The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1890.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 276, 22 November 1890, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1890.

For the taue that lao&s assistance, For the irronc that needs resiitance, Eor the fatari in tht dUtanoe, And the good that -w» can do.

The Wesleyan District Meeting, which i 3 now being held in this city, is of more than ordinary importance to th e members of that denomination. The Jubilee of Colonial Methodism is coeval with that of the colony itself, and the present year marks off a period which will ever be looked back upon with pride and satisfaction by the future chroniclers of our civil and religious history. True, we have made mistakes both in political and ecclesiastical matters, and, like all young nations, have had to gain wisdom by experience; but though the retrospect induces feelings of a somewhat mixed character, we think that of congratulation predominates. This is not confined to secular interests. The ecclesiastical power of the colony has become consolidated, and has its red-letter year of Jubilee festivities and rejoicings. In the early days;of the colony the missionaries of the various , religious bodies rendered valuable service to the Government, and among them were many men whose names have now become historical in the annals of New Zealand Methodism.

While congratulating this enterprising denomination upon its triumphs and successes in the past, and its present proud position in the colony, we are led to notice a crisis'th'roiigh which English Methodism is at present passing. The Wesleyan branch of the MethodUt family has always been marked for its conservative tendencies and its disposition to remain in statu quo both with regard to doctrme and mode of church government. Of late years the opening of English Universities to dissenters and the revolution in the religious thought of the age has not been without a marked influence on the English Methodist bodies. Young Wesleyau ministers, covered with academical honours, and with their brains throbbing -with the religious thought prevailing for the time being at Oxford or Cambridge, have grown rather tired of the jog-trot style, and have panted for a fuller and freer expression of religious life. These more advanced thinkers, joined to the bolder and more enterprising members of the Methodist laity, have for several years past been agitating a series of reforms, and have been slowly but surely moulding Methodism to suit the requirements of the age. The old conservative party has contested every inch of the ground, but is retreating slowly with flying colours and a good many Parthian shafts. The first great victory won by the liberal party was the introduction of lay representation into the governing bodies of Methodism. Hitherto the Conference had been composed exclusively of ministers, who appointed themselves to circuits and conducted the whole legislative machinery of Methodism, without any direct reference to the laity. It was felt that a practice so out of touch with the free spirit of the times could not be maintained, and a few years ago, after a prolonged struggle, a partial representation was allowed to laymen. So far the liberals have only gained a half victory. The stationing of preachers and the administration of discipline are retained in clerical hands, but the laymen arc represented in the sessions of Conference which deal with the various trusts and financial administration! The effect of even the partial victory gained by the liberal party was very manifest in the proceedings of the English Wesleyan Conference three months ago. In the Pastoral Session (which precedes the Representative Session, in which laymen are included) the reverend senators had the fear of the Liberals constantly before their eyes. " What will the laymen say ?" was the keynote of the Pastoral Session. The chief clerical exponent of the policy of the liberal party is the Rev. H. P, Hughes, M.A., a man of versatile gifts, who, as editor of the " Methodist Times," the organ of the liberals, occupies a similar position in Methodist journalism to that held by Mr W. T. Stead among English secular journalists. The powerful pen of Mr Hughes has constantly advocated reform, and he is the idol of the Wesleyan liberals. The quintessence of Methodist Conservatism is represented by Dr. Osborn, an ancient but excellent cleric, who was bom out of bis age,

and whose ideas smack of the time which is generally associated with the Ark grounding on the Mountains of Ararat. What has been said of the Bourbons is true of the" venerable doctor and a few of his colleagues : •' They never learn anything and they never forget anything." The legislative ideas of Dr. Osborn, however valuable they might have been in the Noachic era, seem strangely out of date a.d. 1890. Several measures proposed and carried by the liberals caused the Osborn party to fill the Conference Hall with their vociferations, but the proposal they deemed most revolutionary, or ;which, to use their own phraseology, called for " the greatest humiliation and searching of hearts," was a movement made by the liberals for the admission of professional reporters to the Conference. The reports of Wesleyan Conferences have been from time immemorial furnished to the press by amateur reporters appointed by the Conference from its own members. This arrangement has for some years past been unsatisfactory, both to the press and to many members of the Methodist body. Some years ago one of the leading Australian journals objected to admit any reports of Conference proceedings unless furnished by press reporters. Since the admission of laymen to the English Conference, the feeling of dissatisfaction has been intensified. To a number of intelligent lay representatives, including several members of Parliament, it seemed absurd that while every other ecclesiastical body in the kingdom admitted press representatives, the Conference should persist in maintaing an obsolete practice. The press, on its side, took a decided stand. The London "Times" announced that it would never again report the proceedings of Conference till its own reporters were admitted. Several other journals followed suit, and the Institute of Journalists forwarded a communication in which they persisted in a demand they had previously made that the Conference should accept the same amount of publicity as had been cheerfully accepted by every other ecclesiastical assembly in the country. The Osborn patty took fright. Visions of journalistic Wat Tylers floated before their eyes, and when the measure was introduced they could not have been more dismayed if they had been informed that a revolutionary mob had arisen and was marching on the Conference. A measure to introduce a corps of ballet dancers could hardly have been more distasteful to the conservatives than the proposal to admit a few young journalists to the reporters' table. The Pastoral Session threw out the measure, but in the Representative Session the liberals were at last triumphant. In a Conference of 316 representatives, the following resolution was carried by a majority of 108 votes: —» That professional reporters be admitted under proper regulations to' the Representative Session of Conference, their attendance to be suspended at the option of the President j this regulation to come into operation at the Conference of 1891." It will be seen that even yet something remains to be done. The business of the Pastoral Session, including the stationing of ministers, is still to be conducted in a semi-private manner. But in the interests of Methodism this cannot long continue. The English laymen are by no means willing that the Conference should be boycotted by the press, and, as they justly argue, while there is nothing to conceal this sort of twilight legislation gives occasion for groundless suspicion. •■' Let everything be done above board," was a. saying of John Wesley, and it has been taken up as the rallying cry of the liberal party among his followers. It is confidently anticipated that much greater public interest will be felt in the proceedings of a Conference which one of its members modestly styled "the greatest ecclesiastical assembly in the world" when its debates are reported by professional journalists. Methodism itself will share largely in the benefit. Dr. Osborn and his friends will, no doubt, view the advent of the reporters at the next Conference with similar feelings to those which agitated tbe clerical mind when Preciosa danced before the Cardinals. Let U3 hope the finale will be similar, and that at the close of the Conference performance the venerable doctor and his friends will show their satisfaction by vigorously applauding and throwing up their hats. So far as colonial Methodism is concerned, the New Zealand Conference has always been distinguished for its broad spirit, and desire to adopt liberal measures. It is hampered in this respect by its connection with the Australasian Conference. A few years ago a broad and statesmanlike pro* po&al for union with the minor Methodist bodies was negatived by tbe Australian representatives. Some of the leading ministers in the New Zealand Conference are anxious that laymen should be admitted to the Stationing Committee, and in this they are supported by the editor of the Victorian " Methodist Spectator," and by some of their most, intelligent ministers in that colony, including the Rev. W. H. Fitchett, 8.A., whose caustic pen is so often used in the cause of freedom and progress. Tbe New Zealand Wesleyans are desirous to celebrate their fiftieth year o* work among the Europeans in the colony by the establishment of a Jubilee Fund. The measure is entrusted to the Rev. W. Morley, whose explanation of its objects has already appeared in our reports. The state of financial depression that prevails in the colony is not favourable to the raising of funds for special purposes, and at the present time many of the Wesleyan circuits are seriously embarrassed, and some of the ministers living on starvation pittances; but we do not

doubt that the aggressive spirit of Methodism will triumph over all difficulties, and that a substantial Jubilee Fund will be raised and remain as a fitting memorial of the trials and difficulties experienced, and of successful work accomplished, in the colony by that branch of the Christian Church known as the Wesleyan Methodist denomination.