where there is nothing ' stated.' A population of 30,000 to 40,000, whose spiritual wants are supplied by flying visits from Bishops, Roman and English, American Methodists, Baptists, and I know not what.

"But to return to the settled community, I am sorry to say that for all I can: see the Anglican is not more successful, nay, even is less successful than the Presbyterian. The Bishop of New Zealand when he comes down here, carries all before him— from that or from other reosons he generalizes, too rapidly, I think, and insists upon Bishops: Bishops by all means if they are Selwyns. This is exactly what it is— we want men. The ordinary English clergymen or Scotch Presbyterians will not, I believe, do at all for the colonies. Tou want men who do not come out to settle a family, but to do God's work. This new country is in some things wonderfully what Europe must have been like immediately after the dark ages, or in outlying districts during the middle ages. Convents, mutatis mutandis, or with the same proviso, friars, are what are really wanted. Tou know lam no lnedisevalist; so you see in such a case my opinion is forced upon me in spite of prepossessions. Perhaps not in spite bf them, for I fully recognised their worth; their necessity in bygone times, but I never dreamt that I should think so of the newest section of our new world. I clo firmly believe that a hale hearty man —he must be that— wise, and not wedded to system, but inspired, as the Romish Church bas always been, to adapt himself to the occasion, might do anything. I don't think bare feet or a leathern girdle necessary ; .digger's boots and a peajacket would be nmch better. (The leathern girdle, by the way, would be de Hs\mt if #ed in place of brac^,) &©t

a man come out 7 here not to be comfortable 7 not 'fo raise money', but determined to be poor ; let him be able to preach, and, High Church or Low Church, he might be*-, to some ten thousand souls what no man in Europe is to any ten thousand. There would be no carping at practices or doctrines. Ido believe that, to touch the <jflfe^s, or even the scattered populat^Bfengaged -in sheep farming, and setffers, nothing but sublf a system can d<3; The negative prooffailure of Anglican parochial parsonage, wife, garden, gaudy refinement, and Presbyterian, ditto, ditto, minus refinement, and plus, you know too well what — is perfect. Now for the positive proof.

" " There are people who are successful (though their action is upon a limited scale) successful beyond what their means warrant you in expecting — the Wesleyans, whose preaching, organisation, whose preaching itself, is wonderfully friarlike ; 'and the Roman Catholics." There are few Wesleyans. Their periodic peristaltic preachers are rare. The Roman Catholic mission to New Zealand is, as I told you, Ereneh. Moreover, it is of the Marian sort, which, by the admission of more intelligent Roman Catholics, is ill-adapted tor such a place. It is, indeed, reinforced by some Irish priests, but they are not of the best. Notwithstanding all this, they really, among their people, do more than any others whatever.

"To make the account complete, I should tell you of a system our people have adopted of lay readers. They are good men, all I believe ; but what is a lay man, working at his secular work six days, reading prayers and reading sermons on the seventh, likely to do ?

In the settlements and the towns here and in Canterbury, I believe our Church is just the resort of the upper people, or those who wish to be thought so. We have in this Province one energetic man, who does something. Here we have a man who reads prayers, preaches, and does baptisms, burials, and marriages; never was seen in a poor man's hous^ ; yet a good man, but indolent. Broken in to English ways, looking on Dissenters, and all who do not spontaneously come to his church, as wilful sinners, who must be left alone. The Church is dying rapidly here. Tet never was a Church better backed by the laity. They give money, time, and trouble. But where a man has a cozy home, a wife, children, his thoughts must be with them. Tet I think it would be unwise for a man to come out here with professed celibacy and the Ignatius business. Let him come here with the determination to do his work and rough it at the diggings, and he will be a 'fisher of men.' Such a man as Nicholson or Macnamara would be, as it were, a king in a few years, might, if he chose it, build ai Cathedral, found an Abbey. Do you know such a man ? He should preach extemypore, as the old friars preached. He should be of the people, living like them, and with them, and, like they are, careless of the future. He must be so.

" This is a long letter, and I almost fear I have spoken too freely, but I have wished to express my meaning ; I only hope I have. " I am, my dear Lord Bishop, yours very sincerely,

" Frank C. Simmons."

" What I wish to say of all colonists — and especially diggers — is this. They are essentially ' Bohemian.' They despise the c epicierJ The English pariah priest in his parsonage, or the Scotch minister with his manse, with their blameless little managements, timidities, econonomies, are in their eyes ' eypiciersJ They want a man who does not regard money or men— who has given no ** hostages.' Colonists (especially diggers) like making money, but spend recklessly and despise saving — and those who save. A digger will work like a horse that he may spend the earnings of months in living up to his ideal of life for a week — nay a day ! His ideal is low, but it is an ideal. For his day he gives with both hands ; he eats and drinks and sins as he pleases, then goes back to work contented. He despises any mere moneygrubber—any who are the least like one. Poverty, voluntary poverty — contempt of money, would just take his fancy. It is own highest virtue." — John Bull.