ST. ANDREW'S ANNIVERSARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 83, 8 April 1925, Page 9

ST. ANDREW'S ANNIVERSARY.

THE ANNUAL SOCIAL. MISSION OF THE CHURCH. STORIES OF THE EARLY DAYS. The seventy-fifth annual social in connection with St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church was held last night in the Church Hall, when there was a crowded attendance of members and their friends. The Rev. J. Lamb Harvey presided, who said he was glad to see so' many old friends present. They had with them that night some who had been baptised in the old Courthouse, where the first services were held before the church was built, and there were several present who had heard the first sermon preached in St. Andrew's. With a church of such venerable age it was inevitable that the band of early members was fretting smaller each'year. They had members present who' had been married in their church, then their children were married there and then the grandchildren. The. influence of the old mother church readied far and wide throughout the land. The Rev. 1). ]). Scott, of Onchunaa. the Clerk of Presbytery, pot a warm reception when he rose to speak, and in happy vein spoke of how the world had changed since St. Andrew's was built, and nowhere was this more noticeable than in the way the Gospel was presented to the people. The church had always been a power in the land, and they were building on sure foundations. He paid a warm tribute to the work of the pioneers, and hoped that the spirit of brotherliness would grow and expand till religion would become a greater force ill the. land than ever.

The Key. Hunt, of Mount Eden, spoke at length on the mission of the Church, and, pointing out the good work done by their fathers, said that the rising generation had not the physique of a ]>ast generation, who seemed a class of men set apart for the work of colonising.

Mr. A. J. Entrican, who conveyed greetings from St. James' Church, which was an offshoot from St. Andrew's, gave an interesting account of what was done in the early days of the church- He had known every minister connected with St. Andrew's, except the first one. He described the late Dr. Bruce as a great ecclesiastical statesman to'whom the church owed much. He referred to the Rev. A- Carrick, who occupied the pulpit for a number of years as one of the scholars of his day. The past days were great days, and it was for those of the present day to emulate the example of those who had gone before.

Mr. Macintosh, a long-bearded old gentleman, who said that he had been at tho first service held in St- Andrew's, .spoke of the days when the streets of Auckland were lighted with kerosene lamps, the kerosene not being very good either. People thought nothing of walking to Howick or Otahului and back to see their friends. Bullock drays.used to bring firewood and produce to Queen Street. There was only a narrow strip of gravel in the. centre of Queen Street, and every shopkeeper had to form the footpath in front "of his shop. They tried to emulate one another, and one man would lay bricks in front of his store, and another would pave his bit with wooden blocks, and another with stove slabs, and so on. He had often seen a bullock dray dug out of the mud in Queen Street. The population at the time he spoke of Mas 2000, and land was sold at very low rates, a lot near the new settlement, bringing only £1 per acre.

St. Andrew's quartet, Misses Lois Evans, Phyllis Gribbin, and Messrs. liipley and Colledgc, contributed musical items, Mrs. Ripley acting as accompanist. During tho 'evening a presentation was made to Mr. Daniel, the sessions clerk, who is leaving'on an extended trip to Great Britain.