THE WESLEYAN MINISTRY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 6441, 5 December 1881, Page 3

THE WESLEYAN MINISTRY.

On Sunday, August 28, over 600 Wesleyan ministers preached farewell sermons at Horae and have since exchanged circuits, in accordance with the recent conference appointments. The members of the Wesleyan ministry are mostly subject to triennial removes, but the number of removals from one circuit to another this year is smaller than it has been for some years past, owing doubtless to the fact that the supply of candidates for the ministry has been in excess of the demand. Some of the removals seem as capricious as, to the circuit affected, they are expensive, it being a connectional rule that each circuit shall bear the travelling expenses of its outgoing minister to his new sphere of labor. Some districts have agitated for an extension of the preacher s stay in a circuit. One argument in favor of th ; » will be felt during the present week—namely, the saving of expense to the circuit and connection. Allowing £3 per preacher for expenses of himself and family to his new circuit, this year’s removing will cost over £3OOO. The following particulars in connection with the Wesleyaus will prove in terestfng : -During the preceding twelve months there have been sold from the connexional establishment in London—periodicals, 1,779.000 ; tracts, 4,976,572 ; the chapel hymn-book, 210,729 ; Sunday scholars’ hymn-book, 264,439; and catechisms, reward books, &c., 590,000 ; making a total of more than 7,820,000 issues. Of the profit from these sales £4,300 was divided among four public funds. The number of members reported was 380,956, an increase hf 4,278, with 30,707 on trial. At the Wesleyan High School, Cambridge, many of the 110 scholars gave evidence of advanced scholarship, passing well at the matriculation examinations of the Cambridge and London Universities. In addition to several valuable scholarships in this school, two of £SO per annuum have just been founded by two gentlemen. The governing body are about to spend £20,000 to enlarge the present handsome building to accommodate 300 scholars. During the past year 141 chapels have been built, at a cost of £299,912 ; 13 ministers’ houses for £13,205 ; 26 schoolrooms for £12,324 ; 89 improvements and enlargements for £55,087 ; and fourteen organs for £5,326 ; making a total of more than £385,000 worth of permanent property added for use by the connection. Several chapels have also been built and presented by friends to the connection. More than 800,000 children are in the Sunday schools, and nearly 180,000 in the day schools. Compared with all the other elementary schools, Mr Mundella states that these day schools have earned the largest Government grants of the year. The Thanksgiving Fund now amounts to more than L 300.000, and is still progressing.—English Paper.