Benefit of Clergy

The 299 ministers of the Presbyterian Church in Canada who earn the minimum yearly salary of $2,000 didn't know who their Santa Claus was. Each of them had received an anonymous Christmas present of $25. The grateful clergymen wrote thank-you letters to the church whose stationery the mysterious donor had used--St. Andrew's in Ottawa--and asked that the thanks be forwarded. "Some of those letters were so pathetic," said the anonymous philanthropist later, "that I decided something must be done about it." Last week, something was done.

The Presbyterian Church announced it had received a gift of $1,000,000 to set up a 2O-year fund for its low-salaried preachers. Every married clergyman on minimum salary will get an annual bonus of $100, plus $50 apiece for each of his first three children. The terms of the gift specified that the donor remain anonymous.

A Toronto Telegram newsman soon guessed who the Presbyterians' unknown benefactor was: Senator Norman McLeod Paterson, 67, of Ottawa. The Telegram man put the question to Paterson by telephone. "I was flabbergasted," Paterson admitted afterward. "I guess I didn't do a very good job of denying it."

Philanthropist Paterson is a self-made man who built up a grain and shipping fortune of more than $12 million. At Fort William, Ont., where he lived before his lifetime Senate appointment in 1940, he was known as an active layman who turned his mansion over to a local hospital when he moved to Ottawa. Said he of his million-dollar gift: "I was . . . just having a little fun. Why shouldn't I enjoy my money while I live?"

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