WAIPU PRESBYTERIANS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 142, 18 June 1929, Page 5

WAIPU PRESBYTERIANS.

SEVENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY. A CHURCH WITH A HISTORY. At a special meeting or toe session and board of management of the Waipu Presbyterian Church, it was decided to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the commencement or the church by holding special services on September I. " Waipu has the honour of being one of the oldest Presbyterian churches in the Auckland Province, having been begun by the

late Rev. Norman McLeod, in the year 13,34. Mr. McLeod was a remarkable man, who, when 28 years of age, left his Scottish home and emigrated to orth America in the year 1817. He was accompanied by a large number ot friends and neighbours. He settled at Pic-con, and later at St. Ann's, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. There he built a church and ministered to_ a large congregation. After 33 years' residence, he again emigrated, this time to Australia, accompanied by a large number of his people, in a boat built by thernselves and named the Margaret, after the minister's eldest daughter. They reached Adelaide, Australia, in April, 18.32, after a long voyage o-f 164 days.

Australia not proving suitable to the voyagers, after "a brief sojourn there, they curne on to Xew Zealand, and finally settled in Waipu and neighbourhood. The first church in Waipu was erected by Mr. McLeod in ISoo, and was enlarged in ISoO, but was afterwards demolished to make way for the present church, which wis erected on the site of the old church in IS7I. It was en'arged in ISS-i by the addi-

tion- oi transepts, and has seating accommodation for over 300 people; the old numbers are still on the pews.

Mr. McLeod ministered at Waipu for 12 years. He died on March 14. 1566, at the ripe age oi 86 years. Great was the grief of the people at the removal of one who for so many years had been their leader, friend and minister. His memory Ls still .greatly revered in the parish.'

Mr. McLeod did not connect himself with the Auckland Presbytery; but before he died he requested his people to keep united until the Presbytery appointed his sueessor. Mr. E. Mairison, who acted as Mr. McLeod's precentor, acted as lay preacher, and carried on the services for some timei Six years after Mr. McLeod's death, the Presbytery of Auckland met in the church. Waipu, on May 29. 1572, when Mr. William Mcßae was ordained and inducted to the pastorate. Mr. Mcßae was a divinity student from Scotland, who possessed special qualifications, and was a good Gaelic preacher. But he found it trying to tollow Mr. McLeod, and in the year 1883 he resigned and left for Australia.

Since that time eight ministers have occupied the Waipu pulpit: The present minister ha© occupied it tor over two years. In the olden days Gaelic was spoken in the parish, but is has now almost completely disappeared. A few of the oldest settlers who are left can still converse in it, but as far as Waipu and the church are concerned, Gaelic is now a dead language. .