HISTORICAL ST. JOHN’S.

Waipa Post, Volume IV, Issue 185, 4 February 1913, Page 3

HISTORICAL ST. JOHN’S.

TO THE EDITOR. SIR,—I cannot refrain from expressing my surprise that you should have published in your columns such a thinly-veiled personal attack as the one appearing in your last issue over the nom de plume of ‘Rangalira.’ I would not attempt a reply thereto were it not that I wish to defend a noble band of men and women who are doing their level best to back up their vicar in an earnest endeavour to deal with the wofullegacy of reproach and embarrassment left by some of the fathers of long ago. Moreover, these statements, if left unchallenged, would create a very false impression in the minds of new-comers whose sympathy and co-operation we desire to evoke. “Rangatira” evidently is a survivor—let us hope the only survivor —of a class once too prevalent here, who found their chief diversion in howling at any and every vicar who dared to lead a crusade against culpable neglect of sacred things, until they blistered his soul and turned him out a broken-hearted and debt-stricken man, and then lamented the absence of the “grand fellow who used to be here.”

Your correspondent paints two pictures, in on-e all the colours are dark and gloomy, many parts being absolutely black, especially the figure in the foreground. In the other his pigments are all drawn from the reel and yellow' tubes, but alas! the bright and glowing picture bears the moonlight title “The Golden Days that are no More.” Still, as a picture the latter is a beautiful production, and, as we gaze into it, we see, as it should he, “The male members all led by their clergyman.” “ Every one was keen.” “ The church was always well-attended.” “ No complaint about financial support.” Such is the lovely picture of our golden age, “ from ten to fifteen years ago.” Would to God that it were a true picture, and not the work of imagination ! Then indeed, would our heritage be something to be proud of now; then would we, who have come lately upon the scene, not be “ ashamed when we speak with our enemies at the gate.” Most reluctantly from this radiant picture turn we now to consult the records of these halcyon days, and, with a very rude • shock, one is confronted vith these stubborn facts: — 1. During the five years (cited as years of wonderful progress) on two separate occasions one of eleven months and another of seven months there was tio resident vicar at all, and the offertories from lay services had to be devoted to paying up.arrears. And -yet“no complaint about financial support.’, Great Caesar! 2. During the balance of time an absolute record was put up, i.e., in three years and six months no less than five vicars flourished, declined, and fell. As a Rangatira would perhaps delicately put it no less than five “ obstacles were surmounted,” during this incredibly short space of time.

3- Fifteen years ago before the Church rapidly “sank back to stagnation,” the offertary amounted to a paltry £29 13s 9d, while the offertary during the past year was £lO4 14s isd, besides £B2 raised for Parish Hall. In other words the church “■ stagnating ” raised over 6 times as much as when the “ church was always well attended,”— according to Rangatira. Surely self stultification could hardly exceed this even at Te Puhi.

I should like to ask “ Rangatira ” : (a) If, during these years of progress and enthusiasm “no obstacle stood in the way that was not surmounted,” why it did not occur to him or to anyone else that the church was perishing for lack of being “ surmounted ” with a coat of paint? (b) Why, when “everyone was keen,” no one was keen enough to replace a rotten wabbling log which stood at the very threshold of the church, and was a menace to life and limb, especially at night, with a decent step, but should have left it till the present vicar for safety sake and for shame sake did it himself ? (c) If every summer “ not a grave was missed ” in the “ thorough cleaning,” why, in June, 1904, were acacias as thick as a man’s leg bursting up the graves at the rear of the church? Was that a year of phenomenal growth ? (d) If, during the same period and under precisely the same conditions as to vicars, and with much less people to draw upon, the church people of Rangiaohia and Kihikihi have spent hundreds of pounds upon their churches, and Pirongia built a new church altogether, at tremendous cost for them, why should the local Anglicans be the sole exception and have done practically nothing for 20 years to a'chhrch which was committed to them as a sacred trust and a priceless heirloom, entirely free of cost ? And why, forsooth, by all the laws of ethics and moral obligations, should'wo? a man, whose special duty it is, under such circumstances, refer “ in somewhat emphatic terms ”

to the matter? For eight long years, Mr Editor, from the pulpit and by the press, by circular from the North Cape to the Bluff, by precept and by example (so far as limited means would allow) have we striven to remove the reproach of 20 years’ standing, and, in spite of “ Rangatira’s” depreciating innuendoes, I have to thank him for the appeal which he makes to this very same end, in the latter part of his letter. I can assure “ Rangatira” that he need have no fear of the church’s “ sinking back to stagnation.” It has been stagnant enough in all conscience; but to-day, though much is still to be desired, yet the finances are in a better condition ; our communicants are more numerous than ever before, and there never was a time in the history of our venerable old St. John’s when the missionary spirit of our younger men expressed itself in a more fervent endeavour to go as lay readers to the outlying districts, and conduct the services of the ancient church which has made “duty” the dearest and most inspiring word in our mother tongue. —I am, etc., F. W. Clarke. St. John’s Vicarage, Te Awamutu.