BISHOP WALLIS IN ENGLAND.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 327, 14 October 1908, Page 4

BISHOP WALLIS IN ENGLAND.

AN INTERESTING LETTER, CHURCH CONFERENCES-OLD AGE PENSIONS. ' In the course of a letter to a friend in Wellington, the Andican Bishop of Wellington (Dr. Wallis), who is at present in England, states: — "You will have heard and read/ a good deal about tho Pan-Anglican Congress, but possibly you may not have been informed of the immense amount of work that was dona in preparation for it. All over tile country there were constant meetings extending oyer several months, and men and women studying the questions, which the congress afterwards met to discuss. Then pamphlets were circulated—l have . two large volumes in which they have been bound together—written by experts, both clerical and lay,' who were invited to treat these Questions, and 'did their work with great ability. And then came the congress itself. It is hard to say which was its most impressive characteristic. It was a revelation, for one thing, of the" vivid and widespread interest aroused by the problems. Ido not think that there was a single room or hall—you know that tho Albert Hall is a huge building, capable of holding some thousands —from which peoplo were riot turned away because they could find no admittance. ■ Then there was a fearlessness in facing questions which mijjht have been shirked, had there been less faith —silch, for instance, as questions connected with niaitiage, and with the decadence of births, which spell- so, great danger to Great Britain and to our own colony j or, again, social economics, of Ribliral criticism. It is uo small thing to say that there was. no exhibition of party feeling, for men wera lifted above such an atmosphere. I think that on the whole the best feature was tho hopefulness, based on faith iii God, which saw plainly all the dillicultiek in front, and yet resolved to go boldly forward, in certainty that He was with us, and leading us on.

"Then came the Conference of Bishops. I .have sent you a report, and you will sco. what we iip.re tried to do. lam not far enough Mvay from the work to take a dispassionate vieiv of its value. ,My present feeling is that the best work was that of the Committees on Reunion. You will seo that we have thought it our duty to abstain from any aetioli —though we did this with reluct-anee--\vhich would defofit our hope that at. Mine future day our Church may be ninda the instrument of uniting the ancient Clmrfihes of the East and West, though w« could not fall to s6e that this is a' distant prospect. But We have tried to make it plain that we longed to take sUch action as might be possible, without a sacrifice of truth on their part of on ours,* to draw nearer to ChristiftU people of bur own kith and kin. Not only sb, but we have tried to show that such action may be less difficult than many are disposed to think. There was eyidenca in particular of a very earnest longing for union between our own and the Presbyterian Church. In reading the report of the conference, you will, of coursc, remember that, wo have no legislative power: that belongs to tile constituted authorities of the various churches in our communion. "I look -forward with great interest to the future of the Government's Arbitration Act. Whether this measure be wise or not, it seems' to mo all act of considerable courage and forgetl'ulncss of self-interest for a Government to brihg forward sutli a measure on tile eve of a general election. ' "You will have heard of the pensions legislation ill this country.' It Was not a party measure; but efforts wero made on botb sides of the Uousfc to introduce the contributing element. I think tliis would liavo been done had men seen their way to overcome the practical difficulties. It was felt that the Scheme would be impracticable without a system of registration, etc., of the of workers, which is accepted ih Germany as a natural thing, but would not be tolerated by GUI- own tieople, employers tir employed."