LATE ARCHDEACON GOULD

North Otago Times, Volume C, Issue 13180, 8 October 1914, Page 3

LATE ARCHDEACON GOULD

THE DUNE DIN' CATHEDRAL , , TROUBLE, " UUNEDIN, Octobei (I.' * Tho schism, ih St.v Paul's L'atfiodral caused, by the primate's attitudo in demanding the Testation of tho- luto Archdeacon Gould, culminating, l in. -a decision of tho inembors, of the sub-. Chaptor >to tender their resignations en bloc as aprotest against tsuch ne* tion, has fallen like a bombshell in tho city, Even the. school,committees arc taking cognisance in the matter, ■ for it is recognised that • Arclidoacon Gould's Bjblo classes at tho public schools ; wcrc' most popular. Will) the children.

At Monday night's meeting of the High Street School ' Committee,' the chairman, Mr D. Wishart, in referring to this matter, said: "Now a word.regarding the Yon, Archdeacon Gould, of whom it may bo said thnt as an English Church clergyman, exercising a catholicity of miiul towards the dissenters and the poor, he stood as rather a singular and conspicuous figure in the community. What more cvidenco .is required of the enthusiasm in the Christianity lie possessed than our own knowledge of his regular attendance, rain or shine, at the High street School for some years every Tuesday morning to give a Bible lesson to the pupils of the fifth and sixth standards'? Nor did his work end here, Did he not out of his own pocket purchase prizes and present them to tho children who after examination lmd proved to himself that they had profited from his instruction? After the perusal of the correspondence appearing in the press 1 am constrained to say that I am more than pleased at the attitudo, expressed and implied, taken by the Sub-Chapter and the Ladies' Guild of St. Paul's. In these days of democracy. and freedom of speech it is disconcerting, to say the least, to know that for holding views perfectly legitimate in'themselves but contrary to his "superior officers in the Church, after forty years' faithful service, and with an invalid wife to take care of, the late Yen, Archdeacon Gould was asked to resign a warship which, according to the testimony of laymen, rich and poor alike, lie simply adorned. It would, fccin as if the powers that be represent a "denial of the high rights and claims —and even the daily bread—of human beings in, no sense inferior to those' of a bishop or a dean."