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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 7

II.—The Conference, etc

II.—The Conference, etc.

1.The Conference of the Australasian Wesleyan Methodist Connexion shall consist of the Missionaries in Australasia, Van Dieman's Land, New Zealand, the Friendly and Feejee Islands, who have been admitted by the English Conference to the full work and office of the Christian ministry, and of such other ministers as shall be hereafter received by the Australasian Conference into its own body.page 36
2.The Conference shall meet annually, and at the following places successively—Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Hobart Town; if found practicable it may also occasionally be held at Auckland; and other places for its annual meeting may be added whenever it may be deemed proper to increase the number. The time of its meeting to be fixed by itself.
3.The ministers who may attend the Conference, excepting those who attend ex-officio, shall be selected by the Annual District Meetings. For the present it appears desirable that all the ministers in the district where the yearly sessions of the Conference is held should be allowed to be present, and from each of the other Conference Districts in Australia and Van Dieman's Land one minister at least, if the District Meeting deem it necessary and practicable, shall be appointed to go to the Conference in addition to the chairman, who shall attend ex-officio. When it is found convenient, one minister at least, besides the chairman, shall also be permitted to attend the Conference from Western Australia and one from each of the mission districts in New Zealand, the Friendly and Feejee. The number of ministers who may actually attend the Conference shall for the present be deemed competent for the transaction of business, but the Conference shall have power, whenever it may be found necessary or proper, to fix the number of ministers who shall constitute a quorum for that purpose, as well as to limit the number of ministers who shall attend the Conference, and also the period of its own annual session. The general Superintendent of Misssions shall attend the Conference and the Stationing Committee ex-officio.
4.The Australasian Conference shall have the same power as the English Conference with regard to the exercise of discipline upon its own members, the selection of candidates for the ministry, the appointment of ministers to the chapels, and the receiving and finally deciding upon all appeals from the subordinate jurisdictions of the Connexion.
5.The President of the Australasian Conference shall be appointed or re-appointed annually by the English Conference until no further aid is required for the support of the missions connected with the Australasian Conference from the home funds of the Society, when the Australasian Conference shall have the power of electing one of its own members of standing and experience to the office of President.
6.The President of the Conference will be expected to spend as large a portion of the year in the intervals of the page 37 Conference as may be convenient, in the visitation of the districts and circuits of the Connexion.
7.As the provision adopted by the English Conference by which the ex-President supplies the place of the President in case of his removal or his being incapacitated by illness for the performance of his duty, could not be adopted in Australia, were such an emergency speedily to occur, it shall be understood that until circumstances will admit of the application of the same plan in that country, should the President of the Australasian Conference thus be laid aside, consultation shall be had with the Secretary of the Conference and the chairman of the New South "Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Van Dieman's Land districts, in concurrence with whom one shall be appointed to supply pro tempore the President's lack of service.
8.The economical regulations which the Australasian Conference may from time to time adopt for the general management of connexional affairs shall immediately come into operation, but the English Conference shall nevertheless have the power of disallowing, at its first annual session after the minutes of the Australasian Conference shall have been received, such rule or rules as in its judgment infringe any of our doctrinal or disciplinary principles.