ST. PAUL'S CHURCH.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 139, 12 June 1894, Page 2

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE. ,

At the gathering yesterday afternoon, to .- witness the laying of the foundation stones of St. Paul's new Anglican Church in;. Svmonds-atreet, there was a very largeafc. tendance, the enclosure on the site of t_OM; Church and theroad outside being thronged \ with interested spectators, His Excellency, Lord Glasgow, was greeted j as he arrived with the singing of the National Anthem. The Governor ', laid the stone with a silver trowel supplied by Mr A. C. McLean, jeweller,;of, Karangahape Road.and also with the troW&Z;.used by Governor Hobson in 1841 in laying • the foundation of old St. Paul's. The newspapers deposited in the foundation Btoni^Z, wero the Auckland Star, the " New . Zealand Graphic" (with picture of. St. i Paul's), "New Zealand Herald," and "Church News." M Lord Glasgow said, in the course of hisbrief address after the stone was laid, that the spectacle they had thab morning witnessed in St. Mary's Church was enough f to prove to the well-wishers of the Church ..-;■ in the colony that it was nob dead. They had seen a most imDreßsive . ceremony;'.' tbey had seen hundreds of communicants, and* he felt certain it must have gladdened the hearts of bhe bishop of the diocese and all the other bishops to see the manner in . which their call had been responded to.Z He wished all prosperity to the Church in t the work which they were then inaugurat- ">£• * ', V. Bishop Cowie congratulated the people? of St. Paul'B on having at last made a be- , sinning in the erection of the new church.' For several years the people of the parishZ had been labouring under great disadvantages owing to the unsuitable position of J their church. All who knew Sb. Paul's in ' old days regretted thab the site of ■ .the old church was no longer the; property of the church. He referred ( to the facb of St. Paul's having b3en":' the first church in the city of Auckland, . and expressed a hope that the parish would again take the load in all church matters..' He was very clad that the good example - was being set of building the church in t stone, and he hoped tho people would nob encumber themselves with debt. The Bishop went on to touch upon tho fact that the stone which had been laid thab day was, the old foundation ebono of old St. Paul's, laid in the early days by an officer of Her Majesty's navy, who then held thehonourable office of Governor of the colony, and that it had been laid again now by another Governor of the colony, also a roeml&, , ber of the same honourable profession, who bad already earned, not only the respect but' the affections of the people of New Zealand. The progress of the colony and the Church during thab half century had beon wonder- : ful. Instead of tens there were ijow hundreds of clergy, and instead of there being . one bishop for the whole of New Zealand bbere were now seven. After a blessing had been pronounced, ending the ceremony, the clergy returned ' to the Grammar School, where they had robed. A collection was taken up on the' _ ground.- the offering totalling £50 14s, in"'J|* eluding a cheque f"r £10 from Lord Glas-;|j gow. Three of those present at the ceremony,,; yesterday—Messrs W. ' 'Greenwood,' ,J»SH|l| Gordon and Thomaß Paton—were presentft^ at the laying of the foundation stone of oldfisj Sb. Paul's in 1841. "The three''^old'idehtKwl'! ties " were introduced to Lord Glasgow, _ Wk ! 11 - m