"Orometua" Are Not
p. 26 · Read in the full issue
Ordained Clergy
Prom Our Own Correspondent
Mangaia, Aug. 20.
IT does not seem to be_ generally known that the native “orometua” that have replaced the old LMS white missionaries are not entitled, like their predecessors, to be called “Reverend.”
Like the native police, these pastors are placed in positions purely upon the caprice, or favour, of the man in charge.
The results at times are bad, where some cunning lad succeeds in humbugging spiritual “GHQ” with false piety, and is placed in a mission to mould the life of an island’s native community. Such a “whited sepulchre” can do a lot of damage before he is found out and sacked! The LMS has shown a tendency in late years to be excessively tolerant; which is just as bad, in the workout, as the former rigidity, remembered by the elder folk. The Cl are the home of “one-man rule” in religion, as well as administration. Such a system, is not in accord, either way, with the spirit of the times, leading often to something remark ably like a Nazi set-up, and frequent abuses of power.