MAORI CHURCH WORK.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9547, 30 September 1902, Page 2

MAORI CHURCH WORK.

IMPORTANT PRONOUNCEMENT BY

BISHOP WILLIAMS.

(Special to Herald.)

NAPIER, this day. Bishop Williams, at the opening of the Synod of Waiapu yesterday, made a lengthy reference to church work amongst the Maoris. He reminded the Synod that the assistance given by the Church Missionary Society ceased absolutely at the end oi this year, except that, the Society will continue to pay the salaries o-f three EnglisJi missionaries as long as they are on the effective list, one of those missionaries being .in this diocese. "This work should by rights be undertaken by the whole of the Church," said the: Bishop; "but, 'as you are aware, the G-eneral Synod, so fur, has failed to provide for it, and as -immediate action is necessary it rests with the Synod of each diocese to say whether it will take upon itself its fair proportion of the burden. To say nothing of the help that is needed for the current year, the. amount required for next year in order to maintain the work 'on the present scale may be set down in round numbers at about £2200, and of this a considerable sum should be in. hand at the" beginning of 'the year, otherwise the missionary work . will be seriously hindered, and the Maori clergy and their families will be put to much inconvenience. If our brethren in the southern dioceses should decide to give their hearty co-operation the burden will be comparatively light. It may help us to understand our own positron if we note the distribution, of the Maori population in the North Island. The recent census does not pretend to absolute precision, but it is the best authority that we may have on the subject. According to this the population in the diocese of Auckland is 20,000, or 49 per cent.; that, of this diocese is 14,500. or 36 per cent., and that, of the diocese of Wellington is 6000, or 15 per cent., the 'total being 40,500. It is to be borne in' mhid that besides the ministration, to settled Maori congregations, there is work of directly missionary character to be provided for among the Kingites and the followers of Te Wliiti, in the diocese of Auckland, and among the Bingatu or followers of Te Kooli in this dioce.se. The amount on the estimate of the. Mission Board for this diocese for the current year is £780. This includes provision for two native missionaries to the Ringatu, in the Bay of Plenty, towards which the Board has lately been receiving £60 a year from the Gleaners' Union at Christ church, and £25 from the Gleaners' Union, at Gisiborne. What help we may get from our fellowChurchmen in the south remains to be seen. In the meantime, we are bound to raise as much of the sum required as we possibly can. With reg;ird to the other dioceses the Synod of the Diocese of Wellington, at its session of last July, has not only undertaken the responsibility of making all needful provision for its own native clergy and superintending missionaries, but has also recognised that Maori work elsewhere in the North Island can fairly claim its assistance. The Synods of Auckland, Christchureh, Nelson, and Dunedin are about to meet shortly, and when they have met we shall know what help we may expect to receive in regard to any sums that have been raised in the smit'hern dioceses. As the General Synod bus not made- any -pronouncement on the subject, it may be left to those dioceses to say whether they are content to leave the allocation to the New Zealand Mission Trust Board, or whether they Would prefer tJia<k«.this._should be otherwise, provided for. In thrr^die«cse_ the native" church population have been" urged to exert themselves, and I am glad to be able to say that by a great effort made over the greater portion o-f the diocese the sum of £1000 was raised by them in March last as an instalment towards a sum of £2000, to meet which the sum of £1000 has been promised from another source, in order to add £3000 to the native pastorate fund of the diocese."