CHURCH FINANCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 10565, 19 April 1928, Page 4

CHURCH FINANCE.

PRESBYTERIAN BUDGET BYSTEM MISSION FUND CONTRIBUTIONS THEIR-FALRNESS CRITICISED Some interesting facts and features of church finanee were revealed at yesterday’s meeting of the H.B. Presbytery. The subject was raised when a letter from the Foreign Missions' Committee, seeking more financial aid, was received. It was stated in the letter that the financial strength or the movement was now at a desperately low leveL “This shortage of funds” stated the clerk, the Rev. F. \Y. Robertson, “is, in my opinion, wholly due to the large increases in the budget during recent years. Expenses have increased by leaps and hounds.” .The speaker went on to explain that ihe additions during the-past five years had made:a total increase of 3S per cent. The budget for this year included the following; Foreign - missions £20,177, home missions' - £9185; Maori missions £5845. and youth of church £2OOO. Tlie church had made progress, but not commensurate with the increased expenses and last year the income was £7OOO below .the budget. total. Next- year would see. a substantial increase in the expenses again, when the salary ,of the master of Ivnox College would be added.

It might- be thought rather peculiar, continued Mr Robertson, that, in the light of the published figures of other churches, the Presbyterian x body could not raise £20,000 for fob- r eign missions. In this respect it had ' to lie remembered that their total did not include any moneys gathered in the foreign lands, but only tho total subscribed in New Zealand. Some other bodies included, in their totals, this money, from outside the Dominion and that gave an incorTect comparison between "the institutions.

Regarding the budget system,/ of finanee, Mr Robertson- expressed himself as strongly opposed to the basis of contributions. The allocation of so much per member, he * averred, was distinctly unfair, for it did not take into account oth*r liabilities under which . any particular church might be laboring. As an instance he mentioned a church in Dunedin where the minister’s stipend called,for a contribution - of about -£l 16s per member,-in North Otago there was another church where the stipend worked, out at " about £4 per member, yet the same contribution to foreign missions- whs expected from all members of both the churches. Then, ajjain, there were two places of about . equal strength of membership- and each paying about the same stipendj.feiit in one the congregation had to mefet interest on a heavy mortgage, charge whereas in the other the buildings were not. encumbered; yet members of. both these churches had * to make equal contributions' to missions. • No business would adopt that attitudeeven an income tax official took. Inaccount, the amount in mortgages with which a taxpayer was burdened. - On the motion,of the Rev. J. Asher; a hearty vote of "thanks ! was passed, to Mr Robertson for his very, able/ explanation /of the/position. ' . ", ' " , ," \ ' -'- V. ‘ '