WEST COAST SCANDALS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 777, 25 September 1929, Page 7

WEST COAST SCANDALS

EVANGELIST ANSWERS MR. HOLLAND NOTHING TO WITHDRAW I-rom Our Own Correspondent HAMILTON, Today. Saying that he has nothing to withdraw, the Rev. H. G. Gilbert has issued a reply to the criticism ™ ade . H ' E ' Ho "*"d and j Mr ' J ; O Brien, of the published report of his statements concern--In9 conditions on the West Coast. tbe ,? e S ent l em eu do not know i a nd cannot be expected to know from hL b f, eVUy ot tbe re P 0 rt,” he said, “is lL, al V the sermon was not directed at the far-otf people on the West Coast, bot , at the Christian church-going h», Pl fk be ?° r f me ‘ My contention was j P“ a t the lack of vision in spiritual things is responsible for the deplorable social conditions existing today. . the refer ences complained of to illustrate what were the pressing problems in New Zealand today. “As one whose lot has always been cast among working men, my sympathies are naturally with them in their long continued fight, for justice and ■.air workiDg conditions, but the truth must be faced. My outspoken critics |in their so-called refutation of my I statements make an utterly unwar- : rantable generalisation. My words as | reported made it unmistakably clear that I spoke only of some parts and | the whole of the Coast. It certainly would be reckless and absurb—- | and worse—to hint, let alone to dei clare, that on the West Coast among i some of the finest and most hospitable ! people l have met there pertained everywhere such conditions, i “I have nothing to qualify or to j withdraw, except that I spoke uot of j ‘fuuerals,’ but of one funeral, where | exactly what I related took place. “Much that these gentlemen say concerning Sunday pictures is quite irrelevant and one wonders whether they are really to be taken seriously when they assume an air of indignant horror regarding what I said about the sale in some places of liquor on Sundays. “I assure them that my imagination did not play havoc with my veracity, but that the truth opened my eyes. “In parts of the Coast there have arisen communities far from being merely apathetic to Christianity, but all actively anti-Christian. It is a tragic thing that there is not only a lack of spiritual vision but there is oppression and injustice for some of which, at least, the Christian Church j is not without blame.”