MINIMUM STIPENDS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4430, 26 May 1941, Page 4

MINIMUM STIPENDS

FOR PRESBYTERIAN MINISTERS. CAMPAIGNING FOR INCREASE.

Rev. T. W. Armour, of Christchurch. and Mr J. B. McKinney, of Aucklandare visiting Te Awamutu to-day. This evening they will attend a conference of laymen of the Presbyterian Church in Te Awamutu in consultation with delegates from Otorohanga, Te Kuiti, Paterangi, and Te Awamutu. The Maintenance of the Ministry Committee, in its report to the last General Assembly of the Church, stated that in 1914 the standard minimum stipend aimed at for ministers was £240, and the equal dividend —that is the amount paid to ministers on the - *

lowest level—-was £224. If the stipend paid in 1939 corresponded with that paid in 1914 it would be, to meet the rise in the cost of living, £353, and, to have marched with the prosperity of the country, £373. This would not mean raising stipends above the 1914 levels but just restoring their purchasing power again to the 1914 levels.

“ The Government Statistician was asked for the index numbers of retail prices—.all groups,” the report stated. “ The earliest figures available are those for 1914. These show that whereas in 1914 they were 628. they had risen to 990 at the end of 1939. This is an increase of 57.6 pet cent. Then if the stipend fund of 1914 had simply risen enough to balance the rise in the cost of living it would have been (allowing for the aoditional 15 per cent of men employed) £129,294 against £99,415 paid. This reveals that the servants of the Church fall considerably short of the standards of living of thirty years ago. This must impair their efficiency.

“Financial considerations enter very little, if at all, into the thought of those who devote their lives to this service. The Church, however, in accepting them as ministers, becomes responsible for their suitable maintenance. The financial strain on many ministers, specially at the outset of their ministry, is .severe, and has often led to discouragement and depression. The people of the Church are Iserving themselves when they see to it that financial worry is not added to the burden which every true minister must carry.” A laymen’s executive was set up to further the objectives of the Committee. It includes Mr W. Goodfellow.