THE CHURCH AND LABOUR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8557, 16 October 1907, Page 5

THE CHURCH AND LABOUR.

REV. J. J. NORTH SPEAKS OUT. By Telegraph—Press Association. AUCKLAND, October 15. At the men's mass meeting held in connection with the Baptist Union Conference, the Rev J. J. North, of Wellington, speaking on the attitude of the Church toward the Labour problem, deciared.it as his belief that the working man was the only one who had a riphfc to be on this planet. He was a working man. The blood of working men was oluer than the Norman blood, and was infinitely more respectable. Though the cities in New Zealand were small, the clouds were already beginning to appear, and when these towns became more populous they would find that the clouds then would cover the sky. He came from a city where they had a land problem. In Wellington the land had gone up to such an enormous value that the ordinary citizen —the working man —was only able to tenant a house with a back yard as large as a blanket, and they paid, rents which made even Londoners open their eyes. Men had grown rich in Wellington while others slept. He ' proceeded to denounce the competitive system, which he said was responsible for many of the evils that now existed. He confessed that the antagonism which existed between the Church and many of the Labour people was largely the fault of the Church. The Church had been plagued by conservatism and intolerance, neither of which should exist. Then it had committed another blunder by being too slow to move intellectually, but this had not always been the case. Whsn he heard it stated that the Church was the ally of the existing state of things, of land monopoly, the comp3titive system, etc., his blood boiled. He believed that through the Church of Christ they would be able to accomplish much- towards the solution of the present social problems. If he felt that the Church could not assist in putting matters to rights then he would be done with her.