CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5080, 18 July 1895, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE SBAT-BKNTS OF ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH.

[to the Enron.]

Silt, —It may seem presumption in a new-comer to correct an old resident like yourself, but I am bound to hike exception to the tenor of your remarks in Tuesday's issue. They do not fairly represent the case ol Mr Teakle or of free seats. Tin minute books clearly show that 31 Teaklo was Curate of the Furochk District of Mastei'ton ; and that thi District (1 use the woul in its tech meal and statutory sense) was con stitutedaPiim/ioii December Bth 187!). When a FariA is formci:

Churchwardens and Vestrymen huye to be elected, under provision of our Church Statutes,mid they have to! appoint Nominators who shall in! conjunction with the Diocesan Norn- j inators, nominate an incumbent to| the charge of tins newly-formed; Parish, Of course such Nominators j may nominate to the Bishop the i recent Curate of the Parochial J)is- \ trict ; or they are at liberty to noin-! inate anyone else. In this case they i did not nominate Jlr Teakle. He never was " Incumbent " of the; Parish. ThoJtev. J. V. Teakle was! therefore ml " starved out," in the! way which delights some people to treat their Parish priest. That shame was spared to Jlnslerton. He was ■ simply not nominated to tlio now Parish by the Nominators appointed j by a Vestry that was hostile to him' upon this very matterof free-sittings; of which Vestry yon were yourself a member. Nor had Jlr Teakle to j " take refuge" in a Southern Diocese. He has always been esteemed in the Diocese of Christchurch where j; be now holds an honourable post, j! It is only fair treatment to record ;j these facts. It seems to me that you j i are no less unhappy inyouiToference i to free and rented sittings. On January 18th, 1878, a Parish meeting was called " to take into consideration the pew-rent system " : adjourned to the 28th, it was resolved, with only two dissentients, that "It is not desirable to make any alteration from the existing system of pew-rents." But on July ord, 1878, at the Statutory Annual Meeting of Parishioners, it was carried, with only one dissentient, "That St. Matthew's Church be free and open." During the following year all account for stipend were passed for payment, and at the annual meeting, held on July 23rd, 1879, there was no motion for reverting to the old system, and you yourself, Sir, are recorded as moving the adoption of thebalancesheetandChurchwarden's report, Five months afterwards the Parochial district was changed into a Parish. With this change there was (July 28th, 1S80) a reversion to seat-rents, upon your own motion, According to your argument, Sir, now should come the season of pros-

perity. "Starvingout" should be an impossibility, when the accommodation was leasehold. Yet, after it had been tried for nine years, the Diocesan Standing Committee report to Synod that they had " informed the Bev. W. E. Paige that they could not see how the arrears of stipend were to be met, and that they were unable to make provision for the payment of the current stipend, The Parish is still in arrears £llß with its assessment for stipend." (See Synod report for 1889). In May of 1804, after fourteen years of pew-rents, the stipend was still drifting into arrears, and the Vestry informed the Rev. W. E. Paige that they could not pay any stipend to a locum kuens for quite four months, and then only at a reduction of £SO per annum. It seems to require in Mastertonas " bold and lucky" a man to "run a Church " with seat-rents as without, If the Churchwardens and Vestry can be assured of some definite income as large as that brought in by seats-rents though from another source, their anxieties should be no greater than now, and the pew-rent system, which 1 gladly note you acknowledge is in theory (you meant principle, I mn sure) wrong, may give way to a system which is right. If the seat-holders and others will but take up a system which I hope to place before them at the Parish meeting, I shall hope the Vestry and Churchwardens will feel justified in accepting the free-seat " theory." 1 am, etc., Alex. Campbell Yokke. July 16th.