PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :--
PEPEC.O. 882
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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ment of them before the law, and by no means that the claims of all religions upon the State are inherently equal. Otherwise there would be no reason for the wise preference accorded to Christianity. Still less can " religious equality' mean the measuring of such claims by the number of adherents only, as the Despatch has, in fact, more than once declared, otherwise the non-Christian population of Mauritius would at once have a title to two-thirds of the ecclesias- tical grant. In fact such an estimation of claims is not only intrinsically futile, but it destroys religious equality, and may leave the needier and more deserving minority at the mercy of its confederated foes. We deplore being thus driven to expose the fallacy and sophistry of so one-sided and transparent an outcry for a religious equality which is, in every sense, an inequality pronounced. And we also are obliged to allude "en passant" to the fact that the numerical scersing from a large strength of a church within a given area is, to a certain extent, a reason why it should be, and is, able to carry on its operations with less extraneous help, on account of the revenue accruing from a large constituency.
Revenus naturally
⚫onstituency dimi.
nishes, in part, the
need of State aid.
Insufficient and arronsons grounds.
No examination; against the Despatch; hate; enormou project.
Altogether mistaken
■ computation correct.
THIS PETITION THEREFORE MOST RESPECTFULLY MEMORIALIZES YOUR LORDSHIP
TO THE FOLLOWING EFFECT, VIZ., THAT:
10. Upon insufficient grounds and erroneous statistics and computations of rates, without any investigation whatever of the real circumstances, needs, and merits of the respective churches, and in contradiction to the spirit and letter of your Lordship's Despatch, No. 314, of the 20th September 1889,* & motion has been summarily precipitated through the Colonial Legislature, at the last moment of the government of Sir John Pope Hennessy, proposing to transfer to the Church of Rome Rs. 21,396 (more than half) of the Church of England's establishments and annual grants.
20. That, besides the fact that there are scarcely any figures or statements onleniations: scarcely in the said motion (No. 19. Report on the Mauritius Estimates for 1890), or in the minutes and documents upon which it was based, which the Church of England does not dispute or deny, as e.g., that "the re-adjustment is a fair one and should give satisfaction to the Protestant section of the community";
Disguised numerical competation.
Impossible to work upon the sun.
indeterminateness,
methods of applica.
(OD.
"
or that "they would receive per head more than three times the rate allowed by the scheme to the Roman Catholics" (we find it to be twice not "three times"); the Diocesan Council would take the liberty of urging firmly that Not a slight revision. the enormous transfer projected cannot be viewed as merely a "somewhat larger proportion," or "some re-adjustment"; that it is based upon a disguised numerical computation only, manifestly unfair and already set aside by your Lordship; that it leaves but an impracticably deficient sum (Rs. 20,000) upon which to work the machinery of the Church of England; that, existing interests having been secured by your Lordship's forethought, the measure is defective and betrays haste, in leaving indeterminate that upon which the immediate and ultimate issues depend, viz., the method of its application to grants disposable, inasmuch as very remarkable variations and some difficulties dimenities and pecu- will, upon investigation, be found to hinge thereon. The confusion or amal- gamation of the establishments and annual grants introduced, makes, indeed, the measure most ambiguous, it is submitted, in the working out. That the Church of England therefore begs to reserve that point, the hope that its consideration will not be required; but that it is to be feared that even the most favourable method of application could scarcely fail to be prejudicial to the well earned claims, the most useful and successful work, and the fully employed agency, of the great home societies and others, who assist, and have for years generously assisted, her operations; and that, in a few weeks, the monthly pay of these employed and engaged agents will be in question. Like- wise that the form of procedure adopted, so far from being frained with a view to your Lordship's approval or "consent," or to give assistance to your Lordship in "offering an opinion," would appear to tend rather to confine your Lordship to an acceptance of the foregone conclusions of the adversaries of the Protestant churches, and of British ideas and principles in general, and is aimed not so much at modification or augmentation of the Roman Catholic side, as at destruction of the other; and would necessarily preclude the interests involved and likely to suffer from any just examination or defence.
The home societies, and the variable grants.
Procedure tends to preclude an opinion from your Lordship, or a defence on the part of the sufferers.
• No. 8.
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30. That, according to the census figures of 1881, the Protestants must have Protestants may be been more in number than 8,000, and were possibly not fever than 12,000, of the 26th and 30th
18,000. (See Papri whereof the Church of England may have had 8,000; that apart from revenue Nov. 1889.) accruing, numbers, whilst costing more in the aggregate for ecclesiastical as for all other work or purposes, do not give rise to a cost proportional to the numbers; but that the cost per head, by an economic law, diminishes in a Head-rate dagsinsbes very rapid ratio, as numbers swell; that large legalised fees and mass dues and that rapidly. enter into the clerical income of the Roman Catholic Church and clergy, and
as Dumbers increase,
that, if head-rates are to be computed at all, 4:1, and not 2:1 as proposed, 4:1a fair ratio of would be but a very moderate ratio thereof, in the relative circumstances of head-rates, not 3: 1. the communions in Mauritius, giving to the Protestant churches about
Rs. 40,500 and not Rs. 25,000, as, almost contemptuously it would seem, Bs. 40,500 not 25,000. proposed.
separated, the latter
40. That the emoluments of the bishoprics should be treated apart, and Bishops and annual continued separately to each church; that the Bishop of Mauritius, under Krants should be kept Ord. 21, of 1874, has to visit the dependencies as part of the diocese to which are undenominational. his salary is legally attached, and that the undenominational grants should be Art. 4. left, as they by law are now, to be apportioned annually at the discretion of Government, according to proved requirements or work rendered in each case, without regard to the particular communion, viz., those under Ord. 54, of 1844, and under the.
e moralisation grant, usually so called.
ments the only safe
soolJ.
Increase.
50. That the parochial needs of the churches are the only fair basis of cal- Parochial require- culation; and that the Church of England requires an average of Rs. 3,000 guide, viz., Romau per annum to each district for ministerial salaries, whilst the Church of Rome Catholic to Church of may similarly require three times that average, viz., Rs. 9,000 per district, as
England, 9::3:1. has hitherto, it is thought, been demanded. This would supply the usual stipends, in her case, of Rs. 1,500 each, to six ministers per district, capable in the case of each church of redistribution to meet special instances of spiritual Roman Catholic need, and give the Roman Catholic Church 54 priests, or more than one clergy Due to 3,000 to every 2,000 souls; that the Church of Scotland should receive something Church of Scotland. more than its present insignificant figure of Rs. 5,389.90, instead of having a trifle should receive some subducted from that paltry sum; that the full emoluments of the Bishops Easy to proportionate as now fixed, added to the figures resulting from this estimation of spiritual this to the grant. necds, can, if necessary, easily be brought within the limits of the present con- Se protest to H. E. solidated grants by a very small proportional reduction, or that the trifling Council, dated 20! addition required (about Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 4,000) might, one would think, be Dec. and laid on t!.. allowed without difficulty. The proportion of grants between the churches Stein, at the final and according to this scheme is that of 9:3:1 if the Bishops be separately only meeting of considered, or of 10:4:1 if they be included. Now the former proportion, subject, 6th Dec. 1889. including the Bishops, was about 16:8: 1: whereas that offered by the motion Including Bishops, protested is 20: 4: 1, whereby the Church of England would receive 4th of the not 20:4: i (an above), Roman Catholic grant, as against heretofore, not a slight revision by any Bishors. Former rate
meuns.
the Governor in
table by the lion. It.
Council upon this
sobeme yields 10:4:1.
or 9, 8, 1 without
16:b:1 20:4:1 a drop from to t
60. That it would be better for the Rs. 20,000 or so, asked for by the Church Better to give a fresh of Rome if needed, or a portion thereof, to be granted by a separate and additional as recommended vote rather than that it should be abstracted from the slender resources of the CM.G.
by Hon. C. Antelme, Protestant churches, already insufficient to cope with the growing requirements
of a creolizing Indian population.
Further, this MEMORIAL RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH THAT—
of all subvention to
It should be borne in mind that the support of the British churches Principle destructive cannot, in the face of preponderating non-Christian majorities, be withdrawn, or christianity. seriously questioned and attacked in principle without destroying the very grounds upon which the Church of Rome itself can be subsidized at all from
&c. should be en-
the general revenue; that it is the interest of the people and of the Empire, British institutions, not by any means to favour unduly, still less to enforce, but yet to protect outraged. and encourage British institutions, methods, and principles, for Mauritius has largely benefited by them in the past; and their suppression or discouragement
Ü
61946.
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