ST. MARY'S PARISH.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 April 1918, Page 8

ST. MARY'S PARISH.

1 , -". ANNUAL MEETING. The animal meeting of p:ifi>]ii<nicvs of St. Mary's Church, Nun- Plymouth, was held in the schoolroom last night. The vicar (the Rev. V. G. Ilarvie) presided ' over a large attendance. The reports of the various organisations were printed and in the hands of tiiose present. The vicar, in his report, traversed the work - of the church since his arrival in the parish. Jn speaking to the report, the ' Rev. V. (1. Hai-viu expressed his thanks * to the workers for the sacrifices they had ' made on behalf of the church. He spe- ' cially referred to the work of the finance ' committee, the treasurer (Mr. J. Paton). ; the churchwardens and vestrymen, and ' the auditor (Mr. J'. C. Morton). The report of the churchwardens and : vestry was as follows: The year just ended has witnessed the ' first year's work among us of our new ' vicar, and we are confident that things at St. Mary's Church are not likely to flag cither through neglect on his port : or through want of support from the congregation. We believe that with the sympathy, loyalty and co-operation of the ' congregation, the church will continue to progress and prosper. , For six months the vicar was without ' the assistance of a curate, but in October ' we were happy to welcome the Rev. K. K. Rawle, who, in addition to assisting at St. Mary's, has had charge of the outlying districts of the parish. The finances of the parish have pre- i sented a serious problem. Wo regret that the general offertories are £!)o less than last year. On the other hand our expenses are greater than they were before, as we could not olfer a married curate less than .C2OO per annum, while former unmarried curates had only received £15(1. We therefore realised that unless something were done to increase the ordinary revenue of the parish we should be faced with a serious and 'steadily increasing overdraft. Steps have accordingly been taken to secure new annual subscribers to church funds to supplement the collections in church, and at present this ell'ort has increased our annual subscriptions from £iiO lis (id hist year to CSS 17s. The.envelope system is used by a good many of our regular church-goers, but it ought to be used by many more. We could not have obtained all these new subscribers without the assistance of the ladies of the parish, and we are most grateful to one and all of them for their valuable help, particularly to Mrs. W. Webster, Miss Devenish, Mrs. Froeth and Mrs. Standish. The 72nd anniversary of the dedication of the church fell on Advent Sunday, and the collections at the services that day amounted to over £2011; with the addilioji of a few pounds subsequently received we were enabled to pay oil' the debt on the fabric of the church. The money had been borrowed from the Sunday school fund, and lias now been completely repaid. The special collections this year are larger by £ll2 than last year. The whole community was profoundly shocked and grieved on receiving the news of the death of our late vicar, the Rev. A. IT. Colvile. on February 13. A committee has been appointed to collect subscriptions towards a permanent memorial to Mr. Colvile: the fund will remain open until the end of April, In addition to the death of Mr. Colvile, the year just ended has witnessed the passing away of several other persons intimately connected with the ehureli, notably the Rev. 10. ('. Cook, who was assistant curate at St. .Mary's in lfllli, and Mr. J. 0. List, who prior to his going into camp was a member of the vestry and C.K.M.s!. and superintendent of the Sunday school. Both of these men have given their lives in defence of the Umpire, and we honor their memory. The nexi project to be taken in hand by the parish will hit the rebuilding of the' Sunday school, towards which v.e have a sum of £(!">!> lis Id in hand. All the reports, with the balance-sheet, were adopted. The election of the vestry resulted us follows: Messrs. E, I'. Kingdon (vicar's warden), A. (). Mason (people's warden). .J. Raton, S.. W. Shaw, R Lash, S. Lush, A. Crooke, 11. 11. Fookes, W. Nash, C. :Denny-Hro\vn, .1. 11. Hammond, and .1. Harding. Mr. P. C. Morton was re-elected auditor. A discussion took place on a proposed amendment to the Church Franchise Bill, providing that communicants onlv be allowed to vote at parish meetings. Amotion was moved to reject the amendment, and carried by those present who were enfranchised. There were many present who were not entitled to and an informal discussion took place as to whether ladies should be placed on the same footing as men in regard to voting, and the meeting decided unanimously in favor of admitting the ladies. A special vote of thanks was passed to Mrs. W. D. Webster and the lady collectors. During the evening songs were given by Mrs. Wilkes and a pianoforte solo by "Miss Alma Shaw. The vicar pronounced the blessing, and the meeting closed with the singing of the National Anthem. Supper was provided by the ladies' guild.