ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 75, 15 August 1912, Page 8

ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH.

ANNUAL MEETING. riie annual meeting of St, And rov/'.s Pu'-sbyturiiin Church was held last evening, and was largely attended. The ltev. T. H. Roseveare was in the chair. I The various reports were read and j r adopted. I SESSION'S REVIEW. The report of the Session mentioned that during the year fifty-two names had been added to the roll of members, two names were removed in consequence of death, seven by transfer to other districts, and thirteen for non-attendance at Communion. This leaves one 'hundred and thirty-eight members in good standing as against one hundred and nine last year. During the year eighteen 1 children were baptised, and seven mar- j riages solemnised. On September 14 1011, the Rev. T. H. Roseveare was inducted into the charge of the church. Mr. Robert Armstrong, who had had charge of the Waitara home mission station, was giving up the work in that district. The ltev. 11. l'epper still continued to labor in the Okato home mission station, but would also leave as soon as a suitable successor was &p----pointed. The choir had been considerably augmented, and was doing excellent work under Mr. W. (J. Reid, as conductor, and Mr, E. Golding, as organist. Iliey were now busily engaged in the preparation of a cantata. Bible classes for young men and young women had been established, and there were about thirty young people already in attendance. During the year the congregation decided to introduce the individual Communion cups, and New Church Praise, and these were now in use, and were giving every satisfaction. The attendance at the morning and evening services had considerably increased, and the session trusted that this good attendance would keep up, and still further increase. The attendance at the prayer meetings, although improved, was not what it might and ought to be. MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE. The report of the committee of management stated that during the year the Manse was pfit in thorough repair at a cost of £9B 7s 9d. Very hearty thanks were due to Messrs. H. Smart, Ewing, Simcock, and Campbell for their

work in seeing that the repairs were efficiently carried out, also to the ladies who assisted them. From the treasurer's balance-sheet it would be observed that ]yfio e «en lie for the year amounted to .1512 3s, and that the year closed with a bank overdraft of £139 17s lid as against £llß Is 5d at this time last year. This increase of indebtedness was brought about by extraordinary expenditure during the past 'year of £146, which included repairs to the Manse. A portion of this large expenditure would, of course, be non-recurring. Durin» the year a telephone had been installed at the Manse. At & congregational meet- 1 ing held on January 24 last, it was de- 1 cided to adopt "New Church Praise" I for the use of the congregation. The I books hud been purchased and brought mto use, and had given satisfaction. The I envelope' system was working satisfactorily, thanks being due to Mr. Alan I Smart for the energetic manner in which he had taken the matter in hand. \ \v ' p an ' cs were due to Mr. I

\Y. It, Reid for his verv able services in connection with the choir. SABBATH SCHOOL. Ihe report of the Sabbath School stated that, although the las£ report showed a very successful year's work there was every reason to' believe that the past year liad been even more profitable. There were now 175 scholars on the roll as against 115 the previous ye*r, and the average attendance was' 101," a truly gratifying state of affairs. The number of teachers on the roll is 16, with an average attendance of 12. The total receipts for the year from all sourc&s, including £S' lo> 2d brought down from last year, amounted, to £42 2s 7d, leaving a cridt balance of £9 lis Bd. A Junior Bible Class had been commenced for girls, under -the leadership of Mr. James Sanderson, which'was serving as a fitting preparatory class to the young women's Bible Class. The infants had been well looked after during the past year. Mrs. Ewing had the control of both boys and girls, in which capacity she was materially helped bv Miss Robertson. The establishment of a Cradle Roll under the guiding hand of Mrs. Roseveare promised to" be a great factor for good in the future. According to Miss Taunt, the secretary of the St. Andrew's branch of the ( 1.8. R.A., ' the membership of that society had now reached a total of 79, as compared with 67 last year. i DORCAS SOCIETY. | The third annual report of the St. Andrew s Dorcas Society congratulated the members on the very substantial work done during the year. One hundred and eighty-eight new articles had been sent to the Presbyterian Home in Wellington. The attendance at the! meetings had been good, fifteen being' the average. The ladies of the society \ had undertaken the visiting of the congregation, especially the sick and the strangers. The town had been divided into districts by Mr. Roseveare, and visitors to each district had been ap- ■ pointed. The receipts for the year were ' £ls 13s (> Vzd; £9 7s of this was tea money. The expenditure was £lO fts I l'/Jjd. Of this £8 5s B]/>d8 ] />d had been spent on material, and £s~sent to mis- | sions—Home, Foreign, and Maori THE "ENVELOPE" SYSTEM. A report on the successful initiation of the "envelope" system was submitted bv Mr. Alan Smart, in which he stated , that there were now 20 contributors. Since February the contributions from this source had totalled £2.? 5s sd. He advocated an extension of the system. J This, he remarked, would, place the I finances of the church on a satisfactory footing, and eliminate the necessity of canvassing' for subscriptions. The chairman and Mr. N. K, MacDiarmid also warmly commended the svstein to the whole of the congregation. n n In reviewing the operations of the , cluiroh since the commencement of his period of service at New Plymouth, some eleven months ago. Mr. Roseveare said that the congregation were deserving of the highest congratulations for the wav in which they had worked together with one another and with himself, as minister. The year had passed off fairly favorably and without many squabbles. The census returns showed that thare were 530 Presbyterians in the borough, and it was to be regretted that many of these were .still outside the fold. As I in the case of other churches, a great | many Presbyterians in the church" had got out of touch altogether. It was '

satisfactory to note, however, that the {membership was steadilv increasing. , THE FINANCES.

In presenting the linancial statement the treasurer (Mr. N. K. MacDiannitl) said that the congregation need have no fear :us to the future of the church. The managers anticipated having a ''golden" collection at an early date, when it was hoped to make a special j effort to wipe out the current indebtedness. The Sabbath collections (£206 IDs od) showed an increase of nearly £IOO, and the seat rents an increase of £9 17s (id. As against this there was a falling off of £7 19s Cd in the rent of

the school hall. Only 30s had been received on account of the Stipend Fund, but this falling-off was largely explainable by the fact that it was not deemed wise to make a further call on the pockets of the congregation, in view of I the liberal response of £9O (5s made to | Mrs, Ewing's efforts to raise special .donations under another heading. This year it was intended to renew the can|vass in aid of the Stipend Fund. The work which had hitherto been carried | out by Mrs. Campbell with splendid success would be undertaken by a commit- | tee of ladies.

TRENCHANT CRITICISM. In criticising the financial statement, Mr. Ewing said that he did not think that it was a very satisfactory docu,ment as Mr. MacDiarmid would have I them believe. To the speaker's mind it [was very unsatisfactory. Even although the Sabbath collections constituted a record, he found, he said, that it worked out to an average of only ninepence per member each Sunday. This ijvas anything but satisfactory. In 1910, if the Stipend contributions were .taken with the offertories, the figures showed that the congregation gave on ;the average tenpence per head. Ninepence per member was far below a proper contribution. The congregation need some good plain talking from the pulpit about their lapse. A good many members gave considerably more than ninepence each Sunday, which meant that others contributed considerably less than that, sum. They ought to make it j a point of honor, a point of duty, to see ( that the collections were sufficient to [ successfully carry on the working of the church in all its branches without having to resort to canvassing members, a practice which he roundly condemned. ; Mr. Ewing then went on to say that the expenditure of the church had been much higher than its income warranted. : | In replying to Mr. Ewing, Mr. N. K. MacDiarmid said that if he had taken the donations into account he would .have found that his statement, that the (congregation had contributed less per head last year than the previous year, | was not justified. Personally, he had not that hopeless 'feeling about the fmaaces that Mr. Ewing had. ' Mr. Ewing: "I have not,,sir." Mr. MacDiarmid aded that the offertories were steadily increasing, and last jyear the members, although a small congregation, contributed no less than j £515 3s. He had every faith in the future. ' ' Eventually the report was adopted ] without dissent. j Mr. Anderson was re-elected auditor, and heartily thanked for his past ser- i .vices. I The election of' three managers will I take place shortly.