RESIGNATION OF REV; T. J. WILLS.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 189, 29 January 1887, Page 3

RESIGNATION OF REV; T. J. WILLS.

(The following is portion of an article which appeared m the last issue of the Hauraki Tribune, published at Paeroa, Ohinemuri) :— " The Wesleyan Methodist Conference which assembled in Pitt Street Chape!, Auckland, under the presidency of the Rev. W. Oliver, last week, has given us another of those instances of severity too frequent in that body of late. The Rev. T. J. Wills, a probationer of the fifth year, has been sentenced to have his name removed from the minutes of the Conference, and his placs in the Gisborne district supplied by another person for charges which are not stated but simply enumerated as 1, 2, and 3. In 1885 Mr Wills was a probationer in his fourth year, stationed in this, the Ohinemuri dtetrict, and having charge also of the Te A loha district. This is the Upper Thames District of the Wesleyan Conference, and several of the places' at which Mr Wills had to officiate are from 40 to 50 miles distant from each othei. Although the winter was severe, and the roads unusually bad, Mr Wills won a very high character for zeal, diligence, and ability in the discharge of his duty, and he seems to have attended the Conference of 188(5 at Wellington, without a thougth of any difficulty in his mind. This was to be his final examination, and his last year of probation. But at the final examination, he was 15 points or marks under the- required standard in Greek. For this seemingly to us a trivial matter, Mr Wills was adjudged a fifth year of probation, and to this he stoutly objected, appealing to be heard before Conference in his own defence. He was not heard The secret tribunal called the Committee of Discipline has not stated the offences ; perhaps they were afraid of being laughed at. It may be as well, also, for the Committee of Discipline to state why they, knowing that Mr Wills had placed his written resignation in the hands of the I President of the Conferenco before they had reported, made a report that, to worldly-minded people like ourselves looks bitterly malignant ? But Mr Wills is not the only victim of this clerical clique. The successor of Mr Wills in this ! district, the Rev. Oliver Dean, declared i on every hand to be an ornament of his profession, and to promise still greater things, has resigned his place in the Wesleyan Church and applied for employment to the Bishop of the Church of England. Will the Committee of Discipline explain the course which led to this most decisive step?