tenary Fund, $10.20," sent through Rev. Dr. W. H. Roberts, the treasurer of the Committee in charge of the Centenary Offering. This Balance makes $590,830.27 as the total of the Centenary Offering transferred to the Board for investment. Of this sum, as stated in our last report, $122,000 have been placed at 6 per cent. interest, through the agency of the Committee in St. Paul, Minn., of which Mr. C. H. Bigelow is the Chairman, and of a like Committee at Wichita, Kansas, of which Rev. John D. Hewitt, D. D., is Chairman.

LADIES' AID SOCIETIES.

For a list of these Societies sending boxes to the families upon our roll, see page 13. The estimated value of these is $4,727.88. The estimated value of the boxes sent last year was $5,657.35.

PAPER REFERRED TO THE BOARD.

The "Paper upon the subject of Annuities" which was referred by the last Assembly to the Board of Relief (see minutes, page 190) contains the suggestion that the Boards of our Church should "accept a principal sum, upon which interest is to be paid to the donors at the rate of four or five per cent. so long as they shall live, the said principal sum at their decease becoming the property of the Board." It therefore concerns the other Boards of the Church as much as the Board of Relief; and for ourselves we have only to say that our reports to the Assembly show that we have for years past received donations upon this condition. Our report for the present year (see page 14) shows that $1,515 were paid as "annuities during the life of the donors"-the principal which this interest represents having been given to the Permanent Fund upon condition that the income should be paid to the donors, or to others mentioned by them, during their lives.

The term of service of the following members of the Board expires with the present Assembly: Rev. Henry E. Niles, D. D., Rev. Wm. M. Paden, George Junkin, Esq., and A. Charles Barclay, Esq.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Board,

May 5, 1892.

WILLIAM C. Cattell,

Corresponding Secretary.

MEETINGS AND RULES OF THE BOARD.

The Board meets on the third Thursday of each month, except during July and August, when a committee, appointed by the Board, acts upon all matters requiring attention during the interim. All recommendations from the Presbyteries for aid are carefully examined by a committee of the Board, who report their conclusions at each meeting. Each case is then taken up by itself, and after a consideration of all the facts, it is decided by a vote of the Board. When the Board are unable to grant the appropriation asked for, the Chairman of the Presbyterial Committee sending the application is promptly notified, and the reasons given for the decision. The following rules, approved by the General Assembly, govern the Board in the administration of this Fund:

1. Only members of Presbyteries in connection with the General Assembly, and the families of those who were at their death in such connection, are entitled to aid. See note, (1) and (2).

2. All appropriations must be made on the recommendation of that Presbytery or of a standing Committee of that Presbytery to which the applicant, if a minister (not Honorably Retired-see note 3), belongs; if the application be for a widow or orphan children, it may be made by the Presbytery within whose bounds the family resides or by the Presbytery with which the minister was connected at the time of his death. The same rule applies to the renewal of recommendations, if aid is continued.

3. Appropriations are made for one year, unless otherwise ordered; and the renewals must be made from year to year. See note (3).

4. Applications for aid should, in case of a minister, state his age, his circumstances and the number of years he has been in the ministry; and in the case of a deceased minister's family, the application should state the circumstances of the widow, and the sex and age of the children who are dependent on her for support.

5. While the responsibility of recommending applicants rests with the Presbyteries, and these recommendations largely govern the action of the Board, yet there is reserved to the Board the right to appropriate according to the merits of the case and the state of the treasury.

6. All the appropriations are paid in advance, provided the funds of the Board will allow; when the appropriation is at the rate of more than one hundred and fifty dollars per annum, it is paid in two equal instalments, semiannually in advance.

7. Applications for admission to the Presbyterian Ministers' House, at Perth Amboy, are to be made in accordance with these rules. Guests of the House who, in the judgment of the Superintendent, are a hindrance to its

comfort and usefulness, shall be reported by her to the committee in charge, who shall have power of removal, subject to the approval of the Board.

NOTE. (1) The General Assembly of 1885 directed "That women who have given themselves to the Missionary Work be placed on the roll for the benefactions of this Board, upon the same conditions as ministers." The Assembly of 1888 modified this rule by adding "after five years of actual service under the care of either the Home or the Foreign Board." (2) The Assembly of 1889 directed "as the best method for the present for supplying a felt need" that the names of "regularly appointed lay-Missionaries of the Foreign Board" shall also be placed upon the roll of the Board. (3) The same Assembly also directed that "every honorably retired minister over seventy years of age, who is in need, and who has served our Church as a missionary of the Home or Foreign Board, or as a pastor, or stated supply, for a period in the aggregate not less than thirty years, shall be entitled by such service to draw from the Board of Ministerial Relief an annual sum for his support without the necessity of being annually recommended therefor by the Presbytery." The Assembly further provided that "when such a minister shall certify to the Presbytery the fact and amount of his need, not exceeding $300 per annum, it shall be the duty of the Stated Clerk to forward the application to the Board, with his endorsement thereon as to the years of service such minister has rendered, his field or fields of labor, with the term of service in each," and also to certify that "the same has been reported to the Presbytery and is recorded upon its minutes." See Minutes 1891, page 44.

FORM OF BEQUEST.

The laws of the different states vary so much as to testamentary bequests that it is always desirable to secure the services of a competent lawyer. In all cases, however, where bequests are made to this Board, the corporate name should be used, as follows:

THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF Relief for DISABLED MINISTERS, AND THE WIDOWS AND ORPHANS OF DECEASED MINISTERS.

ACKNOWLedgment OF BOXES OF CLOTHING FROM LADIES' ASSOCIATIONS.

APRIL, 1891-92.

CR.

By Appropriations to Ministers, Widows

་་

་་

and Orphans. . $136,751 90 to Ministers' House

at Perth Amboy, N. J. 8,080 75

Annuity to the Retired officer of the Board
"Annuities paid during the life of the donors
Salary of Corresponding Secretary

Treasurerland Recording Secretary
Clerk

"Printing Receipts in the Church at Home and
Abroad, and share of deficiency

$13,137 14 43,607 08

56,744 22

880 97

$

166 68 78 44

Postage

Stationery

245 12

"Incidental office expenses, care of room, ex

pressage, etc..

Legal Expenses

"Printing Annual and Joint Report for 1891

"Interest advanced on investments

*The principal which this interest represents was given to the Permanent Fund upon condition that the income should be paid to the donors and others during their lives.

W. W. HEBERTON, TReasurer.

Having examined the account of W. W. Heberton, Treasurer, and compared the vouchers with the expenditures, we find it to be correct.