RISE PLANNED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 269, 12 November 1937, Page 9

RISE PLANNED.

MINISTERS' STIPENDS.

DISCUSSION BY ASSEMBLY. SCHEME FOR SPECIAL FUND. Proposals for raisin™ the minimum stipends of ministers and . married ordained home missionaries bv £20 and £18 a year, respectively, were discussed by the Presbyterian Assembly today. A scheme was presented by a special committee to provide means, beyond the extension of the Church budget, of raising and stabilising the stipends. The committee had asked for suggestions from presbyteries, sessions, deacons' courts and management committees. Generally, the replies favoured a 111 iiii 11111 in stipend of £300 for ministers and of £200 for married ordained home missionaries. The Church seemed agreed that car allowance at 3d a mile on parish service would be adequate. A proposal to raise part of a fund for the maintenance of the ministry by means of a levy on the stronger congregations and certain Church officials was, in the majority or instances, disapproved. as was a proposal to pay the stipends of the weaker congregations from the Church offices. Some presbyteries had pointed out that the maintenance of the ministry was the first call on the Church as a whole, and if stipends were to be raised it should l>e done through the budget. The scheme presented provided in detail for the establishment of a central fund for the maintenance of the ministry. Speaking to the' report, the convener of the committee, the Rev. A. MacFarlane (Southland), quoted figures which disclosed that altogether 128 were receiving less than the proposed minimum of £300 a year. Very few congregations had raised stipends to as much as £300, in spite of the fact that they had been urged last year to restore "cuts." The Rev. George Budd thought the feeling of the assembly should be tested on the basic question of raising the stipends to £300 and £200 respectively. He declared the machinery proposed was not necessary. Mr. Budd said that if the increase was born by the budget it would involve an additional £4000. It was finally decided, on the motion, of Dr. J. D. Salmond (Dunedin), to refer the recommendations to a sessional committee, which, would report back to the present session of the assembly.