CORRESPONDENCE. Correspondents' opinions are not necessarily ours. RICH AND POOR.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Issue 49, 29 April 1899, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE. Correspondents' opinions are not necessarily ours. RICH AND POOR.

(to the editor.) Sir, — It seems ungeneious to ciitieise a man's opinions after he has gone away and is in no position to leply, but if he does not uttei them until the eve of his depaituie, w hat is one to do? It supnsed me a good deal to read your leport of the Ee\. Mi Dukes' faiewell speech : "He had nevei been &ta''tionedina circuit wheie he had seen so '• much poveity as in Waimate; a few seemed •'to get very nch while veiy many weie in " exheme poveity. a condihoa of things whicn " called tor letnedy and which he had befoie " denounced." If Mi Dukes denounced tln.° t ung befoie, I was not awaie of it, and should ji\p to know what his lemedj is, and what he did to piomote the leirely. lam not saying t'M-. in anvcaipmg spnit, because I behe\e that Mr Dukes was a man who would do Ms 1 e->t accoiclmg to his means, and he may have found the local influences too stiong foi him, but I want enlightenment. The time was when Waimate had the leputation of being tie most piosperous place in the South Island. Woik was plentiful at the highest wages, and theie weie none leallv poor except the idle and the mcious. Now, howe\ei,a man who has tia\eiled a gieat deal tolls us thatweha\e attained that worst of all social conditions, a few exceedingly nch and many exceedingly poor. As Mr Dukes'd inteicouise would be chiefly with the people ot his ov\n denomination, it is peihar- nioie especially to them that the descnption app 12s rather th** 1 - _. I'ne community at laige. If ...j, hib statement is even moie lemarkable, because the Wesleyan body ought to be one of the last, if not the veiy last, among winch such a state of things should obtain. But Mr Dukes will be awaie that the Wesleyanism ot the piesent day is not the Weslejanism of John WesJey, and it his descnption applies to his own community nothing could show that fact moie foicibly. Heie is what the founder of the system pleached to his followeis a little while befoie his death: "The designei by " procuring moie of this woild's goods than "will supply the plain necessanes of life, not " delicacies, not supeifluities -the laboniing l% after a laiger measuieof woildly substance : "a laiger roeasiue of gold and silvei, the " laying up any moie than these endsie qune "is expiessly and absolutely foibidden. "Whoevei did not abide by this command- " inent practically denied the faith, was woise " than an Afucan infidel, became an abomina- '• tion in the sight of God, and pmchased for " himself hellfiie." But John Wesley inculcated the tr iding pi inciple among his followeis, that is, that they should gi\e the piefeience to each other in business, and so long as his followeis were poor men who weie deteimined never to get nch, but to gne away all their superfluities, no great haim zesulted, but when gieed stepped in and began to piactice on it it became one of the most baneful featuies of his sect. It is veiy hugely the bane, not only of the Wesleyan, but of other denominations in Waimate. Why men go to church, and delibeiately own it, for the sake of obtaining a business connection ! A man who attempts business in Waimate without identifying himself with some lehgious clique, however excellent his chaiactcr, and however s alful in his own line, will soon find himself in the way of being stai ved out. Men and women who call thembolves chnstians, and some of whom aie Ihewselves poor and cain their living very haidly, will, yeai in and year out, pass by a struggling tiadesman who can baiely obta n sabsistance and is fietting his soul at undeseived neglect, to spend their money with the wealthy man who belongs to theii paiticulai clique. It is a veiy inhuman Christianity, but laigely lesponoib'le for the evil which Mr Dukes has found heie. A return to the Wesleyanism of Wesley, not only by the people of that denomination, but by otheis,, would go a gieat way to cine it. Said We.ley. shoitly befoie his death: "I fear " wheiever liches have mci eased the essence "of lehgion has decieased in the same " pioporiton. . . . What way then can " we take that our money may not sink us to "the netbeimost Hell ? . . . Heard " nothinpr, lay up no tieasure on earth, but " give all you can— that is, all you have. '• . . . lam pained for you that are rich "in tnis world. 'However I must provide "for my childien !' Certainly; but how? "By making them lieh ? Then you will " piobably make them heathens as some of " you have done already. Secure them "enough to live on, not in idleness and

'• luxuiy, but by honest industry. And if " you have not clnldien, upon what Scuptu- " lal or rational piinciple can you leave " behind you more than will buiy you ' ? Oh, '• leave nothing behind you ! Send all you " have before jou into a better woild !" — I am, etc., Cosmos.