CENTENARY FUND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23689, 22 December 1938, Page 12

CENTENARY FUND

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH EFFORT OVER £160,000 RAISED APPEAL TO REMOVE DEBTS (Per United Press Association) AUCKLAND, Dec. 21. The Presbyterian Church of New Zealand at its annual Assembly in November of last year adopted a plan to raise within three years the sum of £300,000 as its Centenary Thanksgiving Offering. The fund has its headquarters in Auckland, and the scheme was launched throughout the Dominion in the early part of the year. Now, at the end of the year, a total of over £167,000 in cash and promises has been reported from all the 21 presbyteries in the Dominion. Auckland Presbytery heads the list with a total of £23,015, followed closely by Dunedin Presbytery with £21,043, and Wellington Presbytery with £20,100. The amounts reported from the other presbyteries, in geographical order, are as follows — North Auckland, £3068; South Auckland, £3610; Waikato, £11,674; Bay of Plenty, £4580; Hawke's Bay, £7300; Taranaki, £5500; Wairarapa, £583; Wanaganui, £9935; NelsonMarlborough, £24o6;Westland, £33; Christchurch, £14,504; Ashburton, £3000; Timaru, £6145; Oamaru, £3760; Central Otago, £800; Clutha, £5093; Mataura, £5428; Southland, £15,889; total, £167,466. The main objective of the fund is to remove the burden of about £200,000 of debt on church property throughout the Dominion, and, in addition, four sums of £25,000 are to be devoted to strengthening the mission enterprises of the church at home and abroad, to augmenting the stipends of ministers and home missionaries, to strengthening the beneficiary funds for retired ministers and church workers, and for sites and buildings in newly settled districts. The returns quoted above are still far from complete, and of 300 congregations of the church there are still a number that, for one reason or another, have not yet actively taken up the scheme.