METHODIST CONFERENCE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 55, 6 March 1915, Page 8

METHODIST CONFERENCE

(BT TBLBQRAPH— PRESS ASSOCIATION.) CHRISTCHURCH, sth March. At the Methodist Conference to-day it was decided that the Rev. J. Nixon's name is to appear on the list of supernumerary ministers, and to be attached to the Cambridge-terrace Circuit. The name of the Eev. C. H. Laws was added to the list of governors of the Training College at the Three Kings, and he was appointed chairman of governors. It was agreed to send a letter of sympathy to Mrs. Copithorne, of Wellington, wliose late husband had been prominently connected with Wellington Methodism. A committee was set up to prepare an address in ■ connection with the Centenary of Methodism in Australia. The question of continuing the appointment of a Native agent to work amongst the Natives of the South Island was settled in favour of the appointment being retained. The conference decided that owing to special circumstances Paraire R. Paiakea, a Native student, be not sent back to the Training Institute, but be appointed to circuit. The. Thorndon (Wellington) Circuit was relieved of taking a second married man on account of no vote being available from the Home Missions Fund. The thanks of the conference was passed to the Rev. T. G. Hammond for his services in publishing a series of interesting and instructive articles on the early Methodist history of South Taranaki. The question of the conference publishing the articles in 1 book form was referred to the Literature Committee with power to act. A scheme for providing a largely increased retiring allowancs for home missionaries, based upon equal contributions to the fund by the missionaries themselves, their stations, and the home mission fund, was submitted by the Home Mis,sions Committee. This was referred to the Supernumerary Fund Committee to report to the next conference. The conference accepted with applause the Rev. Dr. Brown's offer to devote the proceeds of his lectures and meetings in the Dominion to a reserve fund for the starting of a separate missionary work. The president of the conference was appointed to attend the centenary celebrations in Sydney in August of Australia's Missionary Society on behalf of the conference. Retiring collections were recommended to be taken up on Bible Sunday in May next, in aid of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The Rev. W. Slade was appointed secretary of the Conference Foreign Missionary Committee. An official message of greetings to the Methodist Churches iD Tonga in connection with the proposed visit of the Rev. Dr. Brown to Tonga was adopted. The proposals of the committee in connection with a fund for the equalisation of expenses incurred by the travelling of representatives to the conference were submitted. These came in for a considerable amount of criticism. It was eventually decided to establish such a fund, to be participated in only by those whose travelling expenses exceeded £1 10s, the amount to be raised by a levy of one per cent, on the contingent fund. The Stationing Committee will present its second and final reading of the stationing of ministers to-morrow morning, but its adoption will not take place till Monday.'