METHODISTS. 



565 



ned with some success, notwithstanding the 

 disturbed condition of the country. The mis- 

 sion at Santa Isabel, West Africa, had suffered 

 from the death of members. 



The sixty-second annual Primitive Method- 

 ist Conference met at Hull, June 5th. The 

 Rev. Charles Kendall was chosen president. 

 New legislation was discouraged. A letter of 

 sympathy with Mr. Gladstone in his parlia- 

 mentary work and his efforts to remove the 

 difficulties he had to encounter was agreed 

 upon, and a petition was ordered prepared in 

 the name of the Conference in favor of the 

 "local-option" measure which Sir Wilfrid 

 Lawson was urging in the House of Commons. 



VI. METHODIST NEW CONNECTION. The fol- 

 lowing is a summary of the statistics of this 

 body as presented to the Conference of 1881 : 

 Number of chapels, 506 ; of churches, 465 ; of 

 ministers, 183 ; of lay preachers, 1,245 ; of 

 church-members, 27,770 ; of members on trial, 

 3,878; of schools, 452, with 11,093 teachers 

 and 79,954 scholars. The increase of church- 

 members during the year was 797. 



The Boole-Room Committee reported that the 

 receipts of the publication office had been 

 2,939, and that it had 1,860 of stock on hand. 

 The Chapel Fund Committee reported that 

 eleven new chapels and two schools had been 

 built during the year, at a cost of 9,500 ; that 

 forty-one chapels had had their debts reduced 

 or extinguished to the amount of 6,750 ; and 

 that a total sum of 13,728 had been raised in 

 connection with the fund. The Connectional 

 Aid and Extension Fund, which had been es- 

 tablished a year before to raise 12,000 in aid 

 of the mission, chapel, loan, college, and pa- 

 ternal funds, had received subscriptions of 

 8,740, of which 3,550 had been paid. The 

 receipts of the fund for Home and Foreign 

 Missions had been 7,177, but those funds 

 were in debt to the amount of 2,205 ; the 

 expenditures for missions had been 7,461. 

 The mission in China returned fifty-eight 

 chapels, fifty-five churches, five missionaries, a 

 large staff of native catechists and teachers, 

 1,091 members, 228 on trial, eleven schools, 

 140 students, and 19 baptized children. The 

 increase of members during the year was 189. 



The Conference of the Metliodist New Connec- 

 tion met at Halifax, June 12th. The Rev. W. 

 Stacey, D. D., was chosen president, and in his 

 inaugural address called attention to the con- 

 stitution of the coming Methodist (Ecumenical 

 Congress as a triumphant acknowledgment of 

 the principle of equal lay representation, on 

 which the government of the New Connection 

 was based. A resolution was passed approv- 

 ing the reform and equalization of the mar- 

 riage laws, and ordered to be sent to the Con- 

 ference on that subject which had been called 

 to meet in London. A resolution was passed 

 approving the motives of the Irish Land Bill, 

 uttering the hope that it might result in good, 

 and expressing sympathy with Mr. Gladstone 

 in his efforts to remove discontent in Ireland. 



Especial attention was given to the considera- 

 tion of the means of extending the influence 

 of the Connection in London ; and a deputa- 

 tion, in which the president of the Conference 

 was included, was appointed to visit the me- 

 tropolis and confer with the superintendents 

 of circuits and with laymen on that subject. 

 A question having arisen respecting the use of 

 the revised New Testament in the chapels, 

 the president suggested that it would be well 

 to wait for a considerable time. 



VII. UNITED METHODIST FREE CHTTRCHES. 

 The district returns of these churches for 1881 

 give the number of members as 65,064, and of 

 persons on trial for membership as 6,817, and 

 show a net increase in the home stations of 

 355. The foreign stations return an increase 

 of 440, making the whole increase for the de- 

 nomination, 795. 



The chapel secretary reported to the Confer- 

 ence in July, as the result of special efforts 

 made in view of the year being the year of 

 the census to obtain returns on all questions 

 relating to connectional property, that the 

 number of chapels was 1,145, of which 662 

 had been built since 1860, that they cost 

 1,266,073, and were in debt 405,288; that 

 the school-houses cost 139,000, and were in 

 debt 26,097; that sixty ministers' houses, 

 settled on trust, cost an average sum of 402 

 each ; that the chapels afforded an accommo- 

 dation of 359,961 sittings, of which 106,412 

 were let, at an average rent of 3 14*. each. 

 The capital of the Chapel Loan Fund exceeded 

 10,000. 



The Boole-Boom returned a profit of 1,200, 

 available for distribution among the benevolent 

 furtds of the Connection. 



The annual meeting in behalf of the Home 

 and Foreign Missions was held in London, 

 April 25th. The general income of the so- 

 ciety for the year had been 17,325, and the 

 expenditure had been 17,047. The Home 

 Mission Chapel Extension Fund was in its fifth 

 year ; only a relatively small amount of the 

 promised subscriptions remained unpaid, and 

 the sum of 8,834 had been voted for the pur- 

 chase of land and the erection of chapels and 

 school-houses. Reports were made of the con- 

 dition of the missions in East Africa; Sierra 

 Leone, where the churches, in the absence of a 

 European missionary, had been under the care 

 of two colored ministers, and whence liberal 

 contributions had been received to the General 

 Mission Fund ; and Jamaica, where the mission 

 had been severely afflicted by the hurricane of 

 August, 1880. The society has also a mission 

 at Ningpo, China. 



The Annual Assembly of the United Meth- 

 odist Free Churches met in London, ihily 27th. 

 The Rev. Richard Chew was chosen president. 

 A resolution of thanks to the revisers of the 

 New Testament was passed, and the work was 

 commended to the study of ministers and peo- 

 ple. A question was brought up on the appli- 

 cation of a minister formerly of this conneo- 



