METHODISTS ON SERVICE.

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 September 1917, Page 5

METHODISTS ON SERVICE.

CHURCH ESTIMATE OF FIGURES

In a return presented to Parliament last week showing the religious denomination of the men who have left New Zealand with the Expeditionary Forces up to and including the twenty-fifth reinforcement the number of Method; ists was given as 3,662, and that of Wesleyans as 1311, a total of 4973 for ■what has become the one denomination. This number,-however, is not accepted by the authorities of the Methodist Church as the correct one. The Rev. A. C. Lawry, ex-president of the Methodist Conference, stated that during his term of office as president he set about getting a, complete return of the number of Methodists in New Zealand who had been accepted for active service, and those who had fallen. He communicated with practically every church in New Zealand, and the carefully-compiled returns showed that up to January last. 6500 Methodists had actually gone to the front, and 650 had given their lives for their country. Mr. Lawry added that the official return- was inaccurate. He gavi'i several instances in which soldiers had been recorded as belonging to religions other than their own, despite their- protests'. One case was that of his own son, who had the classification altered to the correct one only after continued protests. The son of the vice-president of the Methodist Conference was another case in .point. Mr. Lawry commented that these were men who ' naturally • would . protest, but doubtless there were many others who would not carry their protest very far.