THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1913. UNDERPAID CLERGYMEN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 6 November 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1913. UNDERPAID CLERGYMEN.

Clergymen in rsew Zealand,, as in other parts of the world, are not paid handsome They do not come under Arbitration Court awards, nor are their working hours and holidays fixed by Statute. Theirs is regarded; -as a Jabojur.. of -Jove,, jand too frequently they are expected to subsist almost upon love alone. The matter of/the pay-'of-'the clergy has recently been occupying the attention of the Anglican Synod in Sydney. The Sydney Morning Herajd states that the grievance is a perennial one, and though everyone is agreed upon its .evil,. slip by without any attempt to rectify it. The life of the clergyman is* a 'round of trivial anxieties and petty cares ;and harassing duties. He is at the beck and call of anyone and everyone who calls himself a "parishioner" on the score of an occasional attendance at church and an infinitesimal contri bution to the offertory. And in return for all this, beyond the spiritual satisfaction of meritorious service, there is little recompense in this world,'-whatever., be the case in the .next. Too-often" the clergyman is doomed to celibacy for the best part of his days. He marries, and his .married life is, one long struggle to keep solvent: j He grows old, and what possible provision can he make for his declining years? The stock argument used by the layman is that, the cleric'has a "vocation' ? which* presupposes willingness on his ;part io, do without material ...blessings,' ; YJr;\ tue ie its own we say, and consciously or nof we add the implication that it" is to be its only reward. His metier is to do good, and for this privilege we demand that he should bo ready to sacrifice all that the average maft expects as a right.

Hut even if this bo his attitude, should we accept such a sacrifice? It wo profess a religion is it not fair that wo should do the proper thing hy the authorised exponents of that religion, and not compel them to console themselves with the lofty nature of their calling in default of any more tangible mark of appreciation? Moreover, because a man feels Divinely inspired to devote his life to religious' service it does not follow that ho should also doom himself to a. life of mean and incessant worries to make his salary and his* expenses balance. To-day in Australia many a clergyman receives a stipend which an aiLisan would reject with scorn.