The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1936. THE MINISTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 194, 15 August 1936, Page 8

The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1936. THE MINISTER

r pHE minister in New Zealand life finds himself forever in an unsatisfactory position. He is not recognised as a man in authority, save in the Roman Catholic Church; respect for his office is still existent in that he is deferred to on public occasions • —sometimes; but he does not enjoy that prestige to which he is entitled, nor does he receive that consideration which a sense of fair reward would compel being paid to him. In short, the minister’s, like the policeman’s life, is not a happy one. There was a time when the respect accorded the ministry and the dignity with which it was endowed was such that it attracted men of outstanding ability. There was a certainty of a reasonable establishment, and a reasonable surety of sufficient of the amenities of life, and a reasonable prospect of his intellectual pursuits being within his reach. But all the world over these conditions have, for various reasons, deteriorated. In New Zealand the situation of the minister has never been an easy one. During the pioneering period the minister shared the rugged life, but not the reward. Sometimes he was enabled to return to England and receive a living as a reward for his missionary work, and while many clergymen have done this in recent years, more still have remained within the Dominion simply because return to the United Kingdom has been, for financial reasons, out of the question. The average minister, then, is compelled to accept conditions as he finds them within the Dominion. In very few charges in New Zealand arc stipends paid which permit a minister to live as he should, to bring up his family appropriately, and to make provision for cither his old age or for his wife’s widowhood. One of the reasons for this is that the stipend in the first place is not sufficient to cover outgoings of an ordinary nature. There is a secondary reason, however, which is too often overlooked, and that is whatever may be the stipend of a minister, he always has calls upon his purse which he cannot avoid like other men. Unless, therefqre, he is able to maintain a subscription to a superannuation fund, or to take out a substantial insurance policy and maintain iJie premiums payable thereon, he is sure of one thing, and that is a penurious old age. While those who join the ministry of the Christian Church do so because they feel a “call” has come to them, it does not follow that the community should accept their services, underpaying while those services arc being performed, and being unconcerned what happens after the minister’s days of service are done. It is a universal law that everything must be. paid for. and in the dark days which conic to every individual the minister is unable to give all that he would like to do, simply because people have not done their part in uniting with the ministry. When misfortune overtakes a minister of religion in New Zealand he is twice unlucky, for he has no possible chance of meeting his adversity, and consequently when death intervenes his family are in difficulties. It will be seen from the letter published in this issue, and written by the Venerable Archdeacon Young, that a particularly unfortunate ease of this kind has occurred in Wanganui recently, and in that instance a definite obligation rests upon the laity of Wanganui and Lumsden, where he was vicar for many years, to come to the succour of the family of one who has spent his life in practically unrewarded service. It is safe to say that had the late. Reverend Mr. Lawrence followed the legal profession for which he was qualified. instead of entering the ranks of the ministry, he would have ended his days in a more favourable financial condition.