NOTHING TO WITHDRAW

Hokitika Guardian, 27 September 1929, Page 1

NOTHING TO WITHDRAW

MR GILBERT’S REFERENCE TO WEST COAST. ' HAMILTON, September 25. The Rev. H. G. Gilbert, whose comments on the conditions in some mining districts in Westland evoked replies ■ from the leader of the Labour Party and others, says that his contention in his sermon was that lack' of spirtual vision was responsible for many deplorable social conditions existing generally. He laid no small portion of the blame at the door of the Christian Church, and he made the references complained of to illustrate the pressing, problems in our land. “ As one whose lot has always been cast among working men,” lie said, “my sympathies naturally are with such in their long continued fight for justice, and 'fair conditions of working, but the truth is truth. I spoke only of some parts, not the whole of the Coast. It certainly would be reckless, absurd, and iar worse, to hint, let alone declare, that up and down the West Coast, among some of the finest and most hospitable people,, there pertained everywhere conditions such as those of which I spoke. “Further, I gratefully acknowledged the warm-hearted hospitality constantly forthcoming from among the very people whose lack of spiritual vision I deplored. I have nothing to qualify or withdraw, except that I spoke not of funerals, but one funeral where exactly what I related took place.”