Wesleyan Conference.

Hastings Standard, Issue 270, 13 March 1897, Page 2

Wesleyan Conference.

[By Telegraph] (Per P>■ •ss Association.) Wellington, This day. At the Wesleyan Conference the Rev. Mr Orchard was unanimously elected Principal of the Three King's College, Auckland. The Conference passed, in their respective years of probation, two young Maori Ministers. The Rev. Mr Wariki delivered an and the President conveyed to him the respect in which he was held by the Conference. . Mr J. T. Smith, of ChristcJWch, read the Temperance Report and referred to the unsatisfactory mode of conducting the last general election. It urged that a Band of Hope be associated with every Sunday School, and pointed out that during the year there had been an increase of 41 of these institutions with 2261 members. There was special need of instructions of temperence principals in the Bands of Hope and he complained that too many experienced members of the church held aloft from this work. The Rev. Mr Morley moved to strike out the sentence in the report that it was expedient for prohibition to be carried by a bare majority ; and said, in the interests of temperance itself, he took this step. The Rev. F. W. Isitt seconded, as he did not think the Conference should command itself to such statements. The motion was carried and the old committee was reappointed. A deputation of ministers of tho Association waited 011 the Conference and delivered a congratulatory address to the Revs. Luxford, Christchurch, and Stephens, Dunedin, who replied. The greater portion of the morning sitting was held with closed doors, when a question of ministerial character was considered. No charge was made against any minister in the colony. The Conference agreed to furnish the British Conference with the required certificates concerning the Revs. Nelson and Turner, two supernumerary ministers of that Conference now residing in New Zealand. Regarding the insurance scheme the Rev. Benbow, Wellington, reiterated his statement that £2OO would have to *be paid as a fee to Govern mailt. A motion was carried that the list of marks obtained by probationers in the various subjects of tho Conference curriculum be inserted in the Conference journal. Revs. Williams, Gittos, Garland, Dewsbury, Lawry, Hosking, Martin, Laws, McNicoll, Pinfold, Smalley, Luxford, Dukes, and Simmonds were appointed a Board of Examiners, with the Rev. Marshall as The Rev. Mr Simmonds was requested to prepare the papers in general knowledge for the candidates.