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Otago Daily Times, Issue 13942, 29 June 1907, Page 9

DISESTABLISHMENT IN WALES. Jin Li.oyd-Geokoe lias informed the Welsh Congregational Union that the. Government intends to press its measures for the disestablishment) ' and disendowment of the Churcli, in Wales through (be House of Commons if the present Parliament lias a normal period of existence, while if the. House of Lords precipitates an election the question will liokl a prominent position in tho Government's programme. The particular agitation over the. status of the Church of England in Wales is not" a tiling of yesterday. Over twenty years ago, in February, 1887, Mr Chamberlain said: " The great principle of religious equality is everywhere, slowly undermining the fabric of ecclesiastical privilege. The principle is fatal to all State churches, and it will surely 1)6 applied to tho Church of England and the Church of Scotland as well as to the Church in Wales. But undoubtedly in Wales the grievance is more serious, tho sentiment of the people on the subject is more unanimous, and tho anomalies of the present arrangement are more striking and more irritating than elsewhere. Wales, therefore, has the first claim on the- sympathy and the support of Liberals." The endowments of the Welsh Church have been estimated at £280,000 a year. In 1895 Mr Asquith introduced a Disestablishment Bill, which was read a second time by a majority of 44, and in 1802 a requisition iu favour of Welsh disestablishment was defeated by 41 votes in a Conservative House with a majority of 130. On March 12, 1906, the British Primp Minister, in a letter to Mr S. T. Evans, M.P., said: "I adhere to the statement made by me before the election to tho Welsh members through Alfred Thomas and Lloyd-George, that Welsh disestablishment remains an integral part of the legislative proposals of the Liberal party, and will bo dealt with at the first available opportunity." In Wales the Nonconformist element predominates largely, and statistical returns for 190-1 showed that while the Anglican Church in Wales claimed 152,583 members the Nonconformist .Churches could boast of 629,911 members. The Liberation Society emphasised that the preponderance of Nonconformists was also shown l>y the fact that out of 298,115 scholars in attendance at day schools only 76,159 wore in schools connected with the Anglican Church, and of these a large number were children of Nonconformists ■who had no other school to go to. A year ago a Royal Commission was appointed ''to inquire into the origin, nature, amount, and application of the temporalities, endowments, and other properties of the Church of Englsnd in Wales and -Monmouthshire, and into tho provision made and work done by the churches of all denominations in Wales and Monmouthshire for tho spiritual welfare of the people, and the extent to which the people avail themselves of such provision, and to report thereon." The Commission began its sittings in October last, but its members do not seem to have been au altogether happy ! family: there has beeu disagreement as j to their rights and duties, and regjgua-1

tions and fresh appointments have not expedited the. Commission's work. The divergent interests in this question have, of course, staunch organised support. On the side of disestablishment is found the Society for tho Liberation of lleligion from State Patronage and Control, popularly known as the Liberation Society, tho objects of which, formally stated, are: The abrogation of all laws and usages which inflict disability or confer privilege on ecclesiastical grounds; tho discontinuance of all payments from public funds and of all compulsory exactions for religious purposes; after an equitable satisfaction of existing interests, the application of tho national property now held in trust by the Established Churches of England and Wales and of Scotland to other and strictly national purposes, and, concurrently therewith, the liberation of those churches from State control. The organisation on the other side bears tho title of the Church Committee for Clinrcn Defence and Church Instruction, and it aims, of course, at furthering iu every way the cause of the Established Church. The Archbishop of Canterbury has expressed himself as sanguine that the Welsn Church Commission will demonstrate the merits of that cause.