The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1912. DISESTABLISHMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 280, 23 May 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1912. DISESTABLISHMENT.

The second reading of the Welsh Disestablishment Bill has been carried in the House of Commons by a quite respectable majority, although its enthusiastic supporters had confidently anticipated that the majority in their favor would have, been even larger. Still, it is fairly safe to assume that the Bill, with probably some minor amendments in the committee stage, will be placed upon the Statute Book this session, and that at last Wales will be rid of an incubus that has inflicted a very severe disability upon a large proportion of her population. Mr. McKenna's Bill is practically the same measure as failed to cross the perilous seas of Parliamentary procedure in 1909. Its passage, so far as Wales and Monmouth are concerned, will mean that the Church of England will cease to be established by law; that all cathedral and ecclesiastic corporations will be dissolved; that the Bishops of the four dioceses will cease to be Lords of 'Parliament; that the present ecclesiastical law will cease to exist as law, and no ecclesiastical court will j.'have any coercive jurisdiction, and that the Bishops and clergy will not be members of, or be represented in, the House of Convocation of the Province of Canterbury. But the main point around which fierce controversy has raged is the provision that the property which the law recognises as appropriated to the maintenance of the Church of England, including glebe lands and tithes, being property which was originally intended for the whole people, should, after the satisfaction of existing interests, be devoted to strictly national purposes, instead of being used for the benefit of those who profess a particular creed and follow a particular ritual. The contention is that a national institution which is maintained for the benefit of a section of the people is a national injustice, and for over thirty years the people of Wales have demanded, through the practically unanimous vote of their representatives in Parliament, the entire separation of Church and State. The case, to the democratic mind, is one of the most obvious justice. In a population of over two millions in Wales, the Church of England has only 193,081 communicants. The Nonconformist churches, on the other hand, have 550,280 members, and in addition the congregations of the Roman Catholic Church number 64,800. As a matter of simple fact, in the seating accommodation of the churches and mission halls, the Church of England provides room for only two out of every nine of the population. As against this it draws enormous revenues from endowments of ancient heritage, which are deI voted Solely to the upkeep of the church. The Government Bill, however, does full justice to existing interests. It secures the clergy against financial loss, gives the Bishops and incumbents their palaces and I

parsonages, and leaves the Church in possession of all its ecclesiastical buildings and the endowments specially ear-marked for their repair and restoration. The parochial property taken will he applied for the support of hospitals, the training of nurses for the sick poor, the provi■ion of public halls, institutes and libi i lies, technical and higher education, and other purposes of charity or public utility. Th'ere is surely nothing unjust in returning to the peopll to whom they belong the revenues which should be theirs as a moral right. Such a disposition of what is really national property is in no sense confiscation. It is argued, also, with every degree of reason, that if the Church of England in Wales is made self-supporting it will become a more vital power for good in the religious life of the country. This particular point of view works out significantly with the assistance of figures. There are about 1,100,000 Nonconformists in Wales, who subscribe £BIB,OOO a year to their churches. This works out at about 14s lOd per head. There are 785,000 churchmen in Wales, and at present they subscribe to the Church only at the rate of 6s 8d a year. If they contributed to their church funds on the same scale as the Nonconformists, the "free will offerings" would rise at once from £290,000 to £580,000, which is more than the entire income of the Church, with endowments included. The case for disestablishment, in fact, is so complete that the wonder is not that it is within appreciable distance, but that it should have been delayed so long.