134 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



Receipts from inspection of steam-vessels $188,989 75 



Receipts from officers licensed . 127,005 00 



Total receipts $260,944 75 



Expenditures for inspectors 1 and clerks' salaries. . $178,000 00 

 Expenditures for traveling and incidental expenses 39,892 02 



Total expenditures $212,392 02 



Total number of vessels inspected ' 3,835 



Total tonnage of steam-vessels inspected 1,018,151.82 



Total number of officers licensed 14,571 



Total receipts from all sources $260,944 75 



Total expenditures 212,392 02 



Report of receipts not expended $48,552 73 



The number of lives lost during the last fiscal 

 year was 405, namely : From explosions, 51 ; fire, 

 273 ; snags, wrecks, and sinking, 64. 



The number of accidents which resulted in loss 

 of life were : 



Explosions or accidental escape of steam 14 



Fires 6 



Collisions 5 



Snags, wrecks, and sinking 11 



Total number of accidents 86 



The superintendent says: "It will be seen from 

 the above statements that a total of 405 lives have 

 been lost on merchant steam- vessels of the United 

 States during the last fiscal year, but to our own 

 citizens the loss of life for the same period has been 

 only 201, which is an unusually small number ; while 

 there were thirty-six disasters to steam-vessels by 

 which life was lost, yet a single one of these resulted 

 in the loss of more than half the lives here recorded. 

 I refer to the burning of the steamship Japan at sea 

 off Swatow, China, by which the lives of two hun- 

 dred Chinese and four other persons were destroyed. 

 There were fourteen cases of explosion or accidental 

 escape of steam, one of which resulted in the death 

 of twenty persons, and another six, while only 

 twenty-five persons were lost by the remaining 

 twelve. There were six burnings of steamers by 

 which life was lost ; two hundred and four were lost 

 by one of these, and forty-five and twenty respec- 

 tively by two others, while only four persons were 

 lost by the remaining three." 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. The twenty- 

 second annual meeting of the American Con- 

 gregational Union was held in New York City, 

 May 16th. The report of the Treasurer showed 

 the amount of contributions received during the 

 year to have been $51,717.10. Adding the bal- 

 ance which remained in the treasury at the be- 

 ginning of the year, the amount of available 

 funds of the Union during the year was $58,- 

 180.89. The expenditures were reported to 

 have been: grants to 58 churches, $43,635.75 ; 

 grants for pastors' libraries, $345.70 ; other 

 disbursements, $10,619.44; total, $54,600.89, 

 leaving a balance in the treasury of $3,580. 

 An amount of $17,425 was still pledged to 38 

 churches. Since its organization, the Union 

 had aided, in all, 925 churches, by sums of 

 money not exceeding $500 to each. The total 

 amount expended was $600,000, of which 

 $54,000 had been refunded. The report of 

 the trustees deprecated sectarian rivalry and 

 the building of churches as a purely denomi- 

 national measure, and urged the promotion of 

 Christian unity. 



The forty-ninth anniversary of the Ameri- 

 can Home Missionary Society was held in the 

 city of New York, May 12th. The receipts of 

 the society were reported to have been $308,- 



896.82, and its expenditures $296,789.65. The 

 society was still liable to calls upon outstand- 

 ing pledges, amounting in all to $105,760.56. 

 The receipts were $18,776.48 greater than 

 those of the year immediately preceding, and 

 $14,329.96 greater than those of any former 

 year. The expenditures were $9, 126.74 greater 

 than those of any former year. Nine hundred 

 and fifty-two ministers had been engaged in 

 the service of the society in thirty-three States 

 and Territories. The number of congregations 

 and missionary stations supplied, in whole or 

 in part, was 2,223. The number of pupils in 

 Sunday-schools was 80,750. Sixty -seven 

 churches had been organized by the missiona- 

 ries during the year, 33 churches had become 

 self-supporting, 63 houses of worship had been 

 completed, and 19 others were being built. 

 The total number of additions to the churches 

 reported was 6,361. Gifts of clothing, books, 

 periodicals, and other articles, to the value of 

 $70,000, had been contributed through the 

 agency of the society for the missionaries and 

 their families who had shared in the sufferings 

 caused by the depredations of the grasshoppers 

 in the Western States. The report called at- 

 tention to an arrangement which had been 

 effected during the year with the Presbyterian 

 Board of Home Missions for the promotion of 

 harmony and the cooperation of the two socie- 

 ties in their work, and for the avoidance of in- 

 jurious rivalry and interference between them, 

 and to a joint declaration of principles and 

 plans of action which had been published in 

 connection with it. Many advantages and 

 greater prosperity to the missions of both 

 societies were expected to result from this 

 arrangement. 



The twenty-ninth annual meeting of the 

 American Missionary Association was held at 

 Middletown, Conn., October 27th and 28th. 

 The Kev. Edward Hawes presided. The 

 Treasurer made the following statement of the 

 financial condition of the Association : 



Total income for the year 



Debt at beginning of year 79,756 



Debt at close of year 96,559 



Assets in lands, mortgages, stocks, etc 67,619 



Legacies now due and some of them in process of 



payment 67,900 



Cost of administration the past year 1 7,816 



Cost of foreign missions in Africa 18,436 



The society owed a floating debt of $25,000. 

 It had an endowment fund of $140,000, all 

 given for specific work $100,000 of it for mis- 

 sions in Africa. It was well invested, and has 

 yielded an annual income of more than $8,000. 

 The Treasurer stated that the receipts of the 

 Association were formerly much larger than 

 at present. In 1862 its resources rose to 

 $532,000. It had been helped by the Freed- 

 rnen's Bureau, and had in a single year re- 

 ceived $50,000 from abroad, of contributions 

 prompted by interest in the emancipated 

 negro. The help from these sources had 

 dropped off, as the questions growing out of 

 the late civil war and the readjustment of 

 affairs in the Southern States had been settled, 



