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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 77

IX

page 123

IX.

Dunedin, N. Z.,

My last letter was written on the way to Wellington, where we arrived after dark, and were met at the station by Sir Robert Stout, Chief Justice of New Zealand, and Mr. Stephens, the able and energetic secretary of the committee for my reception. There has never been a Unitarian congregation here, though Judge Richmond conducted services in his drawing room, for members of his family and connections, for the space of 20 years, and there are many others who have adhered to the faith which they learnt in the Old Country, and have brought up their children in the knowledge of their parents' religion. Indeed, I have been surprised and gratified to meet or hear of Unitarians in far out-of-the-way places, who get The Inquirer or Christian Life sent to them regularly by friends at home; and though for twenty, or twice twenty years, they have never had an opportunity of attending public worship conducted after their own mind, they still keep the name and belief, and know all about our controversies and affairs in England. I find that according to the census of 1896, before the Church at Auckland was founded, there were 375 persons who returned themselves as "Unitarians." The number had increased in 1901 to 468, of whom 283 were males and 185 females. This disproportion of the sexes indicates no doubt that women, feeling their need of religious communion more than men, and failing to find it among those of their own way of thinking, had joined other churches. There is no page 124 such disproportion among the more popular denominations. The Baptists number considerably more women than men among their adherents, as do the Brethren and the Salvation Army. The Anglican, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic have more men, but this is accounted for by the excess of men over women in the total population, their being only 90 women to 100 men.

Many interesting problems arise from the examination of these statistics, but what I would specially draw attention to is the wide field open for a Unitarian Mission, without any sectarian attempt to draw away the adherents of other churches. There were over 8,000 persons who returned themselves as Free Thinkers, Agnostics, Theists, or "No Denomination," and 1,000 as "No Religion." To such as these, and probably to most of the 18,000 who refused to state their belief, Unitarianism might make an appeal as an entirely free and rational faith. We have here the opportunity which circumstances did not allow us in England, of establishing ourselves on a basis neither offensive nor defensive in respect of other religious bodies, but simply offering a form of religion which would commend itself to many who cannot commit themselves to the orthodox creeds.

At Wellington I conducted service, and preached on two Sundays, and I hope to get in another on my way northward again. The audience was not large, but it was eminently "respectable," in the good old-fashioned and correct sense of the word—not a quarter of the number whom I addressed at some page 125 other places, but worth much more, as cultivated thoughtful, old and esteemed residents.

I arrived at Christchurch, founded to be a stronghold of Episcopalianism, in pouring rain, and it rained all day and at night, too, during my short visit. Mr. Toogood, a student of the University, and Mr. Williams, of the Customs, were the whole committee to arrange for my reception and lectures, and the result showed how much can be done by even two, when they are really interested and anxious for the success of the cause for which they have volunteered their services. The rain was falling fast when I started—an unknown man—to give my first lecture, "The Message of Unitarianism." The advertisements had been scanty, for economy had to be borne in mind, and I was quite prepared to find a dozen gathered to listen to me. Indeed, I should have been well satisfied, for is it not an honour for any man if a dozen of his fellows are ready to put themselves to some personal inconvenience and expense to hear what he has to say to them? But I found five times that number present; and on the following night, when the weather was yet more contrary, about the same number came in the wet, dark night, to hear me speak of "Unitarianism: its Spirit and its Doctrines." I was obliged to leave the next morning, but may contrive to stop there next week under more favourable conditions.

Dunedin.—I am sitting on a volcanic hill overlooking the city. Below me is a level isthmus, not half a mile wide, which separates the Pacific Ocean from the Otago Harbour, a sound or fiord some twelve miles in page 126 depth. On the one side the breakers roll their foam up the sandy beach, on the other the marsh left by the tide stretches to the shallow waters which deepen towards the quay. Everywhere, thickly crowding the narrow plain and climbing the hills, are cottages, large and small, built for the most part of wood, with roofs of corrugated iron, which, when painted a dull red, has a very good appearance, and, painted or plain, keeps the storm-rain out better than any tiles. Beyond the bay is the city with Anglican and Roman Cathedrals; and more imposing than either, the "First Presbyterian Church," for the early settlers were Scotch, and brought their minister and working plans, doors and windows, and other fittings for a church with them, and first set apart in the city they were founding a site for religious worship. The electric cars speed to and fro through the broad ways, the trains run north and south, and to the suburbs; there are two daily newspapers, like almost all I have seen in this part of the world, ably and respectably conducted; Courts of Justice, College, High School, everything which goes to the perfection of a modern self-contained city. It is wonderful to think that when I was a little boy at school—from the muddy shore up and over the hills which surround the site on every side but that of the narrow sea channel and the marsh which formed its southern boundary, far as the eye could compass, was one great ocean of forest, over whose vast expanse not one break could be seen. Trees and shrubs of many varieties were knitted together by long and strong creepers, entwining and entangling the whole page 127 into what seemed a thicket planted expressly to prevent intrusion. Here they landed on March 23, 1848, and, with prayer and perseverance, set to work to subdue forest and torrent, and swamp and sea; they made pasture for their flocks where the thicket had covered up the land; they filled the creeks up by cutting down the steeper hills; they ran roads and built warehouses where the tide had flowed to and fro for ages over mud and rock; they drained the marsh to make room for the growing city; they made channels to control the torrents. And now Dunedin sits enthroned as a queen among her own subject mountains, and ships from the ends of the world unload and load again at her quays. The story is quite a common one here, and yet seems to me so marvellous that I am almost prepared to hear that I have been mistaken, that it was a thousand years ago the first ship's crew landed, and that many generations have contributed to the great achievement. So, indeed they have, but in another place. Our forefathers, who knew nothing of this far-off island, were working, contriving, fighting, thinking for its prosperity and peace. Dunedin was built in Edinburgh, Christchurch in Canterbury. It is the Old Country which has reclaimed the new, and peopled it with its own sons and daughters.

I suppose I have been led to say so much of this city, while I have left the story of others no less interesting untouched, partly because I happen to write from it; more I think because I have little to say of it from the point of view of my own special page 128 mission. This is the only place at which no preparation was made for my visit. I had an introduction to one gentleman, who received me courteously, and gave me some assistance in securing a hall. But I found out afterwards that he was a lay-reader of the Church of England, and could not be expected to take any active interest in my proceedings. The friends who have extended to us the kindliest hospitality are near relatives of Mrs. Hargrove, but they too are indifferent on the subject of Unitarianism. My hostess's father, now many years deceased, was of old time a member of Mr. Fox's congregation at South-place Chapel, and, when a resident at Stawell in Victoria, conducted service regularly, first in his own house, and then at a public hall. This was kept up for perhaps twenty years, and was so successful that a minister or lecturer was engaged, but he turned out to be a spiritualist, and the congregation became divided, and was brought to an end. This is one of the dangers, which beset the new movement. I have neither the right nor the wish to say anything in disparagement of either spiritualists or theosophists, but while it is quite free for Unitarians to belong to either organisation, it is absolutely essential to the success of our cause that the minister who represents our faith should keep himself free from the advocacy of what is sure to be repugnant to many who agree with him on the broader grounds of Christian Theism.

I engaged the hall recommended to me, which provided accommodation for four or five hundred, though I should have preferred a smaller one, and advertised page 129 meetings for Sunday evenings and two week nights. I could get no help with the music, so contented myself with a religious lecture on the Sunday to an audience of about thirty. One of the lectures was on Emerson, and this was very well reported in both of the daily papers, but no notice was taken of what I said on the distinctively religious subjects, nor did I on any occasion have an audience of more than forty. These were no doubt all more or less interested, and I had some inquiries for literature, but I have not met anyone as yet who professes himself a Unitarian.

I leave here after a visit to the Lakes, and shall, I hope, be able to do some more work at Christchurch and Wellington, and then spend a last week before bidding goodbye to Australasia with the dear folk at Auckland. On October 14 we sail for San Francisco, where we should arrive on the 31st. My passage across America must be somewhat hurried, but not, I trust, so much so but that I may be able to make acquaintance with the Unitarian brethren of the Far West, and renew my memory of Eastern friends.

C. H.