BIG MISSIONS DEFICIT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5195, 26 October 1927, Page 3

BIG MISSIONS DEFICIT.

WORLD-WIDE RISE IN EXPENSES.

RESERVES USED UP. Serious financial difficulties face nearly all the great missionary societies of the Christian churches at the present time, and foreign missionary effort is being hampered owing to lack of funds.

Aggregate expenditure of 12 of the largest missionary societies approximates £2,000',000 a year, and the aggregate deficit of these bodies is estimated at something like £200,000, equal to 10 per cent, of their annual expenditure.

Officials of the societies concerned attribute the financial crisis; to the following causes: — Increase in cost of living. Increase in shipping freights;

Fluctuations in rates of exchange.

“ The cost of our work in the Church Missionary Society is almost double the pre-war figure,” said an official.

“We estimate that fluctuations in the rate of exchange alone have, cost our society £375,000 in the last ten years.

“Our regular income has shown a gratifying increase, but the obstacles have been too big to clear away.” The, secretary of the London Missionary Society said: “The real trouble is that, although our subscriptions are larger than they used to be, people do not realise that the cost of living has increased as much abroad as it has done at, home.

“Another large item in our expenditure is the cost of shipping transport, which has nearly doubled since the war”

Another of the leading foreign mission agencies is the Baptist Missionary Society. “Most of our missionaries are in India,” said the secretary, “ and we find the loss on exchange very heavy. Our subscrip-tions-are nearly double what they were before the war, but we cannot make, ends meet.”

Some of the largest missionary societies have been driven, during the last few years, to fall back on the financial policy of living on their reserves. The Church Missionary Soociety, which devotes nearly half a million sterling a year to its work has thrown all its reserves, accumulated during many years, into the breach. It, 'has during the last ten years absorbed £300,000 of capital in funds and properties in this way, but despite this they still had a deficit of £lOO,000 at the beginning of the present year.

“We dare not retrench. We dare not desert our overseas churches.”

The London Missionary Society, which expends more than £300,000 a year on its work, has,' an accumulated deficit for the, past two years of more than £46,000. It was stated at a recent meeting of th& directors that the income must be increased by £25,000 this year, and that if this was not done it might, in two years’ time, be found to bq impossible to finance the society. It was hoped to mute with the Congregational Union in an appeal to raise the necessary funds.

A deficit of £2’5,000 faced the Baptist Missionary Society at tlie end of last year. Their total income for the support of 300 missionaries and 2800 native workers was £175,000.

A number of other denominational missionary societies finished their last financial year with accumulated deficits varying from £5OOO to nearly £30,000.