METHODIST CONFERENCE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 751, 25 February 1910, Page 6

METHODIST CONFERENCE.

;.''. ;"sepaeati6n.: ; <"., '..-' "PEESrbENT/ ON OTITY.'.' . : -.^ (By Teleitraph.— Preea Auoetation.l-..'. ":; '■'. V '.'-. Dunedin,, February 24. The thirty-seventh ■annualconference of the; Methodist Church of .New Zealand .opened this.evening.- ,Tbe Kev. I...Fee Pr in the course of-his:address, the retiring president referred to tho fact ■ that an unprecedently large number of ministerial- brethren had .been laid aside, by sickness during the-year.- As ,there, was no effect-without a direct cause,, the conference might deem at; expedient''to in-, quire into the reasons of Bo.much sickness in.parsonages. -Ministerial life,-was becoming increasingly . strenuous, and it might be'?found that. domestic worries were alsoy>n,the.increase,,owing to the inadequacy of some of the stipends,, arid the 'consequent impossibility of providing the- necessaries, of .life,::to say nothing of comforts. .During, the - last .ten '..or, 'twelve years the cost-: of -living- had in-, creased something, like twenty-five per cent,-while the ministers' .salaries, had either remained stationary' or had not been raised in ■ proportion -to the-cost ofvliying..' :The. Church statistics.: for .the year showed an increase of 7iO ;Church members, .72 Sunday School teachers, 541 Sunday .School'scholars, 13- churches, ;7 schoolrooms,' and eight';parsonages.; Contributions : to the foreign missions fund agaurconstituted,a record.. On tho;question of the separation of,- the New Zealand Church'from that of Australia the president-said:"The,i.influence , of the great : meeting in Wesley Chapel, ;• City ltbad, will certainly, tend to. the unification of Methodists in the: Old Land.- Indeedi the. spirit and trend of. the ;ago are in .the' direction,of union, and is.it not strange' that -the' one .exception ,to this should be found in the. Methodist Church of Australasia?. Every great river has its backward'currents here and there, and may not the clamour of some of our brethren for separation be but a temporary backward sweep ' which - will, by the irresistible forco.of the spirit of the. age,..turn again: into the main- stream and hasten the time when riot orily solid Methodism, but, the whole of :the evangelical churches,, will stand"as. a unit against, the .forcfis of The speaker also referred to the questions of, Socialism atheistic and' Christian, and ■ the liquor traffic, which he strongly denounced. •:': The Rev. C. H. Laws; (Christchurch), by a . practically.'.-.unanimous, vote,' was elected president. .;. V ■. In felicitous terms the.vote, was acknowledged. ' : Mr. ■ Laws . briefly: referred to his life-long association ■ with the Methodist Church, and the grand, sphere which it gave, for service...He pleaded for volunteers for the ministry from the Tanks, of those .fitted for:leadership. . He also ■ referred .to the ; coming. debate on the separate conference question, feeling assured, that' it would be : discussed with the kindest' brotherly .feeling. . , .....' The Kev;.S. Lawry was.re-elected secretary by. a large vote. ... .;:.;■■',' ;■.■' ' The first reading of stations \njX be submitted to the conference on Saturday.