The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1890. THE PRIMACY QUESTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2038, 26 April 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1890. THE PRIMACY QUESTION.

The Primacy question has at last been settled, and Bishop Hadfield has been reinstated in the position from which he had been ousted on technical grounds. Bishop Suter, of Nelson, has filled an unenvious position in the affair from beginning to the end There cannot he the slightest doubt but that he was right, and that the former election of Bishop Hadfield was altogether irregular, and consequently null and void. Many who did not give the case sufficient attention did not see this in the beginning, but a letter from a member of the Synod, which appeared in this paper some time ago, made the matter as plain as a pike-staff. How it was that a way out of the difficulty was not found long ago, is a question which no one can understand, but in our opinion the Bishops of Wellington and Dunedin had a great deal to do with the delay. They both insisted that the first election was valid, and refused to acknowledge the senior Bishop’s temporary primacy, and, of course, it was difficulty to act under such circumstances. - We are not satisfied that Bishop Suter acted altogether as well as he might have done. He was most unyielding throughout, and we are afraid that he cannot be exonerated from being covetous to secure the position for himself. Put plainly the Synod at first made a great “mull” of the election, and the Bishops muddled it very ludicrously. It is all very well for the Bishop of Nelson to say that the attempts made to create disunion failed, but the fact remains that the unpleasantness which arose out of the affair has damaged religion, and that a great deal of irreverence has been indulged in at the expense of the Church. All such dissensions damage not only the Church in which they occur but Christianity as a whole. They give the scoffer scope to indulge in his customary impieties, and thus wean away the weak-kneed and the wavering. There is nothing more hurtful to religion than dissensions amongst religionists, whether they are sectarian or of the nature of the Primacy question, and if Christians behave as Christians ought the scoffer would soon find his occupation gone,