Religion in New Zealand - article ; n°1 ; vol.24, pg 121-133

Hans Mol

Description

Archives des sciences sociales des religions - Année 1967 - Volume 24 - Numéro 1 - Pages 121-133
13 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Archives-des-sciences-sociales-des-religions
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1967
• Nombre de lectures: 20
• Langue: Français
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Hans Mol
Religion in New Zealand
In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 24, 1967. pp. 121-133.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Mol Hans. Religion in New Zealand. In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 24, 1967. pp. 121-133.
doi : 10.3406/assr.1967.2637
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0003-9659_1967_num_24_1_2637RELIGION IN NEW ZEALAND
sacred country acquiring world for lated as the many and ä compliment it the adjustments religious function Of Our was guesses HEN facets dition is primitive course The first by and for an André definition remained identity regarding religious ones the Once From task It this which tribe British could Siegfried ministers required ahead this was of buildings so as more migrants the mean is to its basis immigrants strong it then done future visited be preach most was own stable as we expected is as we are for have in to can effort of the New on and fact can religious describe in the subsequently traditionally more the New European Zealand and it attempt Any same did time culture resistant Zealand this affairs one that lines in to relatively style immigrants 1904 made venture appraise although it pattern in religious 2) to remained as This the he in change those out stable found which last its was in new New institutions into present in true century the This not that pattern environment relates Zealand the some U.S.A necessarily to is mother- vitality the no as to Of calcu in true tra- was 3) the old its all
DEMOGRAPHIC SOCIOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION
The denominational figures of the various censuses accurately reflect the
influx and comparative strength of regional migrations The absence of large
scale migration from continental Europe is visible in e.g the numerical insigni
ficance of Lutheranism However the prominence of migration from England
is shown by the fact that throughout the history of New Zealand the Anglican and
Methodist denominations constituted almost without exception the majority
of the population
Draft for chapter in forthcoming publication of Oxford University Press The
Pattern of New Zealand Culture ed by A.L McLeod
The help of Mrs Naomi Caiden research assistant in this department with tables and
references is gratefully acknowledged
See André SIEGFRIED Democracy in New Zealand London Bell Sons 1914 310
Ibid. 321
See J.J MOL Churches and Immigrants Research Groups for European Migration
Problems The Hague 1961 pp 60-65
121 TABLE
Religious Denominations in New Zealand ex Maoris) 1851-1961
1901 1911 1921 DENOMINATION 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1936 1951 1961
Church of England .. 203333 253331 314024 411689 514607 600786 703637 829175 14179 48504 107241
40.64 40.82 42.22 40.28 53.09 48.98 41.82 41.50 40.43 38.58 36.88
234662 4124 21207 63624 113108 176503 299545 367855 443976 535512 OO 141 KQ 477 94 4<4 21.41 24.81 23.09 22.84 23.27 24.66 24.34 23.82
3472 35608 87272 109822 140523 164183 195261 247597 335442 10870
14.08 46657 68984 Q Q2 13.93 14.21 13.94 13.47 13.09 13.58 13.00 10.98 13.89
83802 94827 112344 2755 8394 22004 63415 121012 147548 161227
99 rf 10.31 8.48 8.38 9.53 10.12 10.85 9.40 8.11
4.0 400 4732 11476 16035 20042 19926 24703 31449 1958 ICI 14825 y
2.08 1.99 1.63 1.66 1.50 1.98 1.84 2.34 1.80
32 1967 3537 7484 11055 17086 20871 24197 lf 553 1{ 7865
0.03 0.40 0.56 0.97 0.91 1.15 1.08
20 107 271 272 365 443 745 1859 5799 ff ff 206
0.02 04 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.05 0.10 0.05 0.26
9383 7999 9707 11591 12608 15301 t( 13485 yq
1.50 1.04 0.96 0.95 0.84 0.68
Church of Christ...... 566 2873 5241 6105 9187 8640 11197 11937 10307
10 7< 0.84 0.91 0.71 0.75 0.65 0.22 0.59 0.46 04.1 6699 2070 3941 6685 8756 7977 7179 f( 6768 6699 y firy 2.09 1.54 1.07 0.65 0.48 0.40
Seventh Day Adventist 415 864 1113 2224 3825 5849 7598
0.07 0.11 0.11 0.18 0.26 0.32 0.34
Witnesses 39 263 738 1540 5010 f>f>
0.02 005 0.08
2341 5773 5616 4833 4477 2736 2537 3309 817
44 0.91 1.18 0.90 0.63 0.17 0.18 0.21
1262 2653 65 326 1463 1611 2128 2380 3661 4031 ft 1536 01 0.24 0.33 0.23 0.21 0.21 0.20 0.18 0.20 0.18
Others ** ........ 1712 5606 5716 10490 13951 16961 15983 42616 54370 36840 9 ff 12044 QO Ot 70 4.9 5.66 2.14 1.69 1.31 6.41
44 9381 SO 68 2788 6406 4420 10222 6475 23319
0.03 0.03 0.57 1.02 0.57 1.01 0.53 0.63 1.13 1.04
13978 15342 35905 71302 122911 182242 8630 Orr 18295 Y 38591 17
2.85 2.45 3.56 4.78 8.11 6.74
26707 99021 256393 489933 626658 772719 1008468 1218913 1491484 1823796 2247898
100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
1851 not specified 1861 not specified ** 1851 including unspecified 1861 including unspecif ed RELIGION IN NEW ZEALAND
Sometimes the original patterns of migration are still visible in the propor
tional distribution of denominations The 1961 Census figures show that close
to half the population of Otago and Southland are Presbyterian although not
even quarter of the total New Zealand population belongs to that denomination
This reflects the concentration of the Scottish in these southern parts of the South
Island ever since 1848 when the first ship arrived Apparently the Scottish
developed fondness for New Zealand there have always been relatively more
Presbyterians here than in other countries with predominant Anglo-Saxon
pattern of migration such as Canada and particularly Australia and the U.S.A
similar överrepresentation of Catholics on the West Coast of the South
Island also originated in the attraction of the mining fields for the Irish many
of whom came to these areas via Australia However with only 15.1 in the
total New Zealand population Catholics are relatively less numerous in New
Zealand than in other countries of large-scale immigration
On the other hand migration patterns are not always responsible for överre
presentation of denominations in certain geographical areas The Church of
England has 48.0 of the population of the East Coast North Island statistical
area although only 34.6 of the whole of New Zealand So has Methodism
11.8 of the Taranaki area West coast of the North Island) but only 7.2
of the whole of New Zealand This is also partly explained by an arrangement
between Anglicans and Methodists in 1837 whereby the former would concentrate
their Maori mission work in the East and the latter on the West coast
Throughout New Zealand history the relative denominational proportions
have not varied great deal The slow decline of Anglican Presbyterian and
Metliodist denominational proportions and the slow increase of Catholic
in the non-Maori population over the last 40 years are most likely due to the
different fertility ratios of these four main denominations There does not seem
to have been disproportional influx of Catholic migrants from overseas apart
from approximately 10000 Dutch Catholics who entered the country since the
second world war However this amounts to only of the total Catholic
increase from 1945-1961 and closer look at the Catholic birthrate is therefore
warranted Particularly in the most recent census 1961 the ratio of 0-4 year
old children to women of the age of 15-40 was much higher for Catholics than
for the total population as table II shows One can therefore expect this trend of
Catholic increase to continue
TABLE II
Fertility ratios number of 0-4 year old children per 100 women aged 15-40 for
selected denominations of the total New Zealand population
1961 DENOMINATION 1921 1936 1945
Church of England .......... 52.16 48.61 69.31 37.55
Presbyterian ................. 52.45 39.35 49.79 69.97
4Q Q4 Methodist ................... 68.52 37.68 52.03
Catholic ..................... 53.22 52.60 88.74 42.10
Total population............... 52.46 39.36 50.88 74.34
See table 11 of vol Religious Professions of the New Zealand Population Census
1961 Contrary to the figures of table these figures include Maoris
123 DE SOCIOLOGIE DES RELIGIONS ARCHIVES
The Catholic position on birth control is one important reason for the higher
Catholic fertility However there are other factors table II shows clearly that
the economic depression of the had quite an impact on the fertility rates
of all denominations including Catholics The fact that Catholics tend to be
overrepresented in the lower classes in New Zealand which traditionally have
higher fertility rate may also contribute to an understanding of the difference
But then on the other hand Catholics tend to be slightly more urbanized whereas
they also have higher percentage in the never-married class and these
factors in turn would lower the ratio
Similar to the higher fertility of Catholics one would also expect lower divorce
rates in this denomination The Catholic Church strongly opposes divorce and the
divorce rates of Catholics in the U.S.A are lower than those of Protestants and
inter-faith marriages and are far lower than those of marriages in which neither
partner has religious affiliation 6)
Still this is not what the New Zealand divorce statistics show In pioneering
study of the field A..J Nixon found that there was no striking disproportion
between Catholics and non-Catholics among divorced females at the 1945 Census
and that this was not due to the avoidance of remarriage by divorced Catholics
Nixon calculated presumably also from the 1945 census figures that t