MUCH OUT OF LITTLE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 139, 6 March 1908, Page 7

MUCH OUT OF LITTLE.

AN ARCHDEACON'S RESIGNATION, BY TEIfEGBAPD—riIESG ASEPpiATIofecpPYP.iaHT. 1 ■ ■' Sydney, March .5. , ' Archdeqcpn,.'Abbott's lottor .of 'resignation' stirred up. a lot of local feeling. . The Archdeacon'- in' a letter to-/tho,- Parochial Council, says, he has always done fully .what he promised to doj and that muclv has been raadd out of a .small matter.. " LETTER TO THE PARISHIONERS. . Writing ,-. on ; February 9,. our -Australian correspondent states: — ' . ■.' . •' Archdeacon Abbott, of thq Church of England,''has just .'resigned his' parish at Tab..worth,, for the reason, as ho frankly' states in. a letter to his pjirish'ionors, that it is . unppssible-for hjin to keep out of debt while continuing |o pay nine-tenth's of his'stipend of' £350 to carry'on the work of tho parish. "For 'five and.a half years," he .writes, "I have struggled on, paying out of my own pocket, over £800 . a yoar out of .tho £350 ' rhayo always hoppc) that when the'parish realised 'tho. work that was being :done, and when tho debts werp paid off, and overdrafts- tilings.-of, the, past, -some of the burden would be lifted from' my ; 'shoulders. As a, master of. .fact, after five and a half yoars, I find that whilo tho parish paid £500 a year, for, two men before I earap, they now £55S for'five mei},' or . £58 towards, the additional three men. The burden, ! therefore, has fallen almost entirely upon mo. I have: no-private meajis, and it hqs becomo intolerable.' The parish, or-those who care at all, are, and have been, in possession of' all theso. facts fnr years. lii three balancesheets in tho 'Kalendar,', and: at . several, public .meetings, I have inado the position , cloar/ .' I, -try to bpliove that the parish,whoso words avo' always , most kind, has .done -(ill it could to help me, but it . seems difficult, when one looks at the annual hair /piicerslieot, to b'piiqve that 1 a man in an excellent business^ position cqn only; give 10s. a year, or that a wolUto-do farrupr is doing his best .;iylion hp subscribes annu.i|ly. 2s. od." Tho'-Archdeappn, . reviewing tho position at ' cojisidcrablo length," continues:— "For more than nine months, owing to'tho increased cost pf all-'npcpssiiriea, my income barely: cpvored the ordinary expenses of the household, and, indeed,,in some months did not do so. 1 was prepared tostrugglo on for tho sake of the work, so long as I could keep out of , debt, but I was not prepared to-go on when I, had to . face the inevitable fact, that. I was. getting, into debt on the pno hand, while on tho other there was only the' hope that in May'next the new council—to all intents and purposes the present would consider the position." . Therefore, ho has plqcct] his resignation in the hands of bishop Coqpor. '