SOME REASONS WHY CATHOLICS LOSE THE FAITH IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 11, 8 July 1887, Page 5

SOME REASONS WHY CATHOLICS LOSE THE FAITH IN NEW ZEALAND.

(Rev. P. E. Hurley, in the Irish Ecolesiastiool Record.') The object of the present paper iB, to give a simple statement of facts as they have come under the writer's observations during a brief missionary career in a part of New Zealand. I claim no originality and assume no critical airs. My labours, confined as they have been, to two localities, may strip my opinions of that weight to which experience in a more extensive area can nsnally lay claim. But this much without arrogance, I think I may allege in my favour. First, it is not always admissible that all knowledge is the result of experience, nor do they who travel farthest, and bustle most through the busy scenes of varying life, always glean the vastest and most accurate information. They may saunter carelessly and think superficially. But in addition to this, I am not singular or alone in the statements and conclusions that will be found through this paper. They are shared to a considerable extent by those whose venerable forms bend under the weight of years, and the pressure of missionary labours undertaken in many districts of the country far apart from each other, and whose capacity for judgment is enlarged by their " practical, religious, and pensive lives I am, then, bat penning down a few coincident reflections, stamped with the approbation of those who are competent to judge of how much truth or error they may contain. What shall be said of the religious education of our people before caving Ireland, will be written in no hostile spirit to my brethren of the clergy in the old land. No one can appreciate more the seal