CLERGYMEN AND THEIR PAY

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2189, 13 May 1908, Page 3

CLERGYMEN AND THEIR PAY

WELLINGTON PRESBYTERIANS COMPLAIN. (Press Association.) WELLINGTON, May 12. The poorness of the pay of the local. clergy was referred to at the Wellington Presbytery to-dav. ' One minister complained that Ills people seemed to think that if the Anglican pastor could, keep the wolf from the fold on £l5O a year, the Presbyterian sliopherd should try to accomplish the work on £175 with a. manse. “I admit,” said the pastor, “that we were all very tight about Christmas time.” Here the solemn Presbytery burst into hearty laughter. “I should explain,” added the minister, “that we were financially tight; ns a matter of fact we are all prohibitionists.” Rev.' T. K. Elliott saw nothing to laugh about. “It. is scandalous,” he added, “that- there was a church with college-bred men who were deceiving a miserably pittance at £llO and £l2sa year, and even then this small 6um is not always regularly paid. It is a scandal to the church, I say.” The Rev. gentleman then made a comparison of the liberality of the parents with the closeness of their decendants, who were in far better circumstances to-day, than were the early settlers of the Dominion.

A lay member of the Hutt Congregation admitted that there was “a tightness” of the congregation about Christmas time, but the Government valuations had been so severe in the district that the liberality of the people was naturally restricted. Anyhow, an organ had been purchased, and “a good bit of it had been paid for.” He warmly defended the congregation against any suggestion of “nearness” in regard to the ministers stipend. The question of attendance at the Wellington churches also cropped up, the Rev. Mr Elliott pointing out that in the city and suburbs tho Presbyterian population as shown by census in 1906, was 10,471. The total attendance of the congregation as ministered to, in these districts was 2680. When the census population was reduced by 25 per cent., it would be found that there were 7854 able to attend church, and yet tho percentage of attendance on this basis was only .34. He was very much astonished at these figures, and there seemed to him to he need for bestirring themselves in the matter.