528 



METHODISTS. 



with due regard for existing interests, all future 

 legislation for primary education at the public cost 

 should provide for such education only upon the 

 principle of unsectarian schools, under school boards. 



The report of the Wesleyan Missionary So- 

 ciety was made on the 29th of April. It 

 showed the home receipts to have been 110,- 

 763 Os. 3d. ; and the foreign receipts, as those 

 from the affiliated conferences and mission 

 districts are called, to have been 37,822 14s. 

 lOd. ; making the total receipts 148,585 15s. 

 lOd. The advance from the previous year was 

 1,181 10s. lOd. The expenditures were 

 14,789 9s. 9d. In the Irish missions 32 min- 

 isters were employed. The Continental mis- 

 sions occupy station positions in France, 

 Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Por- 

 tugal. In the Continental and Irish mis- 

 sions together, 97 missionaries were employed. 

 They reported 6,803 members of the churches 

 and 634 pupils in the schools. The following 

 returns were given from the colonial mis- 

 sions: British America, 358 ministers, 32,672 

 members, 71,363 pupils in the schools ; Cape 

 Colony, Orange River Territory, and the 

 Transvaal Eepublic, in South Africa, 81 mis- 

 sionaries, 12,888 members, 14,042 scholars; 

 the Australasian colonies, Polynesia, and New 

 Zealand, 344 ministers, 45,154 members, 28,- 

 727 scholars ; Sierra Leone, the Gambia, and 

 the Gold Coast missions, 21 missionaries, 8,424 

 members, 5,042 scholars; Ceylon, 38 mission- 

 aries (of whom only 8 are Europeans), 2,187 

 members, 6,100 scholars; the Madras, Mysore, 

 and Calcutta districts in India, 39 missionaries, 

 680 members, 5,373 scholars; China, 9 mis- 

 sionaries, 147 members, 338 scholars. The 

 total number of members in the foreign mis- 

 sions under the immediate care of the British 

 Conference was 72,129, showing an increase 

 from the previous year of 1,661. The number 

 of members under the care of the affiliated 

 Conferences of Eastern British America, Can- 

 ada, and Australasia, exclusive of the socie- 

 ties in the home-work of the Canada Confer- 

 ence, was 96,475. 



The Irish Wesleyan Conference met in Dub- 

 lin, June 19th. The Missionary Committee re- 

 ported that the previous year had been the 

 most prosperous one in the history of the So- 

 ciety. The reports of the Educational Com- 

 mittee and of the committee on the chapel 

 fund were satisfactory. The income of the 

 Home Mission and contingent fund was 8,137 

 9s. 6d., the largest ever returned for one year. 

 Numerous memorials having been presented 

 on the subject of lay delegation, the Conference 

 passed a resolution declaring that "the diffi- 

 culties which lie in the way are too numerous 

 and serious to permit any immediate action 

 upon the subject," and that "it is desirable to 

 ascertain, as soon as possible, the legal bear- 

 ing of the question in regard to the poll-deed." 



The twentieth conference of the French 

 Methodist Church the first Conference held 

 since the war of 1870 met in Paris in May. 



The statistics were reported as follows : Chap- 

 els and preaching-places, 182; ministers, 28 ; 

 other salaried agents, 19; members, 1,916; 

 local preachers, 99 ; members on trial, 99 ; day- 

 schools, 10 ; pupils, 375 ; Sunday-schools, 53 ; 

 teachers, 311; scholars, 2,399 ; stated hearers, 

 8,942. A decrease appeared in the number 

 of members, wholly due to the war. 



The Australasian Wesleyan Conference met 

 at Melbourne, January 18th. It resolved up- 

 on a division into four Annual Conferences : 

 The Eastern Conference, to include New South 

 Wales and Queensland ; the "Western Confer- 

 ence, to include Victoria and Tasmania ; a Con- 

 ference in South Australia; and a New Zea- 

 land Conference. These four conferences will 

 compose a General Conference, which shall 

 meet every three years. The South Sea Mis- 

 sions are to be assigned, during the interval 

 between the sessions of the General Confer- 

 ence, to the Eastern Conference. The statisti- 

 cal returns showed for the colonies 27,585 

 members, 1,836 persons on trial ; and in the 

 mission districts (the Friendly Islands, Feejee, 

 and Samoa), 32,064 members, 5,699 on trial, and 

 128,772 attendants on public worship. Sixty- 

 four native missionaries and assistant mission- 

 aries were reported as connected with the Con- 

 ference : 6 in New Zealand, 1 in Samoa, 10 in 

 the Friendly Islands, and 47 in Feejee. 



XII. PEIMITIVE METHODIST CONNECTION. 

 The following are the statistics of this body : 

 Number of members, 161,464: Africa, 81 ; Ade- 

 laide, 2,103 ; Melbourne, 2,197 ; Sydney, 1,132 ; 

 New Zealand, 359 ; Canada (1871), 6,493 in- 

 crease, 121 (a report subsequently received 

 from Canada raised the increase to 347) ; min- 

 isters, 962 ; local preachers, 14,587 ; class-lead- 

 ers, 9,942 ; chapels, 3,710 ; other preaching- 

 places, 2,697; Sunday-schools, 3,454; teachers, 

 48,776; scholars, 290,141; day-schools, 50; 

 teachers, 77 ; scholars, 3,784 ; missionary re- 

 ceipts, 32,258. 



At the Primitive Methodist Conference, 

 which met at Yarmouth, England, June 5th, it 

 was reported that 126 chapels had been built 

 during the year, at a cost of 74,516. They 

 contained sittings for 26,803 persons. The total 

 value of chapel property was estimated at 

 1,319,810; amount of debt on the same, 

 593,946. The educational institutions of the 

 Conference are the Sunderland Institute and 

 Elmfield College. 



The report of the Primitive Methodist Mis- 

 sionary Society was made April 30th. The time 

 for the meeting of the Society having been 

 changed, it embraced a period of thirteen 

 months. The total amount of moneys collected 

 for missionary purposes was 32,280. ^ The 

 Primitive Methodists in Canada had 43 mission- 

 aries employed under the direction of the com- 

 mittee. The number of missionaries in Aus- 

 tralasia was 49 ; in the missions of West Afri- 

 ca, 2 ; and in the South African Mission, 1. 



XIII. UNITED METHODIST FREE CHURCHES. 

 The following are the statistics of this body for 



