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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 44, 3 November 1904, Page 18

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The Bishop's • Dairy Farm ' A rather good story is being told just now a t the expense of Bishop Neligan, the Anglican Bishop of Auckland. The good bishop is a Londoner, out and out, and is not exactly an authority on the subject of farming. lie was speaking at the Synod the other day on the parable about the paople who couldn't come to the feast ' because they had married a wife,' and -so on, and he went on to say that people were just as trumpery in their excuses to-day. After casting about for an up-to-date illustration, the Bishop finally delivered himself of the following : ' Another man says : "I have bought a team ol oxen, and am about to start a dairy farm.'' ' The mental picture of a man setting out with a team of oxen to start a dairy farm was too much for the gravity of even a Church Synod and the assembled clerics smiled long and loud. A Practical Step Towards Reunion By far the most practical step towards reunion that we have yet seen is the suggestion contained in a letter which appeared in a recent issue of the ' Lamp,' an ' ad-* vanced ' Anglican paper published in America. The letter is* as follows : Dear Sir,— Would it not be possible for some organised system for the payment of Peter's Pence to oc arranged 'by the " Lamp ? ' Surely this would be a

most excellent step towards Reunion. Surely the cime has Come when we, who are dead in earnest about it, ought to take some definite step, and here is one we can take at once. When this has been fairly started otners will suggest themselves. Yours very truly, An English Reader. Clapham, S.W. The editorial footnote appended to the letter is also Mgmiieanl, and worth reproducing. It is in these terms: (Two appropriate dates' for the semi-annual payment of Peter's Pence would he the festivals of St Peter's Chair at Home, January 18, and St. Peter's Chains, ■Augiust 1. The proper person to send Peter's Pence to is the Papal Secretary of St.ate, Cardinal Merry del Yal, the Vatican, Rome, Italy.— Ed the ' Lamp.') Pious talk about reunion is very cheap and may mean little, but there can be no doubt about the earnestness of people who are prepared to put their hands in their j jiocKets. Ants-Ritualist Inconsistency The Sydney ' Bulletin ' does not set up to be much of an authority on matters of theology, but it gets home rather neatly on the idiotic inconsistency of Hie English Kensit brigade. At the Liverpool (England) Anglican Church Congress the other day (the paper says) the Bishop of -Madagascar appeared wearing a cross, and got a reception from the Dill Mackyite section of the meeting which nearly amounted to clods. He was called • renegade ' and ' apostate,' and told in an excited bellow to 'go over to Rome.' The Dill Mackyite uses a hymn-book out of which he sings hollow caaences, that sound like the wind moaning in a paper bag, about 1 clinging to the cross,' and he also bids the sinner to fiy to the cross,' ami yet wihen he sees a fcross he is more than half-inclined , to spit on it, and he jumps and uses football language. There are recesses in the Dilute mind that take a great deal of exploring. An Unfinished Tragedy and a Timely Hint A minister wished to as-certain what influence the hard time^ had upon his congregation, a nd said, at the close ot his sermon : ' I would ask everyone who still is able to pay ms debts to rise from his seat.' The whole congregation rose, with the exception of one man The parson then asked that all those who were unable to meet their bills should rise. Thereupon the aforementioned solitary individual got up, a hungry•looking, poorly-clad man, whose features revealed the terrible struggle of one fighting hopelessly against the vicissitudes of thus world. The minister regarded him attentively, yet kindly. ' How is it, my friend,' he said, ' that you are the only one among all these people who cannot pay Ins debts "> ' ' Sir,' answered the man, hesitatingly, ' sir, 1111 1 1 publish a newspaper,; and tjiese my brothers who rose just now arc all subscribers, and ' But the minister interrupted him hastily. ' Let us pray,' he saiu.