ST. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 261, 13 April 1875, Page 2

ST. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS.

The annual parish meeting in connection with St, Michael and All Angels was held in the school-rootr, last evening, the incumbent, the Rev Mr Edwards, occupying the chair. There was a good attendance of parishioners. The Chairman having read the advertisement convening the meeting, opened the proceedings with prayer. The Chairman said he thought the parish had reason to congratulate themselves on the accounts which were now laid before them, as there had been a large increase in the offertories and number of communicants. There was another thing upon which the parish had to congratulate themselves, viz., the coming amongst them of the curate whom the last parish meeting had instructed the vestry to procure. He felt the presence of that gentleman a very great help, and he was sure that he was appreciated in the parish. [Hear, hear.] That gentleman was working energetically in a part of the parish which had been to some extent, from force of circumstances, neglected. He felt the relief of' the presence of another worker in the parish, which removed from his shoulders the great burden of the whole onus of the work. With two working in the pariah, he hoped shortly to see the parish church require enlargement. He would now call on Mr Brittan to read the statement of accounts.

Mr Brittan said, before reading the accounts which had been audited by Mr H. E. Alport, he desired to read a letter from Mrs Edwards, on behalf of the ladies of St. Michael’s, presenting the new church with a handsome set of brass fittings. Later on in the proceedings, he would ask them to give a cordial vote of thanks to the ladies for their handsome gift. The churchwardens had to lay before the meeting the balance sheet and statement of accounts from Ist April, 1874, toSlst March, 1875, showing ordinary receipts £1213, to which may be added subscriptions received during year on account chancel fund, £202; total, £1415. This amount, although large, falls short of expenses, which on ordinary accounts has been £1355, including debtor balance of £75 from last year. On the building fund account the expenses during the year had been £747 (making the total sum at present expended on the chancel £1242). There is, therefore, a debtor balance on ordinary accounts of £142, and on the building fund account of £202, in addition to which there were still liabilities of about £250 on the chancel account. These amount* together made a total of £6OO, which had only been temporarily provided for, partly by loan and partly by overdraft at bank. He preferred to consider this as a floating debt, because he believed that by a determined effort, the sum might be cleared off, and not be added to the permanent debt of the parish. They had not, therefore, included these amounts in the statement, which would be found ou the present balance-sheet, showing the amount of debt which appears thus—Original amount borrowed, £600; interest to date, £165; and ou the creditor side interest paid, £165; accumulated value of sinking fund, £219; balance of debt still remaining, £3BO. The sinking fund consists of £24 shares in the Permanent Investment, which are now becoming very valuable, and will produce enough to clear off the debt iu about three years. The interest and sinking fund amounted to £133 per annum, and this sum was made a first charge on the seat rents, as shown in the debt extinction account. It would be found on comparing present statement with that of last year, that there has been a considerable increase in the ordinary items of revenue. The offertories last year amounted to £551. This year (exclusive of the offertories on two Easter Sundays, which both happened to fall within the financial year) the total amount had been £7BO, or an average of nearly £l6 per week. If they excepted special offertories for church work extension, Melanesian mission, building fund, &c., the average per Sunday had been £l3. This was a marked increase, but very much short of what it should be. When they considered that the congregation now averaged more than 600 people every Sunday

morning and evening, it was considerably less than threepence from each person. The next noticeable item was seat rents £3Ol. Last year the amount was £282. The arrears still unpaid were very small, being less than £6, some of which had been outstanding more than a year. He wished here to enter a strong protest against the increasing practice of treating the churchwardens as mere duns. All seat rents were supposed to be paid in advance, but very few seatholders adopted this course, and a very considerable amount of extra work was entailed upon the churchwardens. A circular was sent round every quarter to those who were in arrear, but in very many cases with no result; then follow more reminders, and at last personal applications, and even this was often unsuccessful, and the churchwarden is told to call again, as though it were an ordinary tradesman’s account. Now, there was a very considerable amount of unavoidable work and responsibility incurred in the proper administration of so large a yearly sum as the parish revenue now amounts to. And it was not only manifestly wrong and unjust to add to the work of an unpaid officer, but by allowing the seat rents to fall into arrear, the church revenue suffered a considerable loss in the item of interest paid on Bank overdraft. The number of sittings now let was more than 300, and when the chancel was made use of there would be about eighty more to let. Under the head subscriptions, there was a great falling off. This year £BO, last year£294, which, however, was chiefly made up by subscriptions to special objects, such as gas fittings, organ, &c. No special contributions have been asked for this year, except that for the choir fund, which has produced £32—the same amount as last year. He trusted this might be continued and enlarged next year. The amount contributed by each is so trifling (6d per week), add the result so satisfactory that it would be a matter of regret if it were allowed to drop. The churchwardens have to acknowledge with thanks the valuable services rendered by one member of the vestry in collecting these choir fund subscriptions. The organ and choir had this year cost a sum of £156, against which on the creditor side is placed the £32 raised by the small weekly subscriptions, a very considerable relief to the overtaxed general expenses offertories. The only other item of receipts calling for special notice was that of rent £64, chiefly made up as follows;—Rent of St Michael’s schoolhouse, £3l (whicn is for about ten months at the rate of £4O per annum), and rent of school house and land, Addington, £29. These two amounts go to pay off the debt on the day school account. The late school committee closed the school as soon as they felt they were not justified in running farther into debt. The vestry agreed to accept the liabilities, £lO5, The school property was let, and the rents were now allotted to clearingoff the debt,which, as will be seen from the present statement, now amounts only to £49, This would be cleared off during next year, The harmonium sold was school property, and the proceeds were carried to the credit of day school account. The item miscellaneous £2 5s 6d also belonged to this account, being arrears of school-fees paid. The total receipts, then, on ordinary account had been £1213, as against expenditure £1355, leaving a debtor balance of £142, made up as follows: General expenses’ account, £ls; this is £66 better than last year’s balance showed; school account, which has been alreac y explained, £49 ; and local clergy account, £B9. This required some explanation, as the fund was in credit at the commencement of the financial year. This Dr balance was caused by the fund being charged with the stipends of two clergymen, while no special effort had been made to increase it; an extra offertory per month had been allocated to this fund since Ist Jan , but this has been taken from general expenses fund, which can ill afford to lose it, as next year the charges against it would be extraordinarily heavy. The four items of new seats, gasfittings, staining and varnishing chancel, and moving organ, would alone amount to more than £l2O. The ordinary revenue would not bear so large an extra charge, and it would be necessary to ask next year for special subscriptions to defray the above amount. With reference to local clergy account, it was absolutely necessary that this account should be supplemented in some way, as it cannot bear the charge at present made on it. He estimated the probable receipts ou this account next year as follows Twenty-four offertories, £320; balance of seat rents, after providing interest and sinking fund, £IBO ; total, £SOO. Expenditure—Present debtor balance, £B9 ; incumbent’s stipend, £350; curate’s do, £2OO ; total, £640. Deficiency, £l4O. There were several ways in which this fund might be supplemented : Ist, by a system already commenced, called the parochial fund, by which members of the congregation contribute once a quarter special subscriptions to different funds; this produced last year only £23, of which £l9 went to local clergy account, and £4 to debt extinction account. The promises for next year were at present very small, several who contributed last year sums varying from £1 to £4, having signified their intention of discontinuing their subscriptions. Another plan of increasing their income was by raising the price of seat rents, and he thought a graduated scale of payment might be adopted with advantage. As for instance, the annual price of one or two sittings 30s, three or four 255, five and upwards, as at present, 21s. This would bring in an additional £SO or £6O a year, and would not be much felt.

The accounts shewed as follows:—Offertories, £757 Os 8d; offertories for parochial fund, £23 4s; seat rents, £3Ol 8s 3d; subscriptions, £SO 17s 6d; rent of schoolhouses and reserves, £64 Os lid; sale of harmonium, £l4; miscellaneous, £2 5s 6d; debit balance, £142 13s 7d; total, £1355 10s sd. Expendi-ture-Balance from last year on various accounts, £75 13s 4d; local clergy account, £464 7s 9d; general expenses account, £333 12s lOd; school account, £126 16s; charitable aid account, £3s;iss; Sunday school account, £36 9s 4d; debt extinction account, £133 4s; special accounts, £149 12s 2d; total, £1355 10s 6d. The following figures show the present amount of debt on the parish, viz; Dr,, original amount borrowed, £600; interest on the same at 10 per cent, £165; total, £765. Or., accumulated value of sinking fund, being twenty-four shares in the Permanent Investment Association, £219 14s; interest paid, £165; balance, £3BO 6s; total, £765. Mr Lockwood moved—“ That the accounts and statement as read be adopted,” Mr George Hart seconded the motion. He thought the best thanks of the parish were due to the churchwardens for the labors of the past year. The accounts of the parish yrers fast becoming so complicated that ere

long the churchwardens would require to have clerical aid. He thought it probable that the item day school account would after next year disappear from their books, as they in the parish, and indeed throughout the province, were now getting so thoroughly used to the Provincial Government system of education that to attempt to establish a church school in competition would, he thought, be found to be a mistake, and one which would land them only in debt. He trusted that next year the churchwardens might see their way clear to consolidate the accounts, and simplify the keeping of the books of the parish, so as to relieve them of a great deal of work. The chairman having spoken on the necessity of efforts being made by the parishioners to relieve the parish of debt. Mr Wilkin said that he would like to see the whole church free without seat rents. If each one who came paid 2£d per service, the revenue of the church would be even larger than at present. There was a large number of persons who, like himself, held the opinion that it was not right to pay for seats in any place where the worship of Almighty God was conducted. He thought they should give the system a trial, and go out in the highways and byways and compel all to come in. He felt sure that the offertories would be largely increased if this course were carried out.

Mr E. M. Johnson reminded the speaker that one-third of the seats were under the regulation of the Diocesan Synod free to all. Mr Webb said that he felt sure that it would be found that the making the seats free would be the means of making the revenue of the Church very much larger. Let them have the offertories the only subscriptions given. He had had experience of the free seats in the churches, and he felt that the offerings had been larger than the contributions from those holding sittings. He quite agreed with the last speaker that a free Church was the proper thing, and that the offertories would be very largely increased.

Mr Hawkes said that his experience of fourteen years as an office leader in St Michael’s wasquite opposed to what MrWebb had stated. He had taken the bag down seat after seat of the free seats, and he found the appeal disregarded. His experience was that the seatholders contributed the greater part of the offertories. He entreated the parishioners not to think of doing away with their seat-rents, at any rate until they were out of debt. It had been tried in the early days, and it was found that it resulted in very nearly starving their clergymen. He agreed theoretically with what had been said about a Christian church being free ; but it was quite impossible to be done. He felt sure that to do it would be simply to land themselves deeper in debt. [Hear.] Mr W. H, Smith warmly opposed Mr Wilkin’s proposition. At present the seatholders had great difficulty in getting to their seats from the large attendance, and if they made their seats free they would be still worse, as they would have persons coming from all parts of other parishes. [Hear, hear.j The chairman said that he had always pointed out the necessity which existed for the congregations to make an effort of selfdenial to overtake the debt which now rested on the parish. After some further discussion, the matter dropped. A vote of thanks to Mr H. E. Alport for auditing the accounts was agreed to. The Incumbent stated that he had nominated Mr R. J. S. Harman as minister’s churchwarden. He desired to pay the highest possible tribute to the way in which Mr W. G. Brittan had worked for the parish during the past year. Mr B. M. Johnson moved —“ That Mr W. G. Brittan, junr, be re-elected as parishioner’s churchwarden.”

Mr Hawkes seconded the motion, and in doing so desired to say that he felt he was expressing the feelings of the whole parish when he said that his labors on behalf of the parish had been unremitting, and that during the past year his efforts had been directed towards the effecting of several improvements, and it was only fair, apart from the admirable manner in which he had worked during the year in the cause of the parish, that Mr Brittan should be allowed to reap the credit of what had been to him a labor of love. [Hear.] The motion was then put and carried by acclamation.

The following gentlemen were nominated as the vestry for the ensuing year, viz. : Dr Symes, Messrs Joseph Palmer, Malet, Appleby, B, M. Johnson, Bennett, Vincent, Evans, Hawkes, Parkerson, Lockwood, and Webb.*

On a ballot the following were elected, viz. :—Dr Symes, Messrs J. Palmer, Malet, Vincent, Hawkes, Parkerson, Evans, Bennett, Appleby, and Lockwood. A cordial vote of thanks to the ladies’ working committee for their very handsome presents was proposed by Mr Brittan, and seconded by Dr Symes. Mr Vincent proposed a vote of thanks to the choir, which was seconded by Mr H. B. Lane.

Mr Lockwood proposed a vote of thanks to the Sunday school teachers. Mr Evans seconded the motion, paying a great compliment to Mr Brittan for the great interest and zeal displayed by him in all matters connected with the school and choir. After a long discussion pro and ton. as to the desirability or otherwise of raising the scat rents, a resolution was eventually carried that the price remain as at present. A vote of thanks to the rev chairman terminated the meeting.