CHURCH DISCIPLINE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 64, 16 March 1903, Page 2

CHURCH DISCIPLINE.

MB BALFOUR'i TIBWS.

XXTRBMIBTB OH BOTH SIDES BLiMKD, Per Press Association. Received 15 4.46 p.*. London, March 14. Mr Mclver's Bill was read a second 'ime by 190 to 139, It proposes to btrengthen the existing machinery, d«prive offenders of benefices in*! id of impowig imprisonment, and t > abolish the bishops' veto, The Bill was not treated M a Government ques'iun. Mr Bilfour expressed his personal views He binned the extremists on oitb tides. The bishops, he said, had striven to repress illegalities, bat had not ful'y realised the depths of bittefnisn of the laity's feeling* towards Romaiix'ng practices. Laxity bad been a!lo«ed to grow up, snd it was imp's*ib!e t) eupress it by a violent stroke. Person il influenee htd effected a gr;at improvement. In no institute had '.hero been an exercise of the veto by Ve present Bishops, and abolition •vould not r.medy the difficulty. _ Ha would not consent to transfsr the laity's rights to a common informer, [llegalitits must be eupnssrd, bat not by tbo aiit nauon of a great body oI opinion whieh was abs lute'y loyal to the chut oh. He emphasized the Archbishop of Canterbury's declaration, and blamed the great historic moderate High Ohuroh party for net assisting tbe laity in the past. He would have supported the second reading had Ifr Mo[vor's f Jl iwers agreed to send this and Mr Otipps' measure to a select corn; mit'es. He considered that spiritual uuthori-y alone oould keep the churoh within proper lines. Sir W. Vernon Harcourt declared that the abolition of the veto would produoe different resutts in different dioceses.

Mr Grippe* Bill provides for • oolleo'ive veto. The minority included Mr Balfour, and most of tfce Ministers, 10 Nation* ulistp, and Messrs Buxton and Burns. The majority consisted of 60 Radicals *nd 60 Unionists. Many of the I Unionists and the bulk of the Nationallists abstained from voting.