EPISCOPALIAN DIOCESAN SYNOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1126, 24 June 1867, Page 5

EPISCOPALIAN DIOCESAN SYNOD.

Fbiday, -June 21. The Synod resumed its sittings on Friday, at four o'clock ; liis Lordship the Bishop of New Zealand, President. The following members of the clergy and laity were present:— l Clergy—Ven. Archdeacon Lloyd, Ilevs. C. Baker, S. Blackburn, K. If. Bree, T. Chapman, B. T. Dudley, F. Gould, K. A. Hall, E. H. Hey wood, V. Lush, Dr. Maunsell, Geo. Maunsell, A. G. Purchas, J. B. Smytli. Laity—Messrs. W. Atkin, J. Cadman, J. Gordon, S. W. Hill, B. B. Lusk, D. McKellar, H. S. McKellar, J'. Tutin, F. D. Yonge; Drs. Goldsboro' and Nicholson, Major Heaphy, Major Speedy, and Sir Wm. Martin, B. Maclean, Dr. Home. A fter prayers, the minutes of the previous 1 sitting were read and confirmed. I ENDOWMENT FUND. Sir W. Martin brought up the report of the select committee appointed to consider the question of Endowment Funds, which was read by the President as follows : — BEPOBT OF'THE ENDOWMENT BOHO COMMITTEE. Your Committee hare tho honor to report as follows 'J hree members of your Committee are of opinion that the endowment fund of each particular parish is to be considered as having been intended for the . benefit of tho "whole purish ; and that; when a new pariah or portion of a parish is cut out of the original parish, such new parish or portion is to be considered as entitled to a share in the interest of the endowment fund of the original parish, bearing to the whole interest of that fund the sxme ratio as the number of professed members of the Church of Eng and and. Ireland, as tho new parish or portion at the timo bears to the whole number within tile boundaries of tho original parish. Such apportionment of the interest to be regarded as final between the new district or portion bo cut off, and the residue of the original parish. The fourth member, Mr. Cabman dissented. Your Committee are of opinion that, for this purpose, the boundaries of the parishes of St. Paul's and of. St. Matthew's, aro to be taken as stated in the proceedings of Diocesan Synod, page 66. "W. Martin, Chairman. June 21, 1867. The report was received. ADDRESS TO THE BISHOP 03? NEW ZEALAND. The Eev. C.H. Hetwood obtainedleaveto move the followingresolution that the address presented by this Synod to the Bishop be signed on behalf of the Synod by the Ven. the Archdeacon of Waitemata as mover thereof; and by the Worshipful the Chancellor of tho Diocese, as Chairman of Committee. That the address be engrossed and that the . treasurer be authorized to pay the expenses of doing this out of the funds of the Synod in his possession. Mr. Hetwood said he suggested that the address should be signed by the Chairman of tlie Committee, because it would not be possible to obtain the signatures of the clergy in the out districts. Mr. Cabman seconded, and the motion was agreed to. DIOCESAN TBUST REPORT. Mr. McKellar brought up the report of the Diocesan Trust Committee. HE POET OF THE TIIU3TEES OF TIIE DIOCESAY TRUST. My Lord, —Tho Trnstees of the Diocesan Trust present herewith their balance sheet. Since the data of their last report, they have secured the conveyance deed of tnro pieces of land, the gift of the .Reverend B. Y. Ash well, and A. Buokland, Esq , being the site of St. Peter's Church, comprising 30 acres; and, also, the.Bite given for All Saint's Church. By direction of the standing Committee it devolved upon the trust to provide the means to meet the award of the arbitrators in the case of the parish of St. Peter's, Oneliunga, and its late minister. The funds of tho tiust are inadequate for the purpose, but with tho kind assistance of His Lordship the Primate, the Trustees obtained on mortgage at 8 per cent, from tho Native Pastiral Fund the sum of £500 out of which they have paid on the award the sum of £403 19s in complete extinguishment of the above mentioned claim. They have let the parsonage and an acre of land at Onthunga to a pood tenant, at a rate that more than covers tho interest of the mouey so borrowed. By the extinguishment of the above mentioned claim, four acres of trust property at Onchunga becomes free to be used for the purpose of the trust. All the sums required by His Lordship the Primate as proportionate payments on the insurances of Clergymen's iives have been paid. The sum of £130 has'been paid off the debt ou the land that was intended as a churcli site in Freeman's Hay. Tho commercial depression at present existing has presented the letting of any more of the trust lands, but the Trustees are happy to be able to report that they have sustained no losses. CIIARLfS IIKAPIir, ) rl , , T. M cKei.lau, f Trustees. Auckland, June 20, ISS7. Here'followed the balance sheet, which showed a total balaucc in hand, and iu bank, of £136 18s. The report was received. Mr. Gordon moved that the various parishes and parochial districts, be requested to contribute as follows for the general expenses of the Diocesan Synod for the present year: —St. Paul's, £5; St Mary's, £5 ; St". Matthew's, £5 ; Oneliunga, £2; Taranaki, £2; Otahuhu, £2; Panmure, £1 ; Hemuera, £1 ; Tauiaki, £1; Howick, £1; North Shore, £1; Wairoa, £1; Papakura, £1; Waiheke, £1. The Hev. F. Gould seconded. Agreed to. nu. s. keiipthorne's case. Mr. Caiman moved that Mr. Samuel Kemptliorne should be heard at the bar of the Synod. He said he would be content to receive the decision of the Synod, but if the matter was gone into he trusted that justice would be done. He thought there was scarcely time to go into the matter to-day, and he regretted that it had not been brought before the Synod earlier; he thought it would be well to postpone the consideration of the matter. Dr. Hokne seconded. The following is the petition. PETITION. To the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop and the lay members of the Diocese of New Zealand, in Synod assembled, — My Lord, reverend fathers, and brethren, —The undersigned, being a bona fide member and. regular communicant of the Church of England, a resident in this parish for nearly 25 years, and a member of ita vestry during the present year, respectfully bega leave to recall the attention of the Synod to hia application in September last to investigate the conduct of the affairs of this parish. The undersigned is prepared to show that soma of the proceedings of the vestry aro contrary to the civil law, that some of them are contrary to the most important provisions in the statute of the Synod, and that the proceedings ara (ontrary to a proper and correct mode of transa .'ting business, and also to Knglish usages and customs. v This was the purport of certain papers marked A, B, C, D, which the undersigned laid before the Synod in September 19th last, and concerning which he now respectfully renews his request for an inquiry, aa well as concerning other irregularities which have occurred sine that time. The undersigned believes that he might jus y claim to be heard in reply to various aspersions upon his conduct, and.upon what was supposed to be hia statements, which were made at the Synod on September 19th last, and some of which were published ; but ho refrains from directly preferring such claim lest it should be thought that he had any personal reasons whatever for urging again tha investigation which on public ground he . thinks necessary, nevertheless tile undersigned is quite .'prepared to state his reply to those aspersions, iff the Synod should deem it an act of justice to hearhim. —Your, obedient humble servant, , : " lj - S. Kempthobne, J.. P,

Auckland, June 18th, 1867' : , . " . Considerable discussion ensued onthe question of admitting the petitioner to the bax;qf_the

Sir William Martin said after due enquiry he had been unable to ascertain that any precedent existed for the present application, He thought it would be for Mr. Cadman to show a precedent, and that the Synod would be establishing a bad precedent by admitting the petitioner to the bar of the Synod. Ho thought tho petition failed in the first essential of such a document —a specific averment of the facts which formed the founda- ' tion of the petition. The document merely contained certain general statements and charges, and the petitioner merely asked to be heard with regard to certain aspersions 011 his conduct. There was nothing in the petition that could .be referred to a committee ; what was proposed by TVTi- Kempthorne was that he should be allowed to supplement the petition,, by appearing at the bar of the Synod. What could be moved for ? not an oral statement, because they could not get it reported, and no three members would agree about the words of it. It appeared to him that 110 good could come out of the petitions, either to the petitioner himself, or to the Synod. Therefore he would move that the petition should be rejected. Eev. A. G. PuRpnAS said in the Legislative Council in Sydney, in 1846, the Bishop had been allowed to appear at the bar of the house, and to make a long speech against a bill seriously affecting the interests of the Church, in New South Wales. He (Mr. Purehas) thought the Synod Would be acting very unwisely if it admitted the petitioner to the bar, of the Synod. Ho would vote against the proposal, and had very little doubt that the Synod would reject it. Mr. E. B. Lusk said the matter of precedent was not worthy of a great deal of consideration, they were a young body and had hardly time to form precedents. But still there should be some tangible precedent for admitting such a proposal, otherwise they would be troubled with petitions from all kinds of people. To admit any discussion on the petition would be merely wasting the time of the Synod. The Pkesidext said he thought the question was not whether the petitioner was a member of that body, but whether he had a real grievance. He must confess that on reading a document, which he had read, on '* Church Supremacy," and which had been forwarded to hiui by Mr. Kempthorne, he thought he was making some rather hard hits at the Synod, and he thought Mr. Kempthorne was what was called in the Prayer Book a " depraver "of the Synod. In looking over some old documents a large stock of which he had always on hand, he found a document signed by a very large number of old colonists, and among them the name of Mr. Kempthorne. That document contained the general principles cf a Church Constitution, and as Mr. Kempthorne had given in his adhesion to the Church, it was too late to say that he objected to its jurisdiction. Mr. Cadman- in reply said in answer to Sir W. Martin, the standing orders prevented the petition being received at an earlier period, and li 3 had adopted the only course available to him. He was disposed to think from the nature of the document that it was preferred on public grounds. As it was evident that the mind of the faynod was made up on the matter, and there would scarcely be time for the Synod to consider the matter fully, he would beg leave to withdraw the motion. The Eev. A. G. Ppkchas said he would object to the withdrawal of the petition. The question of withdrawal was put to the Synod, and carried. St. Matthew's add st. start's. Dr. Maunsell moved " that until the portion to be cut off from the parish of St. Matthew's and St. Paul's to be constituted part of tlie district of St. Sepulchre and All Saints respectively be defined, the following sums be paid from the endowment of the above parishes, namely, from St. Matthew's endowment fund for the district of All faints per annum £40; from St. Paul's endowment fund for the district of St. Sepulchre, £20." He said it had been found that the interest of St. Matthew's endowment fund was £140, and that of St. Paul's £105 They found the portion to be cut of from St. Matthew's was double that to be cut off from St. Paul's'. Archdeacon Lloyd had proposed that £50 should be guaranteed for three years to the parish of St. Sepulchre. In order to make the matter equitable they had found that it would be advisable for St. Matthews to contribute the sum of £40 out of its endowment fund to the parish of St. Peter s, and that St Paul's should pay the sum of £20 to St. Sepulchre. The Synod then went into Committee of the whole, to consider Dr. V! auasell's resolution, Sir W. Martin in the chair. The resolutions having passed through Committee, the Chairman reported progress, and the Synod resumed. The resolution was then put and adopted. THE BEV. HETA TARAWHTTI. Mr. W. Atkix then moved, " That the members of this Synod, desire through the President, to express to the Eev. Seth Tarawhiti, who is a member of this Synod, the satisfaction and thankfnlness with which they heard that lie had proved his loyalty to Her Mnjestv the Queen m the recent trial, and tender'to him their sympathy and prayers for his ministerial services in the Waikato." The Rev. A. G. seconded the resolution, which was put and carried. The Synod then proceeded to consider several formal matters relating to the Statute Book. Unanimous votes of thanks were passed to Mrs. Selwyn for her hospitality towards the members of the Synod, and to the proprietors and reporters of the Auckland daily newspapers for the full reports of the proceedings of the Synod published in the New Zealand Herald and Daily Southern Cross. His Lokdship the President of the Synod then thanked the members for their attendance, aud dismissed them with the Benediction.