THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND DIOCESAN SYNOD.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4541, 9 October 1875, Page 3

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND DIOCESAN SYNOD.

Friday, October 8. The Synod assembled at" half-past 7 o'clock. The following members of the Synod were present: The President. Clergy : The Clerical Secretary, Revs. B. W. Harvey, A. Knell, J. P. Teakle, J. McWilliam, A. Towgood, C. A. S. Nicholls, B. K. Taylor, J. A, Newth. Laity : The Lay Secretary, Colonel Gorton, Messrs. J. ■D; Cruickshank, C. P. Powles, J. W. A. Marchant, P. Robinson, A. W. F. Halcombe, A. B. Sheath, R. Hunter, and G. Beetham..' >

i- - The President opened-the proceedings .with prayer.

•The minutes of the former session being read and confirmed, the Ltev. B. W. HArvet read the report of the committee on parochial accounts, showing the total ordinary receipts to be £3711 7s. Id., as against £2396 3s. 2d, for last year, showing an increase of £1315 3s. lid. or an increase of nearly 55 per cent. The total of special receipts was £3075 ss. 10d., as against £1561 95., being an increase of nearly cent, per cent.; while the total excess of liabilities over assets this year is only £2OB 35., as against six times that amount, or £1249 lis., for last year..

The Clerical Secretary read the interim report of the committee appointed to revise the Acts, resolutions, and standing orders of the Synod. The Rev. F. Fancourt read the report of the committee appointed to consider the regulations regarding the issue of licenses for the erection of enclosures in burial grounds, and gave notice of motion thereon. The Clerical Secretary moved, and the Rev. B. W. Harvey seconded, that the report of the standing committee upon the balancesheet of the Pension Pund capital account and the balance-sheet of the Endowment Fund be printed in the report. Carried. Lieutenant-Colonel Gorton, in moving that the offertories received on the last Sunday in each year be devoted towards raising the Bishop's stipend up to £BOO, said that he considered it a scandal that the Bishop of the diocese should receive so small a stipend as £SOO a year, especially when his high character and attainments were taken into consideration. Wnen a vacancy should occur in the bishopric at a future time he anticipated that it would be impossible for the Synod to offer a sufficient remuneration to a clergyman of high attainments, who, from the character of the diocese, must necessarily incur considerable travelling expenses, in addition to the need that existed for a Bishop to be placed beyond the reach of pecuniary embarrassment. Rev. B. W. Harvey seconded the motion.

The Ven. Archdeacon Stock entirely agreed with the remarks that had fallen from Colonel Gorton, and he thought that the Bishop Bhould not consider it altogether aa a personal matter, but as one pertaining to his offico as a Bishop. Messrs. Quick and Hunter followed in support of the motion. The President felt thankful for the kindly feeling that the Synod had expressed towards himself. Hie, however, thought that it would have been perhaps better for the matter to have been discussed in committee, and in his absence, as it was just possible that some members of the Synod might have been fettered in the expression of their opinions on account his being present during the discussion. He however thought that if the motion were carried, it would establish a bad precedent, as he considered that the stipend of the Bishop should be assured, as it might happen that the Bishop might feel it to be his duty to carry out some measure in the interest of the Church which might at the same time be exceedingly unpopular, and in Buch a case he might be menaced with coercion of a pecuniary character. On the whole he would much rather see the motion withdrawn, especially as there were probably some clergymen in the diocese to whom the abstraction of the offertory as proposed might be an inconvenience.

The Synod having given Colonel Gorton the "option' of introducing the motion at another time and in another form, that gentleman withdrew the motion.

The Synod then resolved itself into a committee, of the whole for the purpose of considering the draft Bill for Lay Representatives.

The Synod adjourned until 7.30 p.m. on Monday next.