CHURCH AND LABOUR DISCUSSED BY ANGLICAN SYNOD TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS. [BY TELEGRAPH—SPECIAL TO THE POST.] CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 93, 16 October 1913, Page 2

CHURCH AND LABOUR DISCUSSED BY ANGLICAN SYNOD TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS. [BY TELEGRAPH — SPECIAL TO THE POST.] CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

At a conference of the clerical and lay members of the Christchurch Diocesan Synod yesterday, an interesting debate took place on a motion by the Rev. J. L. Mortimer : "That it is a moral obligation on the Church to study the Labour movement with the deepest Bympathy, and to further the cause of La"bour by every possible means." Continuing, Mr. Mortimer said that the Labour movement was teaching^ the Christian Church at least one thing, and that wav to be catholic. The Labour movement made of brotherhood a very real and vital thihg, and the Church must follow that example. (Hear, hear.) The great army of Labour was quite certain that it had no hope outside its own efforts, and was equally confident of its ability to solve the problems which at present vexed the world. The Labour movement aimed at a revival of Christian civilisation. It was not merely- a matter of bread and butter this movement. For three hundred years civilisation had been definitely anti-Christian, and Labour desired to restore it and reform it. It was sometimes sneeringly said that all the workers were concerned with was "an extra bob a day." Considering the importance of his remuneration to the man with his nose to the grind of adversity, it would not be very surprising if this was the case; but it was not true. The mainspring of the Labour movement was no* Qesire for material gain, but a desire for justice and a better and more Christian civilisation. God had given the world great inventors and great inventions ; in return, man had set about the wholesale ruin of his fellows in such great industrial cities as Glasgow and Newcastle. Christianity abolished slavery, but when the Christian slate was shattered there- was a, reversion to the rule of greed and soulless avarice. : Mr. J. Braddick said that eighteen ■ years ago, when he started work as an agricultural labourer, the wages of men were about sixteen shillings a week. They now earned 27s 6d to 30s, practically a rise of 100 per cent. He had been in the grocery business for some time past, and he knew that groceries had not gone up 10 per cent. It was the Church's function to preach the virtue of contentment; not to take part in a movement of discontented men who believed that Jack should be as good as his master. (Loud applause.) CHURCH SHOULD FIGHT INJUSTICE. The Rev. Mr. Money said he wanted to know why the church should be supposed to stand by and administer a BOporific to those who were likely to endanger the dividends of well-to-do members of the flock. So long as there was any injustice it was surely the duty of the church to fight that injustice. It was easy to talk about the extravagance of the workers and the iniquity of Jack presuming to be as good as his master, but that did not dispose of the church's duty in this matter. As a concrete instance of how the church was neglecting its duty he would instance the case of Wellington, where tramway conductors risked their lives daily on the footboard of trams. There was only one man in Wellington who spoke on behalf of the men; 'he was a city councillor, and so far as the speaker knew he never entered a church. They were told that these terrible labour agitators were .all tho time determined to foment strife and precipitate strikes. He knew some of the members of the executive of the Federation, of Labour, and could give that a flat denial. CLERGY SHOULD FIRST PUT THEIR OWN HOUSE IN ORDER. Mr. F. L. D. Ferriman urged that^he clergy should put their own house in order before they started to ditscuss this matter. If they all pooled their salaries from bishops down to curate, and shared out alike, on the lines of primitive Christian brotherhood, they might convince the workers, of their sincerity. WORKERS' TROUBLES DUE TO EXTRAVAGANCE. 1 The Rev. P. H. Pritchett said that his experience of the Labour movement was that it was not, like Christian Socialism, an uplifting movement, but a movement on the part of those at the bottom to pull down others to their own level. The workers' troubles were mostly due to extravagance, thriftlessness, and shiftlessness. There was a tendency in New Zealand to exalt manual labour above all other forms of work. A speech like that of Mr. Money did more damage to Mr. Mortimer s case than anything else could, because he used such extravagant language. DEMOCRATISE THE CHURCH. Canon H. D. Burton said he must confess that he was hopelessly at sea in regard 'to Labour problems in New Zealand. He had talked to Mi 1 . Mortimer for hours; he had talked to Mr. Edward Tregear, and he talked to capitalists ; but the Labour leaders did not know wliat they wanted. The movement talked about " smashing " people and "smashing" things, and it gave the lie to the people, as Mr. Money did, and altogether it was run' on lines that seemed to him un-Christian to say the least of it. He had no doubt whatever that the time had come when gredi accretions of capital must be dispersed and taken out of private hands. They must democratise the Church and take all the tickets off all the pews, but they must not neglect the conversion of the capitalist. They must not regaixl him as an outcast because he ground down and exploited another class. Mr. Tregear suggested very drastic taxation of the great capitalist, and that was the only constructive piece of legislation Mr. Tregear was able to suggest. It had the speaker's entire approval, but it hardly went far enough. ' Mr. Wilfred Hall said that Canon Burton seemed convinced that the capitalists were doing wrong. 'Canon Burton said he had carefully abstained from doing anything of the sort. Mi*. Hall said that he was sorry if he were mistaken. He understood, however, that Mr. Tregear's plan for taxation of capitalists and the distribution of the proceeds among the people met with Canon Burton's approval. That simply showed that the Church should not discuss these matters. If there were not accumulations of capital, how would the workers live? If the capital were distributed_ among the workers, who would dissipate it on pleasure, the result must be a rise in the cost of production and a reduction of the general standard of living. Dean Carrington said that in the course of a good many years of experience among colliers and ironworkers he had been greatly struck by the inability of the average business man to appreciate the workers' standpoint. The Labour movement was not in essence a movement to grab more money ; it was founded on a deep-rooted sense of wrong or injustice. He had 700 men suddenly turned off from work, after, perhaps, twenty or thirty years' work in the same colliery, simply in order to facilitate some financial juggling "by limited liability companies. Such a power should not be permitted to be used in such a way. Ho described ■ the- systeni. of-"profit-

sharing" devised- by a British linn, which gave a bonus to the foreman of every department. It was simply a subtle \ scheme to make the foreman n sweater. The firm had loat its best workers and incidentally some thousands 4i year in Hard cash. To see the people who lived on the proceeds of their labour rushing about in expensive motor-cars to their grouse moors, living on chainSagne and other expensive viands, and" ving a life of luxurious idleness, had its effect upon the mind of the worker. He saw that there was something wrong, something unjust. The Bpeaker was giving his view not as chairman, but as a private member of the Synod. The Rev. F. Dunnage proposed as an amendment that the t latter part of the motion should be struck out and the following words substituted, "and to use. every effort to bring the social teach' ing of the Christian faith to boar upon the solution of the various problems involved." I The amendment was accepted by the Rev. Mortimer, and the resolution as amended was carried unanimously.