PRESBYTERIAL VISITATION OF CHURCHES AT VISITATION WHANGAREI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7658, 8 June 1886, Page 6

PRESBYTERIAL VISITATION OF CHURCHES AT VISITATION WHANGAREI.

At its last meeting the Presbytery of Auckland adopted ft minute re Presbyterial , visitation of the congregations of Whangarei and Waipa. The Presbytery's commissioners, the Rev. R. McKinney and Rev. A. M. McCallum, had reported favourably regarding both' congregations and their pastoral superintendence, with the exception of the infrequent celebration of the communion in the congregation at Waipu. The congregation, however, had lately rebuilt and enlarged their church, and pay their minister a minimum stipend of £200, with manse. The congregation at Whangarei had also "paid their minister hitherto a stipend of £200, with a manse, although the minister and congregation had to contend with peculiar difficulties in the past." The Presbytery having adopted the report, directed this same to bo communicated to the congregations visited, thanking the commissioners for their care and diligence in carrying out the visitation. The Rev. Mr. Macrae, in his report to the clerk of Presbytery upon his mission to the outlying districts in the North, did not recommend the continuation "of the agency of which an experiment had been made, and yet without some such agency it was hard to see how Presbyterianism was to be kept alive, not to say extended, in several districts. When he first undertook the work, he thought that Coromandel, Okaihau, and Mangapai, would each arrange for a monthly service, and there would be little difficulty in finding work for the fourth. He found the people at Coromandel could only arrange for a quarterly service, and he found Okaihau could not be reached at all except by spending a Sunday in or near Auckland, as the steamers left for the Bay of Islands only on Mondays, and he could not get back from any of the other places by Monday. The people of Mangapai and Maungakaramea were prepared to do more than he expected, and promised to raise £50 per annum for a monthly visit. He could not speak too highly of the people in those places, though they had been so shamefully neglected—"the very children having been left unbaptised for the last three years." He tried to assure the settlers in those districts that the Presbytery would look after them. In the event of Kaurihohore being dejoined from Whangarei, he suggested that it might be worked under the Church Extension Committee in conjunction with Mangapai, Maungakaramea, and Whangarei Heads — Kaurihohore getting a whole day fortnightly, and the other districts the same monthly. In connection with such an arrangement Okaihau might have a quarterly visit, which district in a short time might bo «ble to support a minister. Me also suggested that Okaihau might be joined with Mangonni. He visited Mercury Bay twice and Tairua once. The Mercury Bay people received him warmly at first, and stipulated for a monthly visit, but, on his second visit ho found they had decided in favour of the Wesleyans. The people declined to guarantee any financial help beyond the collections. Tairua was the same. At Helensville, Kaukapakapa. Te Kopuru, Aratapu, Maugawhare, and Dargaville he could not get a hearing: on the occasion of his visit. He thought at Helensville and Kaukapakapa an angel from heaven would not suceeed at present, "nearly all the former Presbyterians being avowed Rationalists or members of other Churches." In a population of about SOO, scattered over the' Northern Wairoa settlements, he did not discover more than eight Presbyterian families. He considered there was no opening there for a mission, as the religious wants of tho people were supplied by the Anglican and Wesleyan Churches, but he recommended that all those places be visited occasionally by clergymen of the Presbyterian Church. The conclusion that Mr. Macrae has come to is that it would be "far better for Auckland to revert to her old Home Mission scheme and fund, and to be content with her old minimum stipend of £200 per annum, than to be exhausting her little purse by raising the stipe ds of a few to £250, while so many places are in a starvmg condition."