Chapter IX

SERIOUS Financial Depression--Elective Assembly--Delegation to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of Truro and Edinburgh--Fifth Session of the Diocesan Synod--The Clergy Sustentation Fund--Benefactions to the Diocese--Retirement of Canon Borton--Rev. the Hon. A. V. Lyttelton--A Mission begun in Mid-Basutoland--Dedication of Memorial Church at Mafeteng--Rev. C. E. Scratchley--Ordination of Mr. H. Crosthwaite and Mr. Gabriel David--Mr. Ealfour elected Canon--Father Douglas appointed Canon--Canon Gaul made Rector of S. Cyprian s--The Fancy Fair at Kimberley--Death of Canon Beckett.

BISHOP WEBB'S resignation came upon the Diocese at the beginning of a time of serious depression. The Basutoland and Transvaal wars had been a great drain upon South Africa, while the latter and all that had led to it had called forth feelings of racial distrust and dislike which, though many years have passed, have not yet been fully allayed. Changes were beginning to take place at Kimberley which were seriously, to affect its wealth, and its power of supporting its large, population. In addition to these, a time of serious drought was setting in. Property became greatly depreciated, to an extent which only young countries can experience and recover from.

It was a matter of course that the Metropolitan's choice of a Vicar-General should fall upon Archdeacon Croghan. During Bishop Webb's several absences the Diocese had been left in his care, and he was acquainted with every detail of it. He summoned both the Diocesan Synod and the Elective Assembly, the first to meet on September 28th, the second on October 1st, 1883. The election resulted in the delegation of the Assembly's right of choice to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of Truro and Edinburgh. Archbishop Benson had long taken warm interest in the Diocese. Bishop Wilkinson, when Vicar of S. Peter's, Eaton Square, had been its generous patron, while Bishop Cotterill, from his former occupancy of the See of Grahamstown, knew accurately the requirements of a South African Diocese. The delegation was endorsed by the Bishops of the Province, and accepted by the three Prelates.

Bishop Webb, who had returned from England, paid a farewell visit to Bloemfontein at this time.

Good work was done in the Diocesan Synod. Besides the ecclesiastical divisions known as "Parishes," in which a consecrated or dedicated church and a resident clergyman were necessities, others called "Chapelries" were formed in which the presence of the three male Communicants required to return a Lay Representative to Synod, and the fact of there being regular ministration of Divine Service were the only requirements. The object was to gain as full a representation of the Diocese in Synod as possible. The Finance of the Diocese was very carefully discussed. The Bishopric Endowment Fund which was to have been fixed at £15,000 had been closed at £10,000 at Bishop Webb's desire, in order that it might give place to the creation of a Clergy Sustentation Fund. To have named this the Diocesan Endowment Fund would have stated its object more clearly, since what it aims, at is to raise a central fund from which grants supplementary to local parochial or mission effort may in the future be made. The Board of Finance does this now by means of the contributions of the English Association, but it is in the nature of things that in course of time newer work will have a prior claim upon the Mother Church. It is a matter of prudence then to prepare now for the future.

The foundation of the Sustentation Fund had been laid in 1876 by two gifts from England of £50 each. The first local contribution bad been made in 1877 by a collection (amounting to £9 5-f.) made in the Cathedral. In the Synod of that year a yearly offertory throughout the Diocese at Whitsuntide had been arranged. This was now changed in favour of a direction that the amount of an average Sunday offertory should be sent from every parish and chapelry in the Diocese at Easter at the latest. An appeal was issued by the Synod commending the fund to the friends of the Diocese, in which the interesting fact was noted that the sum raised during the past year by the twenty-eight parishes and missions for the current support of the clergy and extension of the work amounted to more than £7,000, and that of this £3,000 had been the amount contributed by the Diamond Fields. In 1883 the Sustentation Fund amounted to £421; in 1887 it had mounted up to £1,080 18s. 9d.; in 1890 to £1,735 13s. 9d.; in 1893 to £2,195 3s. 7d. while now, in 1894, it stands at upwards of £2,600. By far the greater part of this has been raised in the Diocese, the remainder being gifts from England, and profits on investments, which are in all cases added to the capital. It is well known among us that one of our clergy has been a generous donor to the fund. Quite recently his example has been followed by a gift of £50 from one of the laity. Anyone desirous of making a bequest to the Diocese cannot do better than to leave it to the Sustentation Fund. While upon this topic we may mention that in 1879 an anonymous donor had made a gift of £200 as an endowment of the parish of Harrismith, and that in 1889 a legacy amounting to £444 6s. 8d. was left to be applied to the education of boys at Sekubu Mission, Basutoland. One other sum completes the tale of such endowments. In 1878 the Rev. T. B. Hill, Vicar of Storesby, Leicestershire, left £400 for the education of Basuto boys in the doctrine of the Church of England. After payment of Legacy Duty, the amount of £360 was invested in purchase of £375 17s. 4d. Consols. At Smithfield and at Harrismith plots of ground not needed by those parishes have been sold, and the procoeeds of them put aside as endowments. Such local provision is, of course, a great help, but a general Diocesan fund has the further advantage of being able to distribute its income according to the changing needs of the Diocese.

Another matter taken in hand by the Synod in 1883 was the rectification of the Diocesan transfer deeds. Some of the properties had been acquired before the Constitution of the Province. Even since then some time had elapsed before u proper trust-deed had been drawn up. The title-deeds of Church property were therefore of various forms. It was resolved to apply to the High Court of the Orange Free State for the alteration of all that were not in the form which had in 1880 been decided upon. It has taken eleven years to carry out this resolution. The delay has partly been caused by two vacancies of the see, partly by the necessity of obtaining powers from some of the former Trustees who have returned to England, or who have gone to live in other parts of the Province, and again by one of these documents having been for nearly two years lost in transit. But on the 27th April, 1894, the High Court granted the application, and the rectification is now an accomplished fact.

The Volksraad of the Orange Free State had recently passed an ordinance placing restriction on the traffic in intoxicating liquors, especially with regard to the native population. The Synod recorded its grateful appreciation of this, and urged on the Diocese the duty of forming parochial societies on the lines of the Church of England Temperance Society, and also of associations for religious purposes and for promoting purity of life.

Since the Session of 1880 the Volksraad had voted a yearly grant of £250 to the Diocese, and the thanks of the Synod for this were now resolved upon.

The Synod during this Session held its meetings in a large hall which had been recently built on a plot of ground opposite the Cathedral. In 1880 the sum of £500 was sent from England as a thank-offering from one who had long been a zealous friend to the Mission. Other moneys had been added to it, and a building principally consisting of two large rooms, with a verandah overlooking a prettily-planted garden, had been built. For more than ten years this has been the home of a club for young men. Eventually it is hoped to make it the Church House of the Diocese. The larger of the two rooms has been lately set apart as a beginning of this, and in it is housed the extensive Theological Library which in the course of 30 years has been accumulated. This consists of a grant of the publications of the Oxford University Press, made in 1866, and the books collected by Rev. C. O. Miles, to which have been recently added some 200 volumes, many of them being folio editions of the Fathers, part of the Library bequeathed to the Province by the late Rev. Dr. Littledale.

Shortly after the Synod the Diocese sustained a great loss in the enforced resignation of Canon Borton through illness, brought about by overwork. The Canon returned to England. Later on it was decided that his return to South Africa would not be prudent, and he resigned his stall. In 1885 the University of Cambridge elected him to the living of Eurwell, in the Diocese of Ely. Many of us have visited him in his English home, and have been cheered by the unflagging interest which he manifests in every work in the Diocese, and especially in those in which he had a personal share.

The post of Principal at S. Andrew's College was held for the next two years by the Rev. the Hon. A. V. Lyttelton, M.A. Mr. Lyttelton had come to South Africa at the end of 1880 in a delicate state of health. The climate proved very beneficial to him, and he was soon able to give assistance in the work of the Mission. He took temporary charge of Harrismith, helped in the Cathedral parish, and in 1882, when Canon Miles returned to England, undertook the care of the Theological College. His knowledge of music enabled him to take charge of the Cathedral choir, of which Canon Borton had been Precentor. In 1885 he returned to England, but in September, 1886, to our great joy, came back to us, and took up the work at S. Augustine's, Kimberley. Here, with the exception of a second brief visit to the mother country, he has remained, combining with it the care of a half-caste mission at Kimberley, known as S. Wilfred's, setting before us all the example of a life of great gentleness and lowliness of heart.

During the Missionary Conference held at Modderpoort in 1881, some Basuto Christians came there, asking that a work begun by them during the war might be taken under the care of the Church. They had been originally converts of the French Protestant Mission, but had sojourned for some years in the Diocese of S. John's, where they had been received into the Church. Returning to Basutoland during the war, some of them had settled in the Maluti mountains, to the extreme south, while others had gone to Matsieng, the residence of Letsea, the principal Chief. Letsea sent a letter with them saying that if the Bishop desired to take them under his care, the way would be open to him. In 1882, the Rev. E W. Stenson and Canon Crisp paid on different occasions visits to Matsieng, and in September of that year Mr. Balfour, who had just returned from a visit to England, took up his abode in that district. That he might the better determine as to the future, Mr. Balfour made his home in a large tented wagon, from which he paid many visits to neighbouring villages. At Christmas, 1882, and in March, and again in May, 1883, he made long excursions to the villages in the Maluti, supplementing the work which the people had themselves begun. In the following October, in company with the Rev. E. W. Stenson, Mr. Balfour dedicated a Mission Church at Mafeteng in Central Basutoland. The war with the Basuto in 1880 had in this part of the country opened disastrously. A body of volunteers had been surprised with great loss of life, and among those who fell was Mr. Bernard White, son of the Rev. G. Cosby White, who during the latter years of Bishop Webb's episcopate had devoted much time and care to the Diocese as English Commissary of the Mission, Mrs. Cosby White and her daughter, Mrs. Eyre, had sent out a sum of money with which an iron Memorial Church had been built, and during the years which have passed since then, much of the cost of providing Native Catechists for South Basutoland and of extending the work in that district, has been met by means of moneys collected by Mrs. Eyre.

Mr. Balfour did not remain in Basutoland. During the winter of 1883, he took up his residence at Thabanchu, making missionary tours from thence. During the beginning of 1884, after a short stay at Bloemfontein, he undertook the care of S. Augustine's, Kimberley.

In January, 1884, the formation of a cataract upon one of his eyes obliged the Rev. W. F. H anbury to resign the parish of S. Cyprian's, Kimberley. Archdeacon Croghan, since the beginning of 1883, had been assisted in Bloemfontein by the Rev. C. E. Scratchley, B.A., who had come from England to the Diocese. Mr. Lyttelton was also helping in the Cathedral, and Canon Crisp came occasionally into residence from Thabanchu. The Archdeacon was therefore able to take for a time the charge of Kimberley.

During March of this year, the Bishop of Grahamstown paid another visit to Bloemfontein, and on the 6th, ordained to the Diaconate Mr. H. Crosthwaite and Mr. Gabriel David. The former of these had been for several years a merchant in Bethulie. He had been much attracted to missionary work, and had entered the Theological College to prepare for Holy Orders. For twelve months he had taken charge of the Boys' boarding school at Thabanchu, and after his ordination he went to Beaconsfielcl (as Dutoitspan was now called) to begin a mission and school for natives, in some buildings erected by Mrs. Gaul's liberal aid. The accurate and methodical habits acquired by Mr. Crosthwaite in his life as a man of business, united as they were to "an infinite capacity for taking pains," and deep religious zeal, have proved of much assistance to the Diocese. Mr. Gabriel David's name will be remembered as that of the native Catechist who had so long been working at S. Patrick's, Bloemfontein. He was the first of the Bechuana race to be admitted to Holy Orders.

In October, 1884, a Synod of Clergy was held at S. Cyprian's, Kimberley, to elect a Canon to the stall vacated by Canon Miles' return to England. The choice fell upon Mr. Balfour. From his coming to the Diocese in 1876, Mr. Balfour had put himself unreservedly into the Bishop's hands. Possessing private means sufficient for his few wants, iie had gone here and there, from pillar to post, as one urgent need after another had evidenced itself. Perhaps there is no greater comfort to the Bishop of a Colonial Diocese than the presence of a priest so circumstanced, and with sufficient worth of character and personal piety to bear the strain of frequent change of work and scene. How to provide for the emergencies which thrust themselves forward so suddenly in a new work which must of necessity be mainly manned from the mother country is one of the wearing anxieties of a Missionary Bishop.

At the same Synod the Vicar-General created a new Stall and collated to it the Rev. Father Douglas.

S. Cyprian's, Kimberley, had just at this time passed into the hands of a priest who, with the ability and zeal necessary for so important a post, possessed also sufficient physical -strength for the strain which it involved. Canon Gaul had been appointed to it; his place at Beaconsfield being filled by the preferment to it of the Rev. C. F. Tobias. From February, 1882, to May, 1883, the Canon had been absent on a visit to England. Since his return he had secured a Rectory, built upon a site at some distance from the old Dutoitspan church, in the direction of Kimberley. The South African Exploration Company had removed the market to this new site, government offices had been built there, and a new Township called Beaconsfield had been formed, in which excellent sites for church and schools had been given by the company.

Just before the meeting of the Synod a Fancy Fair, which lasted for a week, and which was surely one of the prettiest Bazaar gatherings ever seen in South Africa, was held at K.imberley. Though signs of a change were visible, the town was still the seat of a wealthy, and withal a kindly population. The profits of the undertaking were £2,200, and in this way a considerable portion was paid of the debt which all the disaster in Church building, and the enforced supply of schools, parsonage, &c., to meet the needs of a multitude, which had come together all at once, had occasioned.

One of the bonds, for £1,500, had swallowed up hundreds of pounds in the way of interest, and great was Canon Gaul's joy at being able to write the cheque which released the parish from it.

On February 22nd, 1885, in his sixty-ninth year, Canon Beckett died at the Brotherhood house at Modderpoort. Since Father Douglas' arrival he had devoted himself to the care of the native and half-caste congregations living on the estate, filling up his spare time by working in the beautiful garden which he had himself planted. For two or three years his infirmities had prevented his leaving St. Augustine's. But to the last, he had continued to take his share in public ministrations. He suffered much from rheumatism and mesenteric derangement, but he was so patient and uncomplaining that this was but little known. He became ill and took to his bed on Ash Wednesday, and died peacefully on the following Sunday afternoon. His funeral took place on S. Matthias' Day, and was attended by a large gathering of his neighbours who reverenced and loved him. "A priest of the old Church of England type, a courteous, and upright gentleman, he left behind the memory of a blameless life and unselfish Work."

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