CLERGY’S STIPENDS

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20741, 27 February 1939, Page 8

CLERGY’S STIPENDS

HIGHER COST OF LIVING BISHOP OF WAIKATO’S APPEAL “In the last 10 or 12 years it is not too much to say that the cost of living in New Zealand has risen by 40 per cent, at a conservative estimate,” states the Bishop of Waikato, the Rt. Rev. C. A. Cherrington, in the current issue of the Waikato Diocesan Magazine. “The wages and stipends of most people have risen considerably in that time and quite right, too. “But not the stipends of the clergy. We are still expected to live and work on the stipends we received then. And we can’t do it. We have many expenses. We must have books: to be of any use we must keep abreast of the times not only in the theological sphere, but in other spheres also. We cannot afford to be behind our friends, the teachers in secular subjects in this country, in our grip and knowledge of affairs, world movements and world thought. And on our stipends we cannot afford these books. We must be peripatetic and able to get about our huge parishes: and we have (most of us) to buy our own cars to do this. No Private Means “There are few (if any) of us with private means. We have three fine church schools iu the country, King's College, Wanganui and Christ's College. From them we ought to be able to draw a full supply of all the clergy we need. Yet how many candidates for Holy Orders do we get from these institutions?” asks the writer. “And perhaps no wonder. Do not parents and guardians think they should do the best for their sons and try to put them into professions on the proceeds of which they can live? “Now, all this is a layman’s question. The clergy have no “award,” nor do they feel they can strike. The clergy are hardly able to ask for an increase. Well, here is the Bishop, as usual, doing it. “All. parishes as from April next should raise their stipends to £SOO, all parochial districts to £100: while those “schools for beginners,” namely the districts that aim at £2OO and are always behind in their payments, . should pay at least £300.”