PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 August 1940, Page 8

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

NEED OF BETTER STIPENDS. PROTEST MADE IN DUNEDIN. (By Telegraph—-Press Association.) DUNEDIN, August 6. A strong protest against the level of the stipends of home missionaries and the lower-paid ministers was made by the Rev. H. J. Ryburn at a meeting of the Dunedin Presbytery tonight. Mr Ryburn suggested also that better stipends would encourage an increase in the birth-rate, which would be a good thing, as it was well known that the families of ministers were among the finest in the country. It was time, Mr Ryburn said, that the Church did justice to its own employees, for they were.,rapidly becoming one of the down-trodden sections of the community. Some of the stipends had been the same for 40 years, during which time the cost of living had risen enormously and much extra taxation had been levied. The Church would shortly receive a large bequest, and he thought it should be used to establish a central fund to raise the level of stipends of home missionaries. He suggested that this should be in the form of a family allowance, otherwise seme congregations might be inclined to slack in paying the stipends of ministers.