The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1913. WELSH DISESTABLISHMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 33, 7 February 1913, Page 4

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

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1913. WELSH DISESTABLISHMENT.

For ihe cause that lacks aeeiatmnm, For the wrong that needs resistanoe, For the future in the distance, And the good thai we oen do.

Up to the passing of the Parliament Act and the consequent abolition of the Lords' veto, the third reading of a Bill in the Lower House did not necessarily mean that it would become law. But now that the Asquith Government has effectually broken the power of the Lords, everybody understands that the adoption of the Home Rule and the Welch Disestablishment Bills on their third reading by the Commons renCers the final enactment of these measures a question of a very short time; and the advocates of Welsh Disestablishment today are just as confident and triumphant as if the BUI they have so long fought for were already on the Statute Book. Nor is it difficult to understand the excitement and intensity of feeling that have marked the passage of the Welsh Disestablishment Bill through Parliament. For it is in every sense a national measure, and the patriotic instincts of the Welsh people have be<m stirred by it as deeply as Nationalist fervour has been moved in Ireland by Home Rule. At the same time the obstinacy of the resistance offered by the Anglicans to this long delayed reform has encouraged the Unionists to make party capital out of the Bill and its provisions to an almost unparalleled extent; and the passing of the Bill by a majority of over one hundred votes is not more a triumph, for Mr. Lloyd George and Wales than a victory for Mr. Asquith and Liberalism.

So much has be<>n written about Welsh Disestablishment during the past twenty years that it ou-ght to be almcst superfluous to analyse the arguments in its favour now. The rcaJ questions at issue are simple enouph, though, as Mr Lloyd George remarks, they have been obecur-. Ed "by a cloud of irrelevant and inaccurate statistics be-aten up by one or two imaginative ecclesiastics." It cannot be denied that "for a generation the Welsh people 'have, by large and steady majorities, demanded tha.t the national recognition of religion in their country should be left to a voluntary organisation, and not to State regulation, and they have declared that even if they had come to the. conclusion that an official exponent of religion were required at all in. the land, the Anglican Church in no way represents their views on spiritual questions." On such matters it ie obvious that, as Mr. Lloyd George. has co often insisted "the people of any country have an undoubted claim not merely to be heard but to give a final decision." That is the sole demand of the Welsh nation voiced in , the Disestablishment Bill; and most colonial Liberals will agree with the Chancellor of the Exchequer that no sane man can deny its justice. As to the inference to which Mr. Lloyd George has committed himself and Parliament, that if the Anglican Church in Wales is disestablished it must ateo be disendowed, this, it seems to us, is the only logical conclusion that can be drawn from the facts of the case. The endowments of the Established Church in Wales were founded not solely for religious but largely for secular purposes—the maintenance of the poor, the care of the sick, the education of the whole community. "The State Church clergy aro too apt to regard themselves as the beneficiaries of those national funds- They were only the trusteos. The beneficiaries are the people of Wales."' And it ia chiefly because the Disestablishment Bill, by disendowing the Church, would restore to the Welsh nation its interest in the charges imposed and the trusts created for its benefit, that it has secured for itself the sympathy and support of so many Liberals throughout the Empire.

The statistical evidence round which most of the controversy over this Bill has centred is rather complicated and confusing. It is, however, certain that since the redistribution of seats in 1833 a very large majority of the Welsh members, ranging from 16 to 33 out of 34, hare consistently supported both Disestablishment and Disendowment. "There is no Ulster in Wales"-—no dissentient district which holds out against the prevailing opinion of the country as a whole. And this unanimity renders the case for Welsh Disestablishment overwhelmingly strong. Not even in Ireland, where the demand for Disestablishment was so insistent, and its effects so admirable, was there anything like the "enormous preponderance in nwnwir.nl strength" claimed by Mr. Lloyd George for his supporters in Wales. The most careful examination of the figures compiled by militant churchmen shows that the Nonconformists in Wales outnumber the professed adherents of the Established Church by more than three to one. As to the relative rates of expansion by the different churches, it appears that the Anglican Church membership has increased by about 2000 a. year during the past seven years, and that the Nonconformist increase has been about 7000 a year; so that the Anglican Church to-day is certainly not doing more than hold its own in Wales. Further, it is interesting to note that in the report of the Royal Commission of 1906 it is Stated that about £300,000 a year was raised for the support of the Anglican Church, and about £820,000 a year by the far poorer classes who make up the membership of the Nonconformist Churches.

The Welsh ■ Nonconformists have there-1 fore proved fheir claim, that they do more for their own faith than the Anglicans, and they have justified their demand "to be heard when they ask for the abolition of a system which is alien to them in origin, in sentiment, and in religious doctrine, and which imposes heavy hardens upon their country.

As to the effects tnat will be secured by the Disestablishment Bill, its supporters claim that it will benefit the Anglican Church quite as much as Wales. It will set the Church free from the ecclesiastical courts, and prevent ritual prosecutions and actions at law in matters of church discipline. It will give the Welsh Anglican Church a large measure of independence without interfering with the spiritual authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It will abolish patronage, it will, remove four bishops from the House of Lords, and it will liberate the Anglican bishops and clergy in Wales from the control of Convocation—all in the opinion of a large majority of Churchmen "consummations devoutly to be wished." As regards the financial aspect of the change, the Episcopal opponents of the Bill have declared that it would leave to the Anglican Church in Wales only 1/6 in the £ of its present income. But Mr. Lloyd George has proved categorically that the effect o,f dis&ndowrnent would be to leave the Church witih 15/8 for every £ of its preeent revenue, and that ihe 10*5 vr.iuld thus be only 4/4 in the £; and this deficit oould be made up by a contribution of Id. per week from all the Anglicans of Wales. One result of Bisendowment would certainly be to reduce the salaries of the four Welsh bishope, who all receive over £4,000 a year—it may be remarked in passing that such ds tinguished public men as Lord AJor'.ty, •the Postmaster-General, the Stwrelarv for Scotland, and the official head of the Board of Education receive at the meet £2,500 a year. But it would j-'ivc all the Anglican clergy hi Wales a fixed salary, and relieve them from ,- the chaoa of tithe, glebe, and dilapidations," on which their incomes now darned- It

may be an over-eanguine view of the position to assert that fella only hope of uhe Anglican Church in Wales Jβ Disestablishment and Disendowment. But it should be enough, to urge in favour of the Bill that it is "the one measure-that wild emancipate the laity; the one hope that in Wales, as in Ireland, men, as well as women and children, may find it possible to worship at the altars of an ancient Communion without the humiliation oi linding that in matters of doctrine, and of ritual, of finance, of patronage, and of ecci<siiastical policy, an endowed epiecopucy and on endowed clergy will brook no interference- from . the people in the pew." .And one alone is, in our opinion, enough' to justify Mr. Lloyd George's great experiment.