CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14139, 19 February 1910, Page 2

CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND.

A VISITING CLERIC’S IMPRESSIONS. \ ■ “NOT QUITE DEMOCRATIC ENOUGH.” , ' In the course of an interview that a Taranaki Herald reporter had with the H- S. AVoolloombe on Friday, ■ AV.pollcombo remarked that one thing that had struck him during his tour of Australasia was the tremendous task, that the religious bodies hero had had in all this pioneering work. It filled one with admiration and wonder to think of,what'the early clergy had done in a/now country. There was one thing that Wo lacked, . and it followed from the newness of the country, so that it .was nobody’s fault that we lacked it. , This was tradition! In the absence of tradition vve realised what a groat; power, for good it: was. The Church in Now Zealand had to'labour under certain drawbacks because of this want of tradition. . Perhaps the Church of England felt ■ it, more than other churches, because at Home it had, such wonderful traditions be-. hind it. Of course,‘this lack may not be without advantages. Sometimes trndtion rather bound and tied a body as it'did an individual. A church in a new country hail perhaps an opportunity of leaving behind things that would' bo well left behind. Mr. Woolloombe did not want to offend anyone, but he could riot heln saying, as he had said before publicly.; that it had been a great: disappointment to him to find that shine . .thiiiKs/ had been brought from England, that liad much better been left behind. The Church in New Zealand was not quite as democratic as ho would like to have seen it. Personally, Mr. Woolloombe had a perfect horror of pew rents, .and though ho quite understood that -an abuse' like that could riot.'ho swept away at once, ho did fee! that it ought never to have been introduced, and that: now' it had the Church ought to feel the abuse more keenly than ho fancied it did at present. The Church at Homo was beginning to fool the necessity of doing away with it.

There was one 'thing, added Mr. TV oollcombc, that. gave-him great hope for the future, and great hopes of the society he represented. This was the fact of the; splendid way ..in which so many of the laymen helped forward the Church hero hv personal service. The object of the Church of England-Men’s Society was to extend the idea of personal service by the laity, and ho fell that Australia, and Now Zealand at forded splendid soil for its growth.