SCARCITY OF CLERGY.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 October 1919, Page 6

SCARCITY OF CLERGY.

PLEA FOs BETTER PAY. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Napier, October 14. At the Anglican Synod the finding of the committee set up to deal with the question of the stipends of the clergy was as follows: That the scale of stipends in the majority of cases now paid is wholly insufficient for the services rendered and that tiiey are quite inadequate for the support of the clergy; that the stipends paid to the Maori clergy are so low as hardly to amount to payments at all; n is impossible for these men £o live without supplementing their income by farming or other pursuits. In his address Bishop Sedgwick sail: "There is a scarcity of clergy throughout the province. We bewail the fact that so few of our young men are offering themselves for holy orders. Cannot one of the reasons be found here'/ While no one with a sense of vocation would consider for one moment what he would make out of the ministry, he might reasonably hesitate to enter a profession in which it would he impossible adequately to support a wife and bring up a family. The larger portion of the stipends remain wholly inadequate." Mr C. A. De Lat.our moved that the report be forthwith taken into consideration and be referred to all parishes in the diocese for immediate remedial action; that with regard to the inadequate payment the Maori Synod requests the Bishop to refer the matter for redress to the Mission Board or to take such other steps in the matter as lie shall deem expedient. The motion was carried unanimously,