A MINISTER’S APPEAL.

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

A MINISTER’S APPEAL.

MOTION OF CENSURE RESENTED. DISCUSSION BY PRESBYTERY. . At Tuesday morning's meeting of the Dunedin Presbytery voluminous correspondence was received from the Rev. R. Wood, of Wellington. .The Rev. J. Kilpatrick explained that th e 1921 Assembly had passed a vote of censure on Mr Wood in his absence. The motion was resented by Mr Wood, who' maintained correspondence till the 1923 Assembly had appointed a commission to deal with the situation.- The report was made to the 1924 Assembly, but the finding was not published. Air Wood maintained that the commission had removed the censure, and that justice demanded the publishing of the finding. At the last Assembly the Rev. George Miller had given notice of motion to the effect that the finding of the commission be published. Objection was taken to the competency of the motion, and the Moderator asked leave to take time to consider his decision. The Moderator had ruled the motion incompetent. Mr Wood held that the ruling was erroneous. Moving that the documents be received. Mr Kilpatrick said that he would not commit Presbytery or himself to the acceptance of the matters in the documents. The Presbytery wanted to act justly to Mr Wood, Assembly, and the Moderator. A Member: Is it competent for this Presbytery to receive any matters which came up at a meeting of Assembly? Dr Cumming : If I were not in the chair I would not accept the motion. Mr Kilpatrick said that as Dr Cumming’s name was mentioned in the statements by Mr Wood, he should vacate the chair. Dr Cumming complied, and the Rev. E. J. Tipler took the chair. The motion was carried. Mr Trotter then moved that a special committee be appointed to deal with the matter. He believed .that irrelevancy and merits both appeared in Mr Wood’s position.

The Rev. G. Miller said there was no mention of the Moderator’s finding in either the Blue Book or its appendix. Before the matter (which was one of considerable importance) was discussed the special committee could deal with it. Dr Cumming said when the Moderator had given his finding was the proper time to make objection. The starting point of the whole matter was the committee, of which he was a member, which had considered his case. Dr Cumming said he had letters in his pocket written by Mr Wood in 1919 in which he dealt with Southland matters and criticised Southland. He did not think the commission did one scrap of good. Dr Cumming claimed that he knew Mr Wood and his case as weW as anyone. Mr Miller said they all knew Mr Wood, and if they looked at his appeal from one point of view they would probably turn it down. There was more in it, however. He was suffering under wrong placed on him by Assembly, which should put itself right in the matter. The Assembly had acted wrongly in not publishing the finding of the commission. . When the Moderator had given Assembly his ruling no comment was passed- He was a missionary, Moderator, and a popular man, and no one wished to charge him. Mr Kilpatrick said Mr Wood desired to have the report published, but others were against it, owing to the nature of the finding. He supported the motion so that the matter could be cleared up. The Rev. R. F. Fish contended that the matter was ultra vires. The Dunedin Presbytery could not traverse the transactions of Assembly, particularly as the complainant was a member of the Wel- S lington Presbytery. The motion was carried, and the following committee was appointed : —Revs. Dr Cumming, Trotter (convener), Kilpatrick, Miller,. Messrs W. Gow and W. Allan.