BACK FROM ENGLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 180, 29 January 1912, Page 6

BACK FROM ENGLAND.

BISHOP NEVILL'S IMPRESSIONS, < FASHIONABLE CHURCHES FULL. After a sojourn of some months in England the Primate of New Zealand, Bishop Nevill, of Dunedin, returned to the Dominion last week by the Tainui. Though now well past his seventieth year, Bishop Nevill retains much of the j vigor of his early days, and appears to ! have recovered completely from the illness which overtook him while in England. "Do you think that the church is losing her influence on the people of ( England?" a reporter. asked. The Bishop replied that it was hard to : make comparisons over such a wide area as the Church at Home covered. "I went to churches of every color," lie eoiitinued, "and I found that in every case the attendance was very good—much better than I expected. It is said that the men are going to church less now than formerly, but I did not find that so. Some of the churches that were surprisingly well-attended had quite as many men as women in the congregation. In one very high church which I went to the men were separated from the women, and there were fully as many of the one as of the other. "Of the working people I am not so well-qualified to judge, as I did not go into the East End, where the greater numbers of them are, but I do not think there is any falling oil in their adherence to the church. They do not like going into fashionable churches, whore the people arc well-dressed. The fashionable churches I found were all full, though, of course, there is a great number of people outside the church who never attend. 'T do not believe that the Church's influence is waning. lam not at all one of those croakers of whom one hears so much." WORK AMONG THE WORKING CLASS. Bishop Nevill added that there was a difficulty in working among the multitude of people of the East End, as many of them were not English at all, but Jews and of other foreign races. POLITICS. "It is not for me to criticise Parliamentary aifairs," said the Bishop, "but I think there is a general feeling of disgust at the present trend of things. There is a very strong feeling in regard to the attempt to swamp the House of Lords with Ave hundred new peers. I should say that no man is much more disliked than Mr. Lloyd George. I observed this feeling not in one circle only, but in many classes." The feeling in England in regard to Home Rule, Bishop Nevill thought, was that it would never be carried. He did not enquire into the subject specially, but meeting and dining with various members of Parliament, that was the imprssglon that he formed.