amount required on this basis among the Districts, and the Financial District Meeting shall apportion the amount required of the District among the Circuits. Each Superintendent of a Circuit shall be held responsible by his Annual District Meeting for the amount apportioned to his Circuit by the preceding Financial District Meeting. While the Conference of Newfoundland is not obligated to raise at present the amount of ten cents per member, it is expected that the Conference will approximate as closely as possible to the foregoing scale of contribution.

453. Every minister shall, at the first quarterly visitation of the classes, after Conference, explain the nature and reasonableness of the claims of this fund upon the justice and liberality of our Church. He shall then inquire of each member what sum he or she is willing to subscribe, and shall enter the respective sums in the classbook, and it shall be the duty of the class leader to collect these, and also subscriptions from the members absent at the time of visitation, and to pay the amount to the Superintendent of the Circuit.

454. An Annual Collection, in aid of this fund, shall be made in all the churches and other preaching-places in the month of December, and private application shall be made by the minister to friends on each Circuit for subscriptions and donations.

455. Five-sixths of the subscriptions of ministers and probationers, the Circuit contributions, the interest on the capital stock, and the amount received from year to year from the Missionary Society, shall constitute the current income for each year available for the payment of annual claims.

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V. Capital Stock.

456. The capital stock of this fund shall consist of the amount now reported by the Treasurers as constituting the present capital stock and all sums hereafter received as legacies; payments received under Article VI., the excess of current income above current claims in any year; and one-sixth of the amount of the payments of ministers and probationers.

VI. Claimants.

45%. Any minister being a member of this fund, on becoming a Supernumerary, except as hereinafter provided, shall have a claim on the current income as long as he shall remain a Supernumerary in connection with either of the Conferences specified in Article II. for an annuity equal to the sum of ten dollars for each annual subscription which he shall have previously paid to the fund.

458. A widow of any minister having been a member of this fund, except as hereinafter provided; shall, so long as she shall remain his widow, have a claim upon the current income for an annuity equal to one-half the claim of her deceased husband; provided, however, that if the wife of any member of the fund shall die, and he should marry again, he must, in order to entitle his new wife to such an annuity, pay five dollars a year additional for each year of his connection with this fund previous to hist marriage; otherwise her claim shall be considered as commencing only at the time of her marriage. The widows of Supernumerary ministers, who have never been in Circuit. work with their husbands, shall have no claim.

459. Any claim upon this fund based upon not more than ten years' subscriptions thereto shall not continue more years than the number of the annual subscriptions which constitute its basis; but the claims of ministers transferred to or from any other Conference of the Methodist Church who shall have paid subscriptions to the Superannuation Fund of the Western Conferences, or to this Supernumerary Fund, and whose annual subscriptions to the two funds shall, together, be more than ten, shall not be subject to the limitations of the foregoing clause. Neither shall this limitation apply to ministers received into full Connexion at or before the Annual Conference of 1882.

460. Any minister of the Conferences specified in Article II., being a member of this fund, who shall be transferred to any other Conference of the Methodist Church, may retain the standing in connection with this fund which he had acquired previous to his transfer.

461. It is provided always that, when in any year the current income shall be insufficient to meet the claims of that year in full, such claims shall be proportionately reduced by one equal percentage from all.

462. Any person who, by withdrawal, location, expulsion, or in any other way, shall cease to be a member of an Annual Conference of the Methodist Church, may be repaid by the General Committee on the recommendation of his Annual Conference from the capital stock of this fund the amount of his annual subscriptions; provided always that it shall be lawful for the General Treasurer to pay to the parties properly authorized to receive them,

any amounts due by the party or parties claiming repayment, to the Book Room of the Eastern Section of the Methodist Church or to that of the Western Section, or to any Fund of the Methodist Church, and the receipt of the aforementioned properly authorized parties shall be a sufficient discharge as against the claimant or claimants as aforesaid. The General Committee may, upon the recommendation of the Annual Conference, commute with such ministers as may be Supernumeraries from causes which do not disqualify them for secular business, by payment of such sums as may be mutually agreed upon, instead of allowing them to become permanent claimants upon the Supernumerary Fund.

VII. Change in Constitution.

463. No change shall be made in this Constitution until after notice thereof shall have been given to the General Committee, whose duty it shall be to report all such notices to each of the three Annual Conferences interested; nor then, unless the proposed change or changes shall have been concurred in by two-thirds of the members of the fund present and voting thereon in the said three Conferences, the number of the contents and non-contents being carefully taken and put upon record in the Journal of each of the said Conferences, and shall be certified by the President and Secretary of each Conference to the next meeting of the General Committee. When the aggregate required number of two-thirds of all the members voting in the three Conferences shall be found to have

been given in favor of the proposed change or changes, it shall be the duty of the General Committee so to report to the representatives of the aforesaid three Annual Conferences to the next ensuing General Conference, in order that the said proposed and requested change or changes may be confirmed by the General Conference.

SECTION IV.

GENERAL CONFERENCE FUND.

CONSTITUTION.

I. Name.

464. The name of this Fund shall be "The General Conference Fund of the Methodist Church."

II. Object.

465. The object of this Fund shall be to provide for : 1. Salary, office and travelling expenses of the General Superintendent.

2. Expenses of Standing Committees and Boards of General Conference not otherwise provided for.

3. Expenses of Fraternal Delegates appointed by General Conference.

4. Travelling expenses of delegates to General Confer

ence.

5. Other necessary expenses incident to the meeting of General Conference.

6. Payment of General Conference indebtedness.