IRISH CHURCH FINANCE.
(TO THE EDITOR OF TUB "SPECTATOR.")
SIR,-It may be in the recollection of some of your readers that in August and September last year the Spectator contained a cor- respondence between Mr. Gairdner and myself on the question whether the commutation of the clerical incomes has been of advantage to the Church of Ireland. Though I had no doubt of the affirmative, I had not then any arithmetical proofs in my pos- session such as I am now able to offer, in the following extracts from a speech of Judge Longfield in the General Synod of the Church, as reported in the Daily Express of Dublin of the 1st of May last. It should be mentioned in explanation that the Repre- sentative Body, which is the trustee and administrator of all the Church funds, keeps the Commutation account distinct from the various sustentation and endowment accounts :— "The Commutation capital now consisted, in round figures, of .£4,368,000 capital, exclusive of the sum of £1,000,000 composition balances. The annuities now payable [and secured on the interest of the commutation capital] amounted to .£323,800; the excess of the annuities above the interest on the entire capital was [very nearly] £150,000 a year, to which extent a reduction of the commutation capi- tal was taking place. But the reduction would not be the same next
year He believed that the deficiency would diminish by about 1.5,000 a year, and that in about thirty years there would be no defici- ency, but a surplus of three millions on the commutation capital, avail- able for the support of the future Church. In the meantime, the commutation capital would be of great service, as it enabled the Church Body to give interest on subscriptions without waiting for investments. It was done by a mere transfer in their books."
It is to be mentioned, moreover, that the apparent annual loss of £.150,000 of capital is mostly replaced by annual contributions and the interest on donations, so that the future capital of the Church will be much larger than the three millions which it is hoped to have saved by commutation on the winding-up of the commutation account.
The Representative Body, after paying its own expenses and those of the General Synod, and crediting the Commutation and all other Trust funds with four per cent., is able to show a small surplus on the general revenue account. —I am, Sir, &c.,
JOSEPH JOHN MURPHY.
Old Forge, Dunmurry, County Antrim, October 29.
Previous page
