The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1888. CHURCH FINANCING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 3032, 18 October 1888, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1888. CHURCH FINANCING.

'We fbar that Masterton will soon gain a Bomewhat unsatisfactory reputation with respect to • fburch financing. Of late the various denominations established hore have one and nil appeared to have suffered from that ghostly enemy ,ut debt," and to have been obliged to make extraordinary efforts to cope with their liabilities. First of all we had the Wesleyan body running a big Exhibition; secondly, our Presbyterian friends coming to the front with a Bazaar; is said, the financial position of the Cftuvch of England in this town is so bii.il that the Vestry of St. Matthew's Parish have resigned in & body. Of late years frequent uucomplimentery paragraphs' havo appaared in the Wellington papers referring to the financial embarrassments of tins Parish, and all sorts of misapprehensions as to the cause ot the complications have been gonerated. Really, the Masterton Pariah has been sinned against, and has not been quite the sinner which it bis been represented to be by the Wellington Episcopalian circles. There is in the Wellington Diodese, a clerical circle revolving round the Bishop, who underthepeculiarbeirarchywepossess is a sort of ecclesiastical autocrat, At any rate, the autocrat, whether Bishop or Bishop's satellite; has from time to time declared that the Masterton Parish should pay so much money fortbeolergyman'siucoine,and the Parish ks raped "you aiwating us too high, we cannot raiso • the money." Now, instead of ascertaining how much.the Parish could really afford to give, the potentates in Wellington stvuck the assessment at what they in their sublime wisdom deemed to be fiUing, and the result was, at the end of the year, Masterton was brought into debt a hundred, pounds or so. T?he next year, instead of retrieving the past blunder by a low assessment .the sublime hierachs again billled Masterton in excess of the sum which could be raised, with the inevitable result that, the debt was doubled. Under the guidance and parental control of the Wellington hierachs the Parish has been simply drifting towards • a condition of hopeless insolvency. At thisjuhcture some of the leading members of the congregation said to the potentates, "wo .will clear' offthedebt hanging over the Parish if you will reduce the assessment a little and let the front part of the Church acre to assist the local • revenue." The Ecelesiasfal autocrats, we need hardly say, scornfully rejected both of theso requests, and theleadingmcmbers of the church who had accepted office (is Vestrymen thereuponresignedtheirappointuients and there is a nice little tangle to be straightened out. It is'a pity that church financing cannot be placed on a better footing in thy town, and that any local denomination should getan ill name inconsequence of its inability to meet its engagements; but in the case of S. Matthow, the parish has not failed to meet the engagements that it has undertaken to provide for; but'has simply failed' to honor the liabilities which tho Diocesan' Committee liavo imposed upon it. There is a distinction here,;and morally the blame'for the shortcoming with tho ( Wellington''' potentates, who imagine that because they declare any particular parish shall pay suoli am} such a' smry that sum will necessarily' be paid. Qne other consideration with respect 'to church t anting is worthy' of notice.' A eslbyan jslmiicjj'.bnght not to be .compelled to its liabilities by an

oxhibi tion / ol: a iPros by ter i ail' cliny6i x liy ; ivrbazjaari;S-or! church iS :'ljo:;iirilie: unfortunate position Sf Being both "ends ; .Sheet, -.j by fair .means or foul.;':)Peop]p |i|sii' 'of paying tlieiif lawyer, their doctor, or their butchor or their bilker by a bazaar or- an .exhibition.-' It'- is. agreed in most .'.communities. I thatreligious institutions.aro to. be supported, and it shouldfollow, as a matter of course that adequato provision .should, .be made for thorn out of'the : ordinary revenue' of the Church ."members;-' Possibly clerics do not clearly recognise the importance- of leaving to the laity the task of raising. ways and means. If they interfere iu financial matters at all, the extent' of their action should be to teach thoir people that liberality iu the maintenance of i Christian ordinances is as much a duty as prayer and praiso. The ten-'' dency, of clerics generally is to. consider themsolY.es heaven born''financiers,, and to relieve the laity of tlfo task of determing how ways- and means.are to bo provided, lie.! moral outcome of this is an accumulation of debt which, is distinctly immoral in its tendencies, ...