CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 237, 3 October 1908, Page 12

CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES.

The Rev. G. Bond, chairman of the Auckland Methodist district, leaves on Monday on an official visit to the Hikurangi part of the district. He will be preaching and lecturing on behalf of the Home Mission in various parts of the district for a week or ten da3's. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York will shortly take to Rome an offering of Peter's Pence amounting to £20,000. This splendid tribute, raised in celebration of the Pontiff's jubilee, exceeds in amount any former single diocesan offering made by the New York diocese, and therefore, it is believed, exceeds the offering made at one time by any other diocese in the world. The Rev. \V. E. H. Pereival, 8.A., of St. Alban's, Armadale, has been unanimously chosen as rector of All Saints', Bendigo, in succession to Archdeacon Watson, recently superannuated. Mr. Pereival, who graduated at the New Zealand University, ordained a priest by the Bishop of Auckland in lSSs,"and was formerly curate in various parishes in New Zealand. It is stated that the Rev. R. J. Campbell is to visit N.Z. shortly. Mr. Eric Evans, who has been ledgerkeeper in the Auckland Savings Bank, and instructor to the Tabernacle gymnasium class, has been appointed home missionary for the Baptist Church in the Whangarei district, and will be associated with the Rev. A. W. Whalley. Mr. Evans is an energetic church worker and a strong advocate of No-license. The Primitive Methodist Conference for New Zealand will be held in Auckland in January next, and a committee of about eight members has made a start with the work of arranging for the meeting. A report has to be presented to a larger meeting, which will be held probably at the end of October. Mr. G. Wansbonc, who was for some time Presbyterian missionary in the Northern Wairoa district, and who, after resigning, again took up duty, at the earnest wish of the people, not very long ago. has definitely decided to resign from the Home Mission service of the church. The New Raglau R.C. Church was opened on Sunday last, the "Rev. Fr. Edge (of Ponsonby) preaching, and assisting the parish priest, the Rev. Ft. Cahill. The Vicar-General (Dean Gillan) has returned from opening a new church at Tolago Bay. The new church at Taumarunui will be opened shortly. The Anglican Theological exams, are now taking place throughout the Dominion. In Auckland St. John's College, Tamaki. is the centre, and about a dozen candidates are being examined for the different grades. The Revs. Gerald Morse and Kenneth Teale, who have been appointed to the Home Mission in the Auckland Anglican diocese, arrived in Wellington last week, and proceeded North overland. Mr Morse went to his head-quarters at Te Kuiti, and will not come to Auckland till next week, for the Synod. Mr Teale arrived in Auckland on Wednesday, and went to Helensville. whicn is his headquarters, but he will attend the Synod meeting next week. The Rev. G. M. Macdonald, M.A., B.Sc, has resigned his charge at Opotiki, on account of ill-health. The resignation takes effect from the end of October. For some time Mr. Macdonald has felt the strain of the duties of his wdde district rather severely, and has decided that in the interests of the charge he must resign. It is his intention to remain in the district during the summer months to recuperate, before he seeks another charge. Mr. Macdonald came to New Zealand in 1902, from Victoria, being inducted in D3----c-embi?r of that year. The-Rev. R. B. S. Hammond, an Anglican temperance orator, is staying with Canon Haselden at Onehunga during his visit to Auckland. The Rev. Charles Addenbrooke has been appointed to the parish of Okato (Taranaki) as vicar, in succession to the Rev. Mr. Fisher, who recently resigned it in order to join Canon Mac Murray at St. Mary's, Parnell. Mr. Adenbrooke is at present employed in the Christchurch diocese. The woodwork in the beautiful old church of St. Mar3''s, New Plymouth, has been showing signs of bad attack by the borer, and the vestry are about to have the woodwork renewed. The south end is the part most affected, and it is estimated that it will cost about £200 to check the insects' ravages. The Rev. A. H. Colville, who arrived from England last week, has been appointed as Bishop's Mission Chaplain in the Anglican diocese of Auckland, and for the next three months will be engaged in New Plymouth. This is a new office, created to supply a felt necessity. The Mission Chaplain's duties will be to conduct missions where the Bishop deems it desirable. The Auckland Diocesan Synod of the Anglican Synod will be opened next Friday, with the usual services, as already recorded in this column. Canon MacMurray, the Bishop's Commissary, will deliver the opening charge in the absence of the Bishop. The Synod is expected to finish on the following Wednesday. The Rev. J. J. North, of Wellington, son of the Rev. A. North, had the honour to be asked to preach the conference sermon at the recent Australasian Baptists' conference in Sydney. He took for his subject " Thy will be done." Mr. North represented the Baptist Union of \.Z. at the conference. He preaches at the CoUiut-street church in Melbourne on October 4th, and- intends to return to New Zealand by way of Auckland. He is expected to arrive here on the 11th, and will probably preach in his father's church at Ponsonby on tha? day. The linking together of Auckland and Wellington by rails, says the " Church News," is an event of really greater importance than the visit of the American fleet. It will probably lead to a certain redistribution of population in the North Island. The time has surely come for the creation of a new diocese of Taranaki, and the General Synod set up a commission to go into the question. But the general impression seems to be that it would be a bit better to wait a little until it can be seen what difference the railway win make. The Bishop of Wellington generously offers to giv c up a part of his income to the proposed new diocese. At the Louisville convention of the International Sunday-school Association it was resolved that the uniform system at present in use should go on as before, but that a second course thoroughly graded from the primary class to the adult class should be prepared, which ' might be adopted in whole or in part Iby any school. It was reported at the convention that in 1905 there were in America 155,007 Sunday-schools, with a total enrolment of 14.127.541. while in 190S there were 170.02S Sunday-schools with a total enrolment of 15,110,172, a gain of almost a million members.