BISHOP OF LONDON.

Otago Witness, Issue 3808, 8 March 1927, Page 33

BISHOP OF LONDON.

ARRIVAL IN WELLINGTON VIEWS ON rSfMIGRATION. February 28. The Bishop of Ixwdon, the Right Rev. A. F. Wilmington Ingram, arrived in Wellington by the Makura from Sydney this morning. He was met by the Bishop of Wellington and a number*of the local clergy. While in Wellington he will be a guest at Bishopcourt. The Bishop of London stated to-day that he was in the course of a world tour in fulfilment of a long-standing promise. He was making this tour in. order to back up the Christian cause iu the countries he visited, and, secondly, to discuss with the authorities and the people the question of Empire migration. Earl Jellicoe is president, and he himself is chairman of the -Church of England Empire settlement scheme.

Of the £53.000,000 given by the nation towards Empire settlement only £300,000 has been spent on this important work, said the bishop, addressing an audience of over 2000 at the Town Hall to-night. He asked the Government the cause of it. He found, as a matter of fact, that the narrow neck of the bottle was over here, so he thought he would come and find out. The people of New Zealand had a great love for Britain. They wanted more population, more of the right sort carefully sorted out. and not dumped all over the place. It must be sent out carefully so that the Dominion could absorb it. “We can send you all the thrifty men and boys, women and girls you want if you will give them a welcome and work to do, ’ he said. New Zealand was not nearly so large as Australia, but was taking 10,000 to 12.000 a year. The position was absurd, for how could a country cap able of taking 100,000,000» people be held by 6,000,000? Such a position could not hold for another 50 years. New Zealand wanted more farm labourers and domestic servants, and more people on the railways. Great Britain did not want to send one man over to put another man out of a job, and he was up against doing so, but New Zealand would never very well become great unless she filled up her vacant places or gained more power and influence as a nation. Let New Zealand and Great Britain help one another, the Dominion in taking the surplus population, and Great Britain by sending only those who would make good citizens.—(Applause.) As the absentee bishop, he said, he had talked enough, but he hoped he would be able to return Home feeling that he had done a little good, that he knew something of the missionary work of the Church, and that he had done something towards making the Church of England as as it should be—the most missionary Church in the world. —(Applause.)

VISIT TO AUCKLAND. ADDRESS TO ROTARIANS. ... , u Auckland, March 3. Although the Bishoji of London (Dr Ingram) is not officially a Rotarian, he claims to be one in fact. The hearty welcome he received at the New Zealand. Rotary Conference’s luncheon in the Town Hall seemed to confirm the claim. The Bishop coinpressed a great deal into a rapid informal little address. “As I go round the world I always seem to turn up at the right time,” he said. “I reached Ottawa for the centenary celebrations. and they stated that I had come all the way specially to be present. Perhaps you 'will sav the same. I was a Rotarian before they were ever started,” continued the bishop. Forty-two years ago I went down to Bethnal Green in a hansom cab to find the Oxford House. It was the first hansom that had never been seen there. I asked the beery cabman where the Oxford House was. He replied: ‘ls it the madhouse you mean?’ Well. I lived there for nine years in the middle of East London, with first nine, and later on 30 young men, all from the university, and unpaid. We did settlement work, helped the poor, gave out free lunches, organised twopenny dramatics and held mission services. If that is not Rotary work, what is? I am not a Rotarian, but I an heart and soul with you people.” Dr Ingram went on to name three things that the Rotarians of the world ought to be able to do. The first, he said, was to avoid misunderstandings among the nations of the Empire. He had heard much on his travels about freedom to work out our own destiny, and about Great Britain being a decaying nation. “Come over and see if we are?” he said. “Great Britain never stood higher in prestige than she docs to-day. She practically rules the League of Nations. The Bank of England is behind all the recoveries that are being made in* the world. I saw the general strike, and I say without hesitation that no other nation on earth could have gone through it as we did. The second task was to help with the very difficulty migration question. It must be looked at from the local and Empire point of view. _ To find a solution was not beyc.nd the wit ol man. New Zealand needed more people, and more people meant greater consumption and more jobs. He warted Rotarians to see that the new arrivals got jobs, and did not. take those of other peuple thereby. Rotarians should do all they could to overcome the anathv and hostility loward the I eague of Nations. The League was something of paramount importance in the preservation of world peace In five years it had stopped five wars, had repatriated 1,000,000 people, had restored three nations to solvency, had set standards of child welfare, had done much to improve the health of the native peoples in the mandated territories, and had rescued thousands of people from the Turks. That was a splendid record.'

A message froift Palmerston North states that the jubilee proceedings commenced on Sunday with a combined church service at the Opera House. The weather' was tinpropititious. A special programme has been arranged for the rest of the week, coinciding with the Royal visit.