COLONIAL CLERGYMEN.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7266, 28 January 1889, Page 3

COLONIAL CLERGYMEN.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —Your correspondent "X" is, of course, quite at liberty to have his little fling at the clergy if it gives him any pleasure. They will not be hurt by the attack, but it does pain them and all troth loving men to see a letter published with so little regard to fact. He says—" The letter of the Rev. Mr White . . . gives us an idea of the petty qualities he finds in our clergy, and which he warns them against." Now, if your readers will turn to your issue of the 14th inst they will see that what the Rev. Mr White really does say is thia---" According to the ' new blood' fallacy the colonial Church is in a state of stagnation; its ministers are not abreast of the times, and the introduction of a man acquainted with the latest methods of work is therefore desirable. To the main assertion here I oppose a firm denial. I believe it to be untrue that the average colonial clergyman is inferior to his English, Irish, or Scotch brothers." Again, in speaking of the mission conducted here some four years ago by two mlssioners from England, he says, " I believe that that mission could have been quite as usefully and ably conducted by men on the spot; that not only two but two dozen men could be named in New Zealand, whose words would have been as weighty, whose methods wonld have been as judicious." These are hardly the words for a man to use who is trying to describe the "petty qualities" of the men he is writing about. In the next place I deny that the Rev. Mr White* letter is meant in any sense as a warning to tbe clergy against petty qualities. If "X" will read it a little more carefully he will see that what warning there is in it is meant rather for tbe lay members of the Church. He has, therefore, doubly misrepresented Mr White. . With regard to the last paragraph of your correspondent's letter, I fancy he will 'get few to join him in the hope that our I next Bishop will be a man who would attempt such an absurd thing as to " take the bull by the horns and thoroughly purge I the garner." Any farmer would tell him he couldn't do it.—Yours* &c.,

A Danish officer, Captain Holstein, has invented a portable bullet-proof shield tor two soldiers. It may be easily carried and fixed, and the men can then coolly blaze away from behind, either with rifles or a machine gun, without being picked off by anvtbtag less penetrating titan a cannon