SOLDIERS AND DENOMINATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 68, 17 October 1916, Page 7

SOLDIERS AND DENOMINATION.

fTo Thf F.nrroH Stratvoub Post. I Sir,—l note a paragraph in your last evening's issue, no doubt taken' from a northern contemporary, in which it is stated upon the authority of the Protestant Bishop of Auckland that the precentages of members of the various religious denominations are as follows:—Anglicans, OT per cent, (not quite); Presbyterians, 2(3 per cent, (not quite); Roman Catholics, 13 per cent, (not quite); Methodist, o per cent, (not quite); Baptists 1 per cent; Congregationalists, } per cent.; Salvation Army, 1 p.«r cent. (less than); Jews, l-9th per cent.; other denominations, U per cent. 1 desire to give a most emphatic denial to the above statement attributed to His Lordship the Bishop and from information at my disposal 1 can say that no official statement of the members of the different denominations has been issued. Other religious bodies are quite able to look after their own interests, but on behalf ol the Church to which I have the honour to belong I strongly protest against the publication of misleading paragraphs which understate the proportion of Catholic soldiers fighting for their King and the Empire. On what authority does Bishop Avenll make such a pronouncement?—! am, etc., GEO. GIRLING-BUTCHER. Secretary and Organiser, I New Zealand Catholic Federation. ! Stratford, October 17, 1916.