Some Reflections.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume III, Issue 10, 1 April 1913, Page 141

Some Reflections.

The weather was ideal for travelling. Rode from Gisborne to the Motu river without any rain. The rain on the two last days before reaching Opotiki was most welcome, and it was quite a pleasure to put up with the slight incon J

venience on account of the joy wihicji it brought to all the settlers. The East Coast looked considerably drier than the Bay of Plenty, and the latter looked reireshingiy green, especially around Opotiki. The roads up the East Coast have undergone quite a transformation since' my last visit, and there are miles oi good metal roads now m place of — well ! roads which were not always ideal. ' Someday, perhaps, there will be a road from Hick's Bay to the Bay of Plenty and down to Opotiki, but m fine weather, at any rate, there is a fascination about the present track which one would hardly like to lose. Better telephonic commiunication is certainly needed, and will soon be carried out. A fortnightly mail, however, seems rather a hardship, and might surely be remedied. One was glad to hear of the good results of the action of the Maoris m prohibiting, themselves from liquor, and one can only hope that isuch prohibition will become still more general. Some of the Maori Churches have been decidedly improved m the way of Church furniture and cleanliness, but there is still room m others for more care of the House of God, and more reverence at the services. Surely a Maori Church should be something better than a bare, dirty, barnlike structure if it is to inspire the Maoris with any ideas of reverence or any exalted ideas of God. Too often the Church is considerably inferior to the Meeting House, and to many modern Maori dwelling houses. The time has surely come when' every Maori Church should have a proper Vestry book, and have the (service duly entered therein, and wjhy should not each Maori district have its yearly Parish meeting,and appoint a small committee to look after the Church and its finances, and present a simple bal-ance-sheet of its yearly receipts and expenditure ? There are many of the Maoris who could well afford to give an annual contribution to the stipend of their clergyman, and it is only right that they should do so. There are many Maori disftricts which should be entirely inidependent of' Pakeha help. If special collections were made on one Sunday of the year for the Stipend Fund," preferably on the Sunday when the Superintendent is there, we might easily add considerably

to our Maori Mission Fund; It* is r surely time that we took a forward step m this matter. ; r One striking feature at many of the Maori services was the large proportion of the congregation without books. This is not satisfactory. Every member of the congregation should- have a book and use it. It may be necessary, as m Pakeha Churches, to have a stock of books kept m the Churches, but it is more desirable that all should have their own books, so that they can use them at home as well, as at Church, as some do. It is well that the Maoris passing through the transition stage m their development and progress should bear m mind that it is only righteousness which exalteth a nation. " What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?•" " Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God."