N.Z. CONGREGATIONAL UNION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 38, 14 February 1910, Page 5

N.Z. CONGREGATIONAL UNION.

COUNCIL SITTING. i The Council resumed its sittings at 10 a.m. to-day, the first half hour being a devotional meeting, conducted by Rev. I. Sargenson. L.M.S. REPORT. This was submitted by the Rev. W. J. Smith. He stated the Otago returns had not yet come to hand. Wellington district income was 18/2, with a cheque for £5 and also £10 to come in yet from Palmerston. Auckland district, £ 188 6/2, as compared with £167 1/1 last year. He understood the total amount would yet reach £200. Canterbury district, £128 7/8, as compared with £93 14/1 the previous year, a net increase of £35 13/7. The Rev. Smith said he estimated the net increase for the year would be about £100. Rev. R. McNaughton spoke strongly regarding the need for creating more interest' in foreign missions. Rev. A. E. Hunt quoted statistics to show that the Anglicans, with 368,065 adherents, raised last year for foreign missions £4734; the Presbyterian Church, with 203,597 adherents, £3795; Methodists (including the Primitives), with 89,038 adherents, £2915; Baptist Church, with 17,747 adherents, £2000; and Oongrega--tionalist Church, with 7360 members, £ 1500. That showed the Congregationalists in New Zealand contributed per capita more than the others. At the same time, there was no shutting out the unpleasant fact that' while last year five churches in New Zealand raised £17,000 for foreign missions, the sum of £1,900,000 passed through the totalisators of the Dominion. Mr. Hunt said he recognised that a good deal of money was being raised for Home Mission work, but when they learned t/hat the L.M.S. showed a deficit last year of £40,000, surely it was time to make an effort to raise more money in the Dominion. It was decided that it' be an instruction to the Council in future to have two speakers for Home Missions and one for Foreign Missions at' the annual meetings. Rev. W. J. Smith was reappointed organising secretary for the L.M.S. for the ensuing year. SABBATH OBSERVANCE. With regard to the letter from the Presbyterian Church re Sabbath Observance, the Reference Committee recommended that the matter be sent the various ministers, to be supported by them in the ministerial and other organisations that may take cognisance thereof. INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. A letter was read from -the Peace Society, and it was resolved to pass a resolution in favour of international arbitration. The Union also expressed regret that the request was not received in time to permit of a deputation being heard. MINISTERS ON TRANSFER. The Reference Committee recommended "That the N.Z. Union will not recognise any ministers coming to the Do minion unless officially transferred, and trusts that other Unions will act similarly towards men leaving New Zealand." This was adopted on the motion of Rev. Saunders. AUCKLAND MINISTERS' ASSOCIATION; A deputation from the Auckland Ministers' Association waited by appointment this morning upon the Council of the Congregational Union of New Zealand, in Beresford Congregational Church, for the purpose of extending fraternal greetings. The deputation consisted of the Revs. Knowles Kempton (president), W. Gray Dixon, G. S. Cook, North and Cocker. The deputation was introduced by the Rev. W. Day, and received by all the Council standing. The Chairman (Mr A. M. Lewis) welcomed the visitors. The Rev. Knowles Kempton said that , was the first duty that had fallen to him since becoming president of the Association. The speaker then gave a high testimony to the characters of the various Congregational ministers in the Auckland district with whom he had come in contact. He said that New Zealand was pre-eminently the country of opportunity. The average colonial, while he might prove indifferent to doctrinal teaching, possessed keen interest in what might be termed practical Christianity. The Rev. Gray Dixon referred to the similarity between the Presbyterian and the Congregational Churches in their aims. He felt sure that in tho weaving of the web of religious life of this young Dominion the strands supplied by tho Congregationalists were a necessity for the completeness of the whole. The Revs. Cook and Cocker .also said a few words of welcome, after which the Rev. W. J. L. Closs, 8.A., briefly replied on behalf of the Council.