I.—report of Committee on Sanctioning Charges.

The Committee on Sanctioning Charges report that there are two applications for sanction this year. The one is from the district of the Lower Mataura, at present under the pastoral care of the Rev. Charles Connor, bnt distant thirty, and in some parts sixty miles from Popotunoa, which is the centre of Mr. Connor's proper charge. The application is accompanied by a subscription list showing £158 1s. per annum. It is believed that the district will soon be in a position to raise very much more towards the support of a minister, and in these circumstances the Committee think it advisable that the ecommendations of the Clutha Presbytery be given effect to, and the district be sanctioned as a ministerial charge.

The other application is from the suburb of Caversham, and comes up in the from of a petition from residents in that district to the Presbytery of Dunedin, and accompanied by a subscription list showing £152 16s. promised in the district. The Presbytery of Dunedin have strongly recommended that Caversham be sanctioned. In this recommendation your Committee do not concur. They are of opinion that if charges far below the self-sustaining point be sanctioned, it should be in the districts of our land spiritually neglected, and far removed from ordinances, and not in the immediate neighborhood of Dunedin; but recommend that it be fostered by the Presbytery in order to be sanctioned as soon as possible.