MORALS OF KAWHIA

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30152, 8 June 1963, Page 17

MORALS OF KAWHIA

Church Paper Reports

The parish of Kawhia is "on tile move" after publicity of tiie criticism by the vicar, the Rev. J. F. Y. Spear, says an article in the latest issue of ‘ ‘Church and People." the Anglican newspaper Persons needing help have come forward to ask for it and various schemes have been started, the paper reports. The Kawhia incident is also the subject of a leading article in the same newspaper. “Kawhia and its vicar were headline news last month when press and radio, borrowing from our columns, reported criticism of lax morals and other social aberrations One reporter who called there briefly went home to write that Kawhia hardlv merited all this attention. It was. he said, no better and no worse than many other places.” the leading article says.

“This sublime statement simultaneously makes and misses the whole point at issue. No-one. least of all the vicar of Kawhia (the Rev J. F. Y. Spear) has said that Kawhia is, worse than many other places. The vicar, in tact, specifically said Kawhia's transgressions were part of a world-wide trend. i ' ‘‘As pastor of this particular stretch of coastal country. the vicar has a responsibility and a right to say bluntly what these transgressions are, and as parish priest he is better placed then any casual visitor to know and assess them. We have yet to read any statement that convincingly challenges his criticism. “If. then, we accept Kawhia as being no better and no worse than many other places, what does this say for the country as a • whole—a country where many (50 per cent, according to one estimate) brides are pregnant and a growing proportion of births are out of wedlock, where the crime rate for youth increased nearly five times in 10 years and gang rape is almost commonplace, a country where a major proportion of divorces are granted on grounds of adultery? “Of course one may—so far as we know—walk down the main street of any New Zealand town at midday without suffering violence and without stumbling over couples in the act of adultery so perhaps it is absurd to trouble ourselves with these things. “The fact that Mr Spear’s parish has rallied around him suggests that Kawhia people do not share this complacency. and that they are glad they have someone among them who has the courage to speak the truth.”