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STATISTICAL REPORT on the Working of the Regulation of One-and-half more,-submitted to the Acting Sustentation Committee, 8th December 1845.

The regulation, by which the ministers of new charges are paid, as stipend, the whole proceeds of their Associations, and one-half more, up to £150 per annum, was passed by the Assembly in May 1844. It must be borne in mind, therefore, that the experience had has been very limited, and that, by next year, some of the facts brought out in the Report may be considerably modified.

The number of new charges at Whitsunday 1845, to which the regulation of one-and-a-half more is applicable, was thirtyfive; one has since become vacant, and ten have been added, so that the number at Martinmas 1845 is forty-four.

The total sum paid the ministers of new charges at Whitsunday 1845 was £1486:6:7. Had they been paid the equal dividend, the sum would have been £1998, 15s., so that at that term there was a saving to the Sustentation Fund of £512: 8:5 by the regulation.

The sum paid the ministers of new charges at Martinmas 1845 was £1992: 5:4. Had they been paid the equal dividend, the sum would have been £1908:6:8. It thus appears, that, at Martinmas, the regulation cost the fund £95:16:8. It is right to remark, that, from the circumstance of the dividend at Martinmas being smaller than the half of the dividend for the whole year is likely to be, it does not follow from the above statement, that the new charges will absorb more for the year by the regulation than had they been on the equal dividend.

From appearances at present, however, the likelihood is that they will.

Of the thirty-four ministers of new charges at Whitsunday 1845, there were seventeen paid sums under £80 a-year; and the Home Mission Committee had to make grants to them to make up that sum, the total amount of which was £221: 5: 6. The rates at which these ministers were paid at that term were as follows, viz. :

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80,

60,

11

5

8

5

Under £40 (of whom two had nothing to receive), 5

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The rates of stipend to the forty-four ministers at Martinmas

1845 are

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Having the accounts of the Congregations only up to 31st March last, it is impossible to ascertain exactly the number that have included their Church-door Collections in the sum sent by them to the Sustentation Fund. It appears from the accounts, to the period mentioned, that fourteen did send in the whole or a part of their collections up to that date. In two or three instances, they seem to have merged the proceeds of the Associations (if they have any) and their collections, and sent the whole in after payment of their congregational expenses. Till the close of the current year, however, nothing can be distinctly stated as to the practice of the majority of these congregations. The three Ministers who were paid at the rate of £150 per annum at Martinmas rast, also received supplements for the year ending 31st March, viz. two of them £20 each, and one £50. The sums received from the Congregations of these Ministers have been above the sum entitling them to £75 for the half-year, the following sums, viz. £2:16:11, £1:18:3, and £7: 15:9, spectively.

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Had the rule been applied to the whole Church for the year ending at Whitsunday last, the following would have been the rate of the Ministers' stipends, viz. :

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It thus appears that of the whole Ministers of the Church, 125 would receive (including the one-half more) under £60 per annum for their whole stipend; and 212 under £80 per annum ; 345 under £120; and 252 from £120 to £150 per annum; of

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the 125, under £60, there are 88 in the Lowlands, and 37 in the Highlands; of the Ministers that would receive above £100 per annum, there are 40 in the Highlands.

The sum requisite to pay the above 600 ministers on the footing of the regulation of the one-and-a-half more, is

For the remaining collegiate and retired ministers, &c.

say,

Sum,

£62,391

£3,000

£65,391

The sum actually paid all the ministers of the Church for the year ending Whitsunday 1845, was

Add Widows' Fund,

Sum,

£70,350 2 1

3,703 0 0

£74,053 2 1

I do not conceive it is within my province, looking to the directions given me, to draw any inference from the above statements, and nothing else occurs to me as necessary to be added.

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Extract from MEMORIAL by Mr Handyside, January 1848, laid before the Select Committee.

I would now venture to bring before the Committee a plan which was submitted to Dr Chalmers, of which he expressed his approbation.

It proceeds upon the idea,-That it is desirable, sooner or later, to place all ministers upon the same footing as regards the Sustentation Fund; but at the same time to go forward to make a more adequate provision for the Disruption ministers, and the others drawing the equal dividend, before any change is introduced.

The General Assembly has declared that £150 is the amount which each minister should receive from the Sustentation Fund, and that every effort should be made to secure this. It seems wiser not to introduce any change which might affect the of the Fund, until this is attained.

progress The number of ministers upon the Fund at Martinmas last

was

679

Of these, the number on the one-and-a-half-more plan was 72

Leaving ministers drawing equal dividend,

607

The sum required to pay 607 ministers £150 each is £91,050 The sum required to pay 72 ministers on the one-anda-half more scale, is about

7,370

66 one

£98,420

Total sum required to pay both classes, the
former £150, and the latter, the
and-a-half more,"

Suppose that the fund at 1850 should reach £99,420, being £1000 more than is required to pay the whole stipends, there would then remain £1000 in the treasury above what is required for that year. Let this sum remain on hand as a guarantee fund, and on the strength of it let the 21 ministers (the whole number admitted in 1844) at the top of the list of those on the One-anda-half-more Scale be assumed on the full dividend. The difference between the amount paid to them last year, and what would be required to make up £150 to each, would be £812, 18s. The matter would then stand thus at the Assembly, say of 1852. Supposing the Fund to amount still to the same sum as the former year, without there being any further increase, (which is a very unfavourable supposition), there would be an additional sum of £1000, more than was required to pay the 607 ministers the £150, and the 72 ministers of new charges. The Fund, with the £1000 on hand from the previous year, would then amount £100,420

to

There falls to be paid,

1. Sum required to pay 607, as at 15th May 1850,

£150 each,

before,

2. To ministers of new charges, as shewn

3. Difference between the sum paid to the
21 ministers of new charges above
referred to, and the £150 to each of
them,

Leaving still unexhausted

£91,050

7,370

813

99, 233

£1,187

Note. This is the sum which would remain on hand, after the whole dividends are paid, at May 1851, supposing that the amount contributed by the new charges did not exceed the amount of the previous year. If that amount should have increased, the Fund must have also increased, and it is only the 50 per cent., paid on that increase, that would affect the unexhausted balance, which could not be large.

To carry forward this process, suppose that at May 1852, the increase on the fund amounted only to £580 over the previous year, the matter would, at that date, stand thus,

1. Amount at 15th May 1851, as above,

£99,420

2. Supposed increase on the year,

580

3. Unexhausted balance at 15th May 1851,

1,187

£101,187

There would fall to be paid the same sum as at Whitsunday 1851, as already detailed,

99,233

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Brought forward,

But assuming that, at the Assembly 1851, the whole Ministers admitted in 1845 to new charges had been declared to have been entitled to the equal dividend, the number of these is 22, and the difference between what they actually received and the equal dividend of £150, would be

Leaving unexhausted at 15th May 1852,

£1,954

872

£1,082

Note. It will be observed, that the calculations are made under unfavourable circumstances; 1st, It is assumed, that there is no increase whatever on the fund for the year ending 15th May 1851; and, 2d, That the increase on the year ending 15th May 1852, is only £580. But it may fairly be presumed, that the increase on both these years will be considerable, and thus the guarantee fund may be so augmented as to warrant the admission of the whole ministers admitted in 1845 and 1846, on the equal dividend as at Whitsunday 1851.

It does not seem necessary to carry this further. The number of ministers admitted to new charges in 1846 was 18, and the number in 1847 was smaller, so that the security is afforded, that, in a shorter period, the whole would be assumed on the equal dividend.

It only remains to state what is proposed as to charges which have not yet been supplied with Ministers, or which may hereafter become entitled, by virtue of their being sanctioned by the Assembly, to call Ministers. I would propose that these should all be put on the present plan of the one-and-a-half more until the fund shall come to be in a position to absorb them into the equal dividend, in the manner already detailed; that thus the extension of the Church should not be arrested, on the one hand, by the efforts necessary towards providing for the existing Ministers, nor impeded, on the other, by such extension being made at their expense. The 50 per cent. payable on such cases will, to a limited extent, diminish the Guarantee Fund.

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