STIPEND RISE

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31195, 20 October 1966, Page 6

STIPEND RISE

Bill Before Synod

The financial regulations of the Synod of the Diocese of Christchurch are amended to provide for an increase in the minimum stipend and increased stipends for assistant curates, deaconesses and licensed women church workers, in a bill read for a second time at the Diocesan Synod on Tuesday. The bill, which was introduced by Mr L. R. Burgess, increased the minimum stipend for vicars from £950 to £lOl5. A similar increase is made for assistant curates. For deaconesses in their fourth year the minimum increase is £5O from £750 to £BOO, and a minimum increase of £5O from £750 to £BOO for women workers in their sixth year is proposed. Mr A. B. Harman said that if the stipend could not be raised for humane reasons, surely it could be raised for economic reasons. If the clergy were saddled with financial worries they could not be expected to do their work so well.

■' “This is a challenge we have to accept and there is no merit in the argument that we can not afford these increases,” he said. Mr J. W. N. Salisbury said that he felt that it was a bad mistake to put the senior assistant on the same level as the vicar. “The curate knows he does not have the worries and difficulties of the parish, and I feel sure on principle he would not expect as much as or the same as the vicar,” he said.

Businessmen’s Association. —The City South Businessmen’s Association has elected the following officers: president, Mr W. Heyworth; vicepresident, Mr R. Eastmond; secretary-treasurer, Mr R. M. Smith; committee, Messrs D. A. Ambler, W. A. Downing, E. Biddle, E. G. Ware, C. A. Trethowan, L. C. H. Suckling, D. A. Britten, S. M. Duff.