CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11856, 7 January 1902, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE . ANGLICAN CHURCH. TO Tin: EDITOK. Sir, —" Anti-Ritualist" in Wednesday's paper opens a somewhat' wide question, and the reply entails definition of ."the ■ word " Protestant." In one sense no church organisation not in existence at the time of the Bonn conference can be called Protestant. This would admit Lutherans, but exclude Methodists, an : unexpected result. . But there is another view of the meaning of the word Protestant, the witness for the Lord, a racial matter, a' title conferred by tho Almighty on His own people, His servants, His messengers, .blind as to' their origin yetfaithful to their duty; .in fact, His!; Church, and also His battleaxe and weapons of war: and that is the British and v American peoples -in the Empire and tho Republic, irrespective of details in worship and ecclesiastical management. Study carefully Isaiah xli. to xliii. inclusive. The title" God's witnesses is conferred;: by Isaiah xliii., 10 and 12, and again xliv., 8: " Protestantos pro Domino Deo." Not. for our righteousness, individual or ;national, were we chosen- for service,', but because God would fulfil the oath He was pleased to swear to Abraham, whoso heirs we are, as the sons of Joseph (I. Chronicles v., 1, 2 and 3.) Christianity in Britain by no means dates only from Saxon times; there is, no room for doubt that St. Paul founded the Christian faith in Britain; ho preached there, and he claims that he built on no other I man's foundation. The last four persons named in 11. Timothy iv., 21, were Britons. At tho Council of Aries, a.d. 314-, the two British bishops who attended ■ were given precedence because their country was tho first to adopt Christianity as' the national religion. Saxon idolatry overlaid, partly smothered Christianity in 'a' largo part ;of Britain; the abominable cruelties of Saint Augustine and his successors nearly smothered what was left, but a spark of spiritual life remained in the heart of \ the ■ people. Even in . the dark ages• between ' the : Norman- arrival and tho Reformation , England was never under the Papacy to the same, extent as the Continental nations (for instance, the provisions of Magna Charta, and the events leading to'| it). ■' ... ' .- : - .'' J Finally, in spite of blemishes, by extremists, the Church of England is. the representative of the original : Christian Church of j Apostolic times. She is protestant in her j witnessing capacity; • she is' evangelical, judged by her articles; she is catholic in her comprehensiveness and her manifest destiny.— am, etc., . Hugh Stewart, . . " Late Captain R.A. Athenree, January 3,-1902.:, ' '» v . TO THE EDITOR. j Sir, —In his reply to questions raised by ] "Anti-Ritualist," your correspondent, A. M. /oro," writes:—"A British Church existed before St. Augustine's mission." I I admit the fact, but I dispute the proofs advanced by "A. M. Zoro" when he seeks to account for the direct: Apostolic origin of that Church'. : lie writes:"There is no doubt St. Paid preached Christianity in ! England." In proof of this' he points to "an old church dedicated to St. Paul on the - shores of Mount's Bay," etc. By a similar process of reasoning many other countries in . Europe can claim the exalted privilege of having had St.' Paul as their first Apostle ! In fact, I see no reason why Mr. Zoro does not claim, on - the same ground all tho Apostles and Evangelists amongst tho earliest British missionaries. ' Again, . Mr. Zoro appeals to St. Jerome— "St. Paul preached the Gospel to the Western parts." I challenge Mr. Zoro. to prove that St. Paul, in his mission westward, ever included England in his. itinerary. . . . Your correspondent writes:—" British bishops tended ' various councils iin various parts of tho.. world long before a.d. 956" (date of St. " Augustine's mission), and f lie should have added that' those : bishops -j, approved of and subscribed to the decisions and decrees arrived. at 'and - adopted ?by said councils. For instance, about- 251 years before Augustine's time the British bishops subscribed the: decisions of the great Council of Sardica (a.d. 345), - and by i" doing so they solemnly professed the leading;- tenet of Catholic belief concerning- '; the Papal claims. That they were Roman Catholic bishops : is manifestly :: evident since' they could not 1 have otherwise ' subscribed the decisions of a council .of the Catholic Church. The records -of the council • distinctly ; tell -us that the assembled bishops acknowledged (1) the Pope to be their head, •'(2) the final and , supremo judge .of all. ecclesiastical appeals. I refer ilr. Zoro to - Cations :3, 'I-, 'and 7, Council of Sardica. Later v on,. in Anglo-' Saxon times,, the British Church is -found , professing - the same faith—Catholic ' and Roman—and her bishops obedient >'to(: the authority of the Pope. Bede, the historian, and the " Laws vof Eadmund"., will , fully satisfy. Mr. Zoro on these points. - V. : The British Church remained Catholic and Roman after William: the Conqueror. The , Pope was prayed for publicly as "Head" of the Church every Sunday in every church | in England. In 1246 the Primate, bishops and clergy of England in . their letter to I Tope Innocent declare that the English | nation had always been "specially, devoted ' to the Holy Roman Church- . . a spocial member of that Church."'..'« : Instead of the old Church a new one was forced upon the people of England. By Act of Parliament (I. Eliz., cap. 1) a Protes- -- tant National Church was ; established and is known down to the present day as the Es-' tablished Church: of England. In reply to "Anti-Ritualist" it may, therefore, be stated that the Established ; Church\ since her creation by Act of Parliament,' has beenconsistently Protestant. Her • theological system has been and is in complete opposition to that taught by tho Catholic Church in England in pre-reformation times and i since. One fears for the future. Dr. Ryle, the Protestant Bishop of Liverpool, wrote of the divisions within that: Church:—"One thing is very certain, if we cannot lessen our unhapriv divisions, there is only one con-: elusion before usthe disruption and ~ complete break-up of, the Established Church I of England" (visitation charge, 1893). Anti- ; ritualists and ritualists will do that work, but their work will only break up a Church by human law established.— am, etc., * OWEXY Murrt,

A LYING SPIRIT. ..>' -1 TO THE EDITOR. . Sir, — most erudite and energetic of police inspectors, Dogbery once plaintively exclaimed, " Oh, that he were here to write me down ass." Mr. Cecil 11. Clinkard, of Makarau, not being antiquated as I am. but an up-to-date and (for no supporter ' of J the j present Ministry can be anything else) 'devil-! may-care individual, does not hesitate to perform that operation for himself. He - calls! me a liar, and accuses me of distortion, be-, cause I wrote the amount of money, expended on railways was only £16,000,000. Well, had I written anything else, I should have been wrong, because I was dealing purely with loans. The Year Book gives railway expenditure ~ from loan as £16,054,000, or 32.36 of the net debt ■: of £48,557,751. The fact that I gave the proportion of expenditure from loan would have been enough to satisfy any intelligent man that I was dealing with loan only, especially as I was instituting a comparison with loan expenditure by New South Wales. And as I was dealing with round numbers, had I been a million astray, my argument would have remained unaffected. I am always prepared to sacrifice strict accuracy for figures thai are more easily understood. Mr. Clinkard seems to think me guilty of concealment and false suggestion because 1 did not quote the whole of the Year Book. Well, the editor of the Herald would not have ■ allowed me. Besides, I have during the past two or three years more than once dealt with items he quotes in the Auckland papers and the London Times. _ Mr. Clinkard's mental vision is not comprehensive ; it only observes what suits him. His eagle eye only looked at the mountain tops, whereon tho Government vineyards were, but did net deign to scan tho valleys.. For instance, in the table giving the expenditure of ten millions borrowed during the last 10 years, ho did not see that con-' version of loans had cost £64-6,000, although he does rejoice that the nercentage of debt charges has been reduced. . Further,' that of the ten millions (£10,760,895), £1,407,700' went to provide sinking fund accretion. . I do not exactly understand the item, , but it looks suspiciously like providing self-extin-guishment from out of loan. What would Judge. Conolly say to* the directors of a company who paid dividends out' of capital? • I wrote: "Given the railways, and good or fair country,'matters may ; be :trusted? to adjust themselves." Surely anyone would understand that * that refers to the country the railway : traverses, and that settlement and villages would spring lip along the line. Make the railways, and roads and . tracks, quite as important .their way, will; come ' afterwards; as a need, and a capital for their construction will have been created. Railways open up' the interior of a country morei : quickly than any other means; hence. they head the list of important works. What I characterised as the lying spirit was Ministers making a lamentable exhibition of themselves, and lowering the tone of the colony by contradicting themselves arid each other daily for weeks, • over a matter which, '; if a I mistake : were made, the manly and statesmanlike course would have been to plainly state the facts. Now, apparently the broad-shouldered Pro-, , mier, wants to shift tho blame of maladminis-

i tration on to the shoulders 'of the constrvi*- v • tion officials for taking on too many mm. \ Don't you believe it, Mr.' Clinkard. And,' supposing they did so,'; who ;is to blame, for ; where '.was , the Ministerial '^supervision?f? i What is Mr. Hall-Jones paid £1000 a year for, and wliero was Richard Seddon, that he ' V' did not supervise his old marine friend, Hall- " - '> Jones? pi ' jpffij |t % 1 'fS This reminds mo of Sir J. G. Ward. , He * <■ found estimating the year's supply of rail-, ■ war equipments too heavy a task, so he sens to America for £100,000 worth. Why, any head of department in Sargood's would " have thought it child's play. , There J was 110 such extraordinary jump in any one year as J.G.W.- -v said, „ 'but that*- Minister has '.the knack of saying ; just what suits hi* - ' purpose for the time being, and he often finds ,a ; fervid imagination ' of- invalu- ' ablo assistance. What was there butt to take the average of past years, make ample allowance for prosperous times, anil you had your estimated If a little over the mark, what would it matter? -Very different to ordering too much dress goods, or hats, which would be out of fashion nexft season. But it is alleged J.G.W. found the railways starved. •If so, who starved them? Alfred Cadman. And for thus mismanaging the railways (if he did. so) ha' is rewarded by being elovated to the Upper House to draw £150 a year from an aggrieved country.l am, etc., WM. S. Aickix. ' ' ROOT OF PRESENT MISCHIEF. ; TO THE EDITOR - Sir,— has beeiysaid about the strange suspension of works m the North Island, but little notice, has been taken of the nefarious division of the' available funds. I was horrified, when first seeing that R. Seddon, Premier, submitted; to the House his list of appropriations, ' that'ho had got •; down. £200.000 for . Canterbury and Otago, where nothing was due,; and but .very little needed. • «J They had had more than their share long since, 1 as all know. • Our members should have then - risen as , ov:e man, on that 'barefaced ; an-' nouncement, and, with tremendous, frightful voice, entered a protest.' Take - that back!.; Probably this 7 would have obviated the pre- . - : sent difficulty. Every shilling of that 'extra. ' -~ J ' £200,000 was due to, and urgently -required by, the 'North,' between' top of ;\Vanganui River and tho Bay of Islands. ■ Now, here is R." «T. Seddon,.with pseudo' innocency. asserting that Parliament did not vote enough s money for " the Main Trunk railway! Aye, ' I ./. repeat and affirm that specific . £200,000 jif | root of this present[mischief.—l, am, etc., -'V* W. E. Sadler. January 5, 1902. . ; ' MAORI NAMES. ' TO THE EDITOR. " ; Sir,—With your permission,... I should', like to refer again to some queries about certain Maori names of places put to you'by a correspondent. With reference to ■' Ongaruhe or Ongarue, I think it very probable that Mr. Gannon is-. right, and that the name should ••••: be written) Ongaaruhe. or Ongarnlie, the." a : being pronounced , long, the . place or • residence >of - some notability rejoicing in tho *; v name of Nga Aruhe. '.'Hearing a Maori pro- * j nounce the name would settle the point afc . / once; only seeing it in print or written you J . may call it Ongaruhe (with tho acccnt on - the •u) or Ongarulie (with the accent on tho a), lit your blind option. With reference to the name Whangamomona, a guess at its * meaning less awkward than I thought may ba given. .-Whansca, a bay; momona, plentiful, i full of fish. In the Maori Bible tho words "A fruitful field" are rendered "ho mara momona." — am, etc., Tnos. 11. Smith. ~ Watea, January 4, 1902. ONGARUE OR ONGARUHE. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, notice there have been- several let- . » tors published in your columns of lite bearing . _ - - on tho question as to whether the; name of >> : A.Hy the stream running into the Wliauganui River . at Taumarunui should be spelled Ongaruho or Ongarue. lam absolutely certain that . the latter is the proper method. In tho years 1878-79 I spent many months in that ' - district, and when living at Taumarunui with the late renowned chief, Topine To Mamaku, I particularly questioned him as to the reason why the place was railed Ongarue. lie 'r .could give no explanation beyond suggest- -4 ing : "Ho pakarutanga pea no' to whenua " ' etoru i mita, ara, ho ngaruetanga;" i.e., "Perhaps the rending asunder, or tho trem- ; bling of the , land; during ■an earthquake, in•' "" remote times."' Now, a peculiarity of tho Wlianganui and Taranaki dialect is the dropping of the letter "h," which might account for those people pronouncing tho " word, : " Ongarue," but all the Taupo and -Maniapoto tribes, who speak': a much purer , dialect, aro unanimous in putting it as Ongarue, and - . I think there need be no doubt whatever as " J . to this being , the proper spelling of:., the - 'r; word.—l am, etc., Gilbert Maik. v Thames, January 7, 1902. , . ; CORRESPONDENCE CONDENSED. A t-correspondent writes expressing great - disappointment at the Kawhia regatta.Ho |ffg|§ says that the events as tabulated on the cards 'ji 1 *> were not attempted in some cases, while thero •' were in most cases only two competitors. He ' was -informed that last year's sports wero a. great; success. : If so, it was a pity that tho". old management was not to the fore. Several of. tho leading men of the place had with-•. drawn from* all connection with, the affair.