478 



METHODISTS. 



cient. The past year had been one of special 

 anxiety to the committee with regard to the po- 

 sition and prospects of the Wesleyan day schools. 

 In some of the elementary schools a crisis had 

 been brought about by the requirements of the 

 department with regard to the school premises. 

 The committee had had to deal with more pro- 

 posals to close or transfer schools during the past 

 year than during any previous year. Altera- 

 tions or enlargements had been made in several 

 schools. Eighteen schools had been closed or 

 transferred. ' The latest returns represented 825 

 school departments, with 179,058 pupils. The 

 total income of the schools had been 244,491, 

 and the expenditure 257,732. 



The thirty-ninth annual report of the Chapel 

 Committee 'shows that the ordinary income of 

 the fund from collections and subscriptions for 

 1893 was 9,026, giving an increase of 93. The 

 committee had sanctioned 373 cases of building, 

 enlargements, alterations, etc., involving an es- 

 timated expenditure of 246,719. The total 

 additional accommodations were equivalent to 

 a provision of 19,311 more sittings. The tem- 

 porary debt was 23,726. The cases reported 

 through the district synods as completed num- 

 bered 377, and on them had been expended 

 277,496 : 190,858 had been raised by voluntary 

 contributions. These completed cases gave an 

 additional accommodation of 19,110 sittings. 

 The amount reported as expended on new erec- 

 tions and the reduction of debt was 334,339. 



The twenty-sixth annual report of the Metro- 

 politan Chapel Building fund represented that 

 17 sites in London and its suburbs were held and 

 were awaiting occupation. The income for the 

 past year, made up of donation::-;, subscriptions, 

 collections, loans to chapels repaid, and balance 

 from the previous year, was 12.011. The loans 

 advanced on the sites now held amounted to 

 nearly 7.000. Some new erections were re- 

 ported, and considerable progress had been made 

 in the removal of debt. Statistics were appended 

 to the report as to chapel sites aided by this 

 fund and trustees' contributions, the general 

 summary of which for the three London dis- 

 tricts showed a total of 209,070 in grants and 

 loans. 



The report of the Sunday-school Union gives 

 the number of Wesleyan Sunday schools in 

 Great Britain as 7,096, an increase during the 

 year of 45. The annual cost of the Sunday 

 schools was 80.875. showing a reduction of 

 1 7,843 on the returns of the previous year. The 

 number of officers and teachers was 130,170, and 

 of pupils 955,518, showing an increase of 7,010. 

 The number of Sunday-school pupils members 

 of the Church had increased 52,330 during the 

 past ten years, and the number of pupils above 

 fifteen years of age 51,823. A return made for 

 the first time of the number of members of 

 adult Bible classes not connected with the Sun- 

 day schools showed it to be 47,854. 



The eightieth annual meeting of the Wesleyan 

 Missionary Society was held in London. April* 80. 

 The ordinary income of the society had been 

 122,211, a decrease of 4,867 from the previous 

 year, and 7.305 short of the expenditure. A 

 balance on current account of 28,827 stood 

 against the society. The reports from the mis- 

 sion fields represented 335 central stations and 



1,953 other preaching places, with 341 missiona- 

 ries and 2,429 other paid agents and 4,941 unpaid 

 laborers; 38,992 church members and 7.867 on 

 trial ; and 76,350 pupils in day or Sunday schools. 

 All but two or three districts reported an in- 

 crease of membership. The 7 Indian districts 

 were now grouped in two large provincial synods. 

 In Swaziland and the Transvaal multitudes of 

 young people had been gathered in, and but for 

 the demoralizing influence of the liquor traffic 

 progress would be still more rapid. The mis- 

 sions under the South African Conference, 

 largely helped by this society, included nearly 

 50.000 members and probationers, showing an 

 increase of 100 per cent, in eleven years. 



The Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist, 

 Connection met in Birmingham, July 17. The 

 Rev. Walford Green was chosen president. A 

 question arose at the opening of the representa- 

 tive conference on the claim of a woman Miss 

 Dawson to sit as a lay representative of the 

 Third London District, by which she had been 

 elected. It was held, against the lady's claim, 

 that the recognition of a woman delegate was 

 never contemplated when the Connection de- 

 cided to introduce lay representation, and that 

 the admission of one now would be equivalent to 

 new legislation, which should not be made ex- 

 cept in regular course. The case was disposed 

 of by a resolution, to which the conference 

 unanimously agreed, that 



In view of the special circumstances of the case, and 

 without testing the question of the validity of the 

 election,- the order of trie day be proceeded with, and 

 that in future no chairman of a synod should receive 

 the nomination of a lady as a representative until the 

 conference had decided by legislative action to admit 

 ladies as representatives. 



A committee was afterward appointed to sit 

 during the year to consider in all its bearings 

 the question of the election of woman represent- 

 atives, and to report to the conference in the 

 ensuing year. 



A special committee appointed to consider the 

 subject reported that dual appointments at pres- 

 ent held by chairmen of districts are incompati- 

 ble with the efficient discharge of all the duties 

 involved, and recommended that the chairmen 

 be relieved of circuit work entirely, so as to he- 

 enabled more effectively to carry on their other 

 multifarious duties. The committee were, never- 

 theless, unable to recommend the conference to 

 separate the chairmen in all the 35 districts from 

 circuit or departmental work, because sonic of 

 the districts are so small that in all probability 

 the whole of the chairman's time could not be 

 fully employed, and because the expense would 

 be too heavy; and were of the opinion that the 

 services of a chairman could be secured for a 

 large district or a group of smaller districts, such 

 chairman to be separated from all other work, 

 whether of circuit or department. 



The committee's proposition was subjected to 

 an earnest discussion, after which the conference 

 resolved 



That, in view of the vital importance of maintaining 

 the well-balanced relations which have hitherto ex- 

 isted. between district and circuit administration, and 

 having regard to the growing difficulty in meeting 

 the claims and connectional funds, the conference 

 disapproves the proposal of the committee to separate 



