METHODISTS. 



533 



under its jurisdiction were already contributing 

 45,000 of the 60,000 which it cost to main- 

 tain their work during each year. A scheme 

 was adopted for the organization of the con- 

 nection in the West Indies into two confer- 

 ences, to be associated in a General Conference 

 which shall meet every three years. In other 

 points the organization of these conferences will 

 be similar to that of the South African Confer- 

 ence. The plan has yet to receive the assent 

 of the West Indian churches. Steps were re- 

 solved upon for securing amendments to the 

 marriage laws of England, of such a character 

 as shall put Wesley an and other ministers on 

 an equality of privilege in solemnizing mar- 

 riages with the clergy of the Church of Eng- 

 land. The plan of amendment approved by 

 the Conference embraces principles similar to 

 those of the Scotch law for registration. It 

 proposes that the present requirement of notice 

 at the registrar's office, and of license, shall be 

 retained ;, but that the marriage may then be 

 celebrated, on production of the license, by any 

 minister duly authorized for that purpose, in 

 any duly registered place of worship, without 

 the presence of the registrar, which is now 

 required in the case of marriage by dissenters, 

 after which a certificate shall be filed in the 

 registrar's office ; and it further stipulates that 

 the total fees for such marriages charged at the 

 registrar's office shall not be greater than the 

 fees charged for an ordinary marriage accord- 

 ing to the rites of the Church of England. ' A re- 

 port was approved in favor of holding a second 

 (Ecumenical Conference of Methodists in 1887. 

 V. Primitive Methodist Connection. The follow- 

 ing is a summary of the statistics of this Church 

 as they were reported to the Conference in 

 June: Number of members, 196,480; of trav- 

 eling preachers, 1,147; of local preachers, 15,- 

 982; of leaders, 10,994; of connectional chap- 

 els, 4,437; of other preaching-places, 1,812; 

 value of trust property, 2,812,263 ; indebted- 

 ness on trust property, 1,087,015 ; number of 

 Sunday-schools, 4,184, with 61,215 teachers and 

 400,597 scholars. Income of the Sunday- 

 schools, 60,000. The income of the superan- 

 nuated preachers', widows', and orphans' fund 

 had been 6,639. The committee of the fund 

 returned 267 annuitant upon its lists. The 

 income of the chapel fund had been 385. 

 Twenty four chapels had been assisted by 

 grants. Including what the chapels them- 

 selves had raised, 5,340 had been spent under 

 the auspices of the fund in the relief of their 

 estates. The Connectional Insurance Company 

 returned a reserve fund of 9,860, carefully 

 invested, with 4,711 outstanding policies. A 

 statement was made in the Conference that the . 

 total amount of contributions within the Con- 

 nection had been during the year: For chapel 

 debts and current chapel expenses, 269,508 ; 

 for educational purposes, 56.574; for the 

 support of the ministry, 115,200 ; for various 

 connectional funds, 9,378 ; for literature sold 

 by the Book-Room, 26,644; for missionary 



purposes, 15,763 ; making in all nearly half a 

 million pounds sterling, or an average of 2 

 11*. Id. per member. 



The anniversary of the Primitive Methodist 

 Missionary Society was held May 1st. The in- 

 come of the society for the year was returned 

 at 36,865, derived as follows: From contribu- 

 tions of home stations, 17,222; contributed 

 by foreign stations, 2,883 ; raised in the mis- 

 sions for schools, churches, and the mainte- 

 nance of missionaries, 16,760. The whole 

 amount showed an increase of 1,640 over the 

 receipts of the previous year. The work of 

 the society was extended to 238 stations; of 

 which 56 were classed as "home," 178 as 

 " colonial," and 4 as u foreign " stations, and 

 was conducted by 79 "home," 217 "foreign," 

 and 6 "colonial" missionaries and ministers, 

 or 302 missionaries in all. 



The sixty-fourth Primitive Methodist Con- 

 ference met at South Shields, June 13th. The 

 Rev. W. Cutts was chosen president. The 

 business of the Conference had reference chief- 

 ly to the condition and interest of the various 

 institutions and benevolent enterprises of the 

 Connection. A Temperance Society was estab- 

 lished, with a Band of Hope Union, the pledge 

 including abstinence from tobacco and snuff. 



VI. United Methodist Free Chnrehes. The sum- 

 maries of the statistical returns of this body as 

 reported to the Conference in August are as 

 follow : Number of itinerant preachers, 391 ; 

 of supernumeraries, 40; of local preachers, 

 3,417; of leaders, 4,128; of members, 75,577; 

 of persons on trial for membership, 8,575 ; of 

 chapels, 1,357; of preaching-rooms, 203; of 

 Sunday-schools, 1,352, with 26,851 teachers 

 and 195.681 scholars. The net increase of 

 members was 1,435, of which 204 had accrued 

 from the foreign stations. The trustees of the 

 chapel loan fund returned its capital at 10.- 

 032. The capital of the superannuation and 

 beneficent fund was returned at 28,590. 



The annual assembly of the United Meth- 

 odist Free Churches met at Rochdale, Angust 

 1st. Mr. H. T. Mawson presided. The present 

 meeting of the assembly was made the occasion 

 of the commemorative celebration of the twen- 

 ty-fifth anniversay of the union, in 1857, of the 

 Wesleyan Methodist Association and the Wes- 

 leyan Reformers to constitute the connection 

 in its present form. The celebration took ef- 

 fective shape in the collection of subscriptions 

 to a commemoration fund, which were re- 

 ported, at the close of the Conference, to 

 amount to 14,031. The Conference decided 

 that the fund should be appropriated as fol- 

 lows : To the mission fund, four sixteenths ; to 

 chapel funds, three sixteenths ; to the London, 

 chapel extension fund, two sixteenths; to the 

 Theological Institute, one sixteenth; to Ashe- 

 ville College, one sixteenth; unappropriated 

 for the present, one sixteenth. The assembly 

 recommended that one or two suitable men in 

 the ministry be set apart for evangelistic labors, 

 to hold services from circuit to circuit, in oo- 



