492 



METHODISTS. 



In the above table the number of ministers 

 and members in connection with the Confer- 

 ences of Canada and Eastern British America 

 now combined in the Conference of the Wes- 

 leyan Methodist Church in the Dominion of 

 Canada is not given. 



The reports of the committees having charge 

 of the various trusts and funds of the Connec- 

 tion were made to the Committees of Review, 

 which met at Sheffield during the week pre- 

 ceding the meeting of the Conference, to hear 

 the reports and consider the interests commit- 

 ted severally to their charge. 



The income of the Home Mission and Con- 

 tingent- Fund for the year had been 31,257; 

 612 persons of all classes were engaged in the 

 work, under the charge of the committee, 

 under whose labors an increase for the year of 

 900 members was reported in the Home Mis- 

 sion districts or stations. 



The total ordinary income of th& Chapel 

 Fund was reported to have been 9,20-4, an 

 increase of 167 over the income of the pre- 

 vious year. The entire number of cases of 

 enlargements and erections of chapels, minis- 

 ters' houses, etc., sanctioned, was 333, the to- 

 tal cost of which was estimated at 305,054. 

 Grants of 2,147 and loans of 11,795 had 

 been made from the fund, and 51,069 of debts 

 had been allowed. The total number of " erec- 

 tions completed " was 261, at a cost of 275,- 

 651. Grants of 2,435 and loans of 4,650 

 had been made, and debts of 52,927 had been 

 sanctioned upon them. In the relief depart- 

 ment debts had been discharged during the 

 year by the combined aid of grants, loans, etc., 

 to the amount of 54,548. The amount of 

 debts discharged since 1854 was 1,072,540. 

 Four hundred and ninety-three loans were 

 now in operation. The capital of the relief 

 loan fund was 42,037 8*. 8d. ; of the erec- 

 tions loan fund, 88,981 9s. 5d. A total 

 amount of 323,343 had been expended on 

 new erections and in the reduction of debts. 

 The net amount actually raised by contribu- 

 tions, including grants, during the year, was 

 262,292. 



Report was made to the Tlieological Institu- 

 tion Committee of Review, that tbe contribu- 

 tions for the year received up to the time of 

 the meeting of the committee had amounted 

 to 6,400. Between 700 and 800 more 

 wer.e expected,, with the addition of which 

 the income would still be about 1,000 less 

 than that of the preceding year. Upward of 

 10,000 belonging to what was called "the 



Midland Trust " was safely and profitably in- 

 vested. 



The report to the Education Committee of 

 Review showed the number of schools to be 

 890; of scholars, 178,550; average attend- 

 ance, 116,033. The number of schools was 

 sixteen less than during the previous year, the 

 decrease having been occasioned by transfers 

 to the national school boards. The number df 

 scholars had increased 227. The committee 

 expressed its gratification that the increase in 

 the means of public education effected by re- 

 cent legislation had not interfered to any con- 

 siderable extent with the maintenance of the 

 connectional day-school system, while it re- 

 gretted that school boards were not every- 

 where established. 



The number of Sunday-schools was 5,893 ; 

 of officers and teachers in the same, 111,003; 

 and of scholars, 700,210. The report of the 

 secretary of the Connectional Sunday-School 

 Union gave an account of the organization of 

 the Union with its several departments, agen- 

 cies, and local branches, which had been 

 mostly accomplished within the year, and of 

 the increasing recognition of the Sunday- 

 school as an important instrument of the Chris- 

 tian Church. About 1,000 schools had joined 

 the Connectional Union. The past year had 

 been distinguished by the amount of practical 

 interest in Sunday-school work shown by mem- 

 bers of all religious denominations. The op- 

 erations of the Church of England, the Con- 

 gregationalists, and the Primitive Methodists, 

 in this department, were particularly men- 

 tioned. This work had also made progress on 

 the Continent. 



The one hundred and thirty-second annual 

 session of the Conference of the Wesleyan Con- 

 nection met at Sheffield, July 28th. The Rev. 

 Gervase Smith was elected president. Ninety- 

 four persons were presented as candidates for 

 the ministry, of whom 82 were accepted. 



The Conference of 1873 had appointed a 

 committee to consider the question how far 

 the constitution of the Committees of Review 

 might be improved. This committee reported 

 to the Conference of 1874 a plan for the reor- 

 ganization of the Committees of Review by 

 consolidating them into a single General Com- 

 mittee, composed of ministers and laymen, to 

 be appointed annually by the Conference, be- 

 fore whom the reports of all the departments 



* Exclusive of missionaries in Ireland. 

 + The French ministers \vho are employed in the Channel 

 Islands District are not included in these returns. 



