BACKBLOCKS MISSION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 307, 22 May 1911, Page 7

BACKBLOCKS MISSION.

To the Editor. " •■ Sir, —Some months ago you very gen* erpusly allowed me through your columns to make an appeal to members of the Cliurch of England, and to enlist their (sympathy on. behalf of the Home Mission or Baekblocks Mission in the Afen- ! deaconry of Taranaki. I had hoped then, when through the Stress of circumstances I had to remove the second'man from Taranaki, that at least the stipend of one man Would be provided. I was'mis.taken. Stubborn facts are forcing me once more to crave your kind hospitality ■An order to bring the condition of the Mission to-day before the eyes of the members of the Church of England. , -At this date of writing the Home Mission is responsiblefor the sum of #2040 •per annum in stipends alone. Towards .this large sum the Taranaki Home' Mission District only contributed the'sum ofii.6-23 Is (Id during the whole of the last financial year—April Ist, 1910, to ; Jrlarch 31st, 1911. If the Mission worked Fukien, Llassa, or Darfur, ■could we expect less support? When I iftatoe into consideration the fact that the Mission has been working in to rich district like Taranaki since 11)08, r-ilnd- that it has had : some of the, best r.men of our staff, and the present Home Mission Priest is no exception, I cannot help but feel, and it is extremely pain- \ ful for me to have to confess it, that the Mission has failed to elicit the sympathy and loyal support of those members of our Church amongst whom it operates, and without whose hearty support the condition is hopeless. This being so I must face the fact whether I am not justified in withdrawing the mission from Taranaki, at least for the present, and concentrating noon j other parts of the diocese where the I needs are tremendous, where the people j are constantly appealing for Mission ■ Priests, and where there is a promise of i hearty and loyal support. ■ ■ Facts and the experience of some years 'have forced me to the conviction that ( the Home Mission can only continue its i work in Taranaki. with any prospect of 1 permanency and usefulness, when the '•Govett-Biown-Bolland Memorial Fund" i yields a revenue of at least £l5O per ■.annum, and thus renders the position of 1 the Mission Priest practically independent of the p"ople amongst whom he works. Ami this can be done. I feel, therefore, that strenuous efforts should , be made immediately to increase the 1 capital of the fund. At present it yields ;.the sum of £9O per annum; and. when- , ever Hip mission is withdrawn from Tara- • naki, this, in accordance with the trust, •must be added to the principal. It ought not. therefore, be a verv difficult thing to do, nor should it take a long time to bring the capital of the fund up to this standard.

r I'ppl verv.srieved indeed to have to write this letter, but in loyalty to other parts of the diocese, where there are hundreds mid hundreds of people totally unprovided for, i am constrained to do km. I luivp done all 1 could for the Home Mission District of Tarannki, and 1 must now franklv hut sadly makp thp i)iiblie confession that I have failed.—r am, &'c., R. 11. COLE. Arehileneon of Tnranaki and Kunerititendent of the Diocesan Home Mission. Auckland, May 18, 11)11.