The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1917. THE RELIGION OF OUR SOLDIERS

New Zealand Tablet, 20 September 1917, Page 25

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1917. THE RELIGION OF OUR SOLDIERS

tURING the past week a return has been laid before the House of Representatives purporting to show the quotas sent by the;' , respective religious'! denominations, up . to a’ and including the 25 th Reinforcements. - The total number sent from New ‘Zealand . . 'i ' is 70,445. The religious representation was / ■■■ i as follows: Church of England, 32,760, S a 45.5 per cent, of the whole; Presbyterian 16J431, or. 23.3 per cent:; Catholics 8,711, or 12 2 per cent.; Methodists and Wealeyans 4973,, Q r ; 7 per- cent •

Baptists 882, or 1.2 per cent’.; Congregationalists, Salvation Army, Church of Christj Plymouth Brethren, and Nonconformists 1049, or 1.4 per' cent. Besides the above 4515 are given as “Not Stated,” and roughly another thousand belong to various denominations which have sent quotas varying from 125 Lutherans to I' Hindoo and 1 Deist.. To estimate the value of these figures we will tabulate them with the percentages of the• respective denominations to the total population. Prom the 1911 census returns we get the following figures :

Accepting these statistics we see that the Church of England, being 40.8 of the population, is represented by 46.5 of the soldiers; the Presbyterians almost to exactness sent a percentage equal to their percentage of the population; the Catholics, 13.9 per cent, of the population, sent 12.2 per cent, of the men ; the other denominations fall shorter and shorter of their proper proportion, almost in the ratio of the noise they make about loyalty. Thus while the Baptists should send more than a third more men than they have sent, the Wesley ans and Methodists should also send nearly a third as many ,' and the Congregationalists, Salvation Army; Plymouth Brethren, etc., to raise their percentage from 1.4 to 4.1 should send roughly three times as many as they have actually sent. Taking the figures given for Catholics we find that instead of sending? 13.9 they sent 12.2, so that to come up to the performance of the Presbyterians they should yet send a seventh of the number already sent. For the moment let us accept the figures without question and see in what a light they put the accusations of the infamous Elliott and his friend Nosworthy. As far as the statistics go they prove clearly that while these people were touring New -Zealand,- uttering falsehoods against Catholics and charging them with being shirkers, they themselves represented the worst slackers in the Dominion. And in this- way some more of Mr. Elliott’s chickens have come home to roost. - - .... .... .. . * .... .. It is probable that the figures are roughly accurate, but we must point out to our readers that such as they are they ‘ought to be received with a considerable amount of doubt. - 'Within the past few months Catholics have stated that, - so far as it was possible for them to ascertain, they estimated that' they had sent to the front 16 per cent: of the soldiers. This- calculation was not put forward as more than a rough result based chiefly on the fact that one chaplain is supposed to go to every thousand men. When the estimate was given nobody claimed accuracy for it, knowing well how difficult it was ; to get anything at all like reliable figures on‘ the matter. We have had personal experience of this difficulty, even with all the assistance* possible given us by a. Catholic Colonel and ; a Catholic Adjutant in' the camp of the Main Body at Awapuni. Other chaplains have' frequently told . us. that they also found it - impossible .to get reliable returns in the camps to which they were attached. Even when all the necessary papers were freely placed at our disposal byj the staff the difficulty still . remained. 1 ] In ? very many Cases the religion of 5 the. men was not entered at all And in very many of these, cases we have no doubt that the ; men were Catholics. One can often ; be morally certain that a man is a Catholic from seeing his name; and certairily

many men who were returned unclassified had names that were almost a profession of faith. So that if for* no other reason than this we are quite prepared’' to*' believe that the returns are not accurate; and that 1 also many Catholics have not been returned as Catholics; Of course the confusion in this case would affect the other denominations too. * Looking at the figures in another way we find that the percentage of soldiers to the population of the whole Dominion is 7, as 70,445 multiplied by 14 gives us the entire population approximately. Seven per cent, then from each denomination would certainly be a fair quota, though there might be particular reasons why it should vary slightly in certain circumstances. Let us see how this test works out for the different denominations in New Zealand. According to the figures furnished the

And again, the Catholics,, numbering 140,523, have sent 8711 men, while the Methodists, Wesleyans, Baptists, Congregationalists, Salvation Army, and Church of Christ together numbering 142,305, have only, sent 6714 of their patriots to fight for the Empire. A very slight reflection on the meaning of these figures will convince any honest man of the value of all such campaigns as have lately been undertaken in this country by the Elliotts and the Nosworthys, and enable him to rate fitly the honesty .and intelligence of such nuisances. We have said there might be reasons affecting the percentage sent by certain denominations. In view of the events of last year in Ireland it is not hard to find a plausible excuse in the conduct of England for the unwillingness of some Irishmen to volunteer. What excuse can be found for the Orangemen represented by Elliott we know not, but their conduct is quite in keeping with their ancient traditions of cowardice and blackguardliness. As in Ireland they have also here tried to embarrass the Empire by stirring up strife and bitterness while brave men were acquitting themselves as men on the field of battle.

PerQuota Quota Percentage Percentage of Populaof of Popuof Denomination. of Populaof of Popuof tion. Soldiers. lation. Soldiers Church of England 411,671 32,760 40.8 46.5 Presbyterian 234,622 16,431 23.2 23.3 Catholic ... 140,523. 8,711 13.9 12.2 Wesleyan, Meth. 94,613 4,973 9.3 7.0 Baptists ...... ... 20,042 882 1.9 1.2 Cong., Sal. Army, Ch. of Christ, Plym. Brethren, Non-Conf orm s 41,367 1,049 4.1 1.4 Religion not stated 48,091 * 4,515 4.7 6.4

Church of England has sent ... 7.9 per cent. Presbyterians ... 7.0 y y Catholics 6.2 j y Wesley ans and Methodists ... 5.2 y y Baptists 4.4 yy Congregationalists 4.5 y y Salvation Army ... 2.8 y y Church of Christ 2.0 Plymouth Brethren ... 1.7 y y