CLERGYMAN'S STIPEND.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 117, 31 August 1877, Page 3

CLERGYMAN'S STIPEND.

TO THE EDITOH OF THE AKAKOA MAIL. S IR? —Will you ill low me, through the columns of .your valuable paper, to call the attention of the Church Vestry to the extraordinary way the Parochial Fund is being collected—or rather not being collected—this quarter. For two years everything was done most regularly, then followed a.year of confusion; but nothing that has yet occurred has equalled the state of things now going on. It used to be the custom to send out envelopes for subscribers to enclose their subscriptions in—a full week before the end of the quarter. The last quarter, the envelopes were more than three weeks late, and then no effort has been made to collect the sums promised, but not paid. I cannot make it all out; it may be with the hope of forcing pew rents on us, on the plea that enough for the Stipend cannot be got any other" way, or it may be to make Church affairs look unprosperous. This fund should not be left in any single person's hands, but should be looked to by the whole vestry. I think the system of the Parochial Fund, as carried out by Messrs Latter and Gar wood, was admirable. To my miricF, the thought of the Clergyman's stipend should be entirely banished from the mind of every member of the Church—at all events at the time of offering. I think the feeling should be that one is offering to God for the use of His.House, without enquiring whether it be for the Clergyman's stipend, lighting, cleaning, or repairs. If this fund is to be successful, some little pains must be taken in explaining the nature of it, and people's backs not rubbed up the wrong way. The Vestry appears to be asleep. It is the opinion of many I have spoken to,-that? the late Churchwardens are both morally and legally responsible for the Incumbent's stipend for the quarter they held office. Churchman.