NEWTON SUNDAY SCHOOL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 102, 2 May 1930, Page 10

NEWTON SUNDAY SCHOOL.

OLD SCHOLARS' HALL FOUNDATION TABLET. VETERAN SUPERINTENDENT. " A foundation tablet is to be laid in the old scholars' memorial Hall at the Newton Congregational Sunday School, Edinburgh Street, to-morrow afternoon. Invitations have been issued to old scholars and former teachers to be present. The ceremony will be performed by Mr. Enoch Wood, who was for 32 years superintendent of the Sunday School. He will be assisted by Mr. Francis Rowe, the first old scholar to succeed him as superintendent. The history of the Newton Sunday School dates back to 1803, when the Rev. Thomas Booker arrived in Auckland and started a Congregational Church in the Protestant Hall, Karangahape Road. New Town (afterwards called Newton) had grown round the timber mill started by Mr. George Holdship in West Street. The logs were conveyed to it by bullock team?. Many years later the mill was moved to the waterfront.

Amongst the founders of the church and Sunday school were Mr. and Mrs. Charles Spragg, of whose children the following still survive:—Mrs. Ebenezor Wood, of Ellerslie: Mrs. Enoch Wood, of Mt. Eden; Mr. Wesley Spragg, of Mt. Albert; Mr. Silas Spragg, of Dunedin; and Mr. Charles Spragg, of Auckland. There are also some other first scholars living in Auckland, after 07 years. Some time after the church and Sunday school were started it was decided to erect a building, and a leasehold section was secured on a site near where the Poi.sonby reservoir now stands. This was blown down by a cyclonic storm that swept Auckland in March, 1871. and for some time that ended the operations of the church, but the Sunday school was continued, meeting first in an empty house lent by the late Mr. John Probert, and afterwards in what was known as Dewar's Academy, Karangahape Road. Then a section of land was bought in Edinburgh Street, on which part of the present church building was erected. Since then the building has been enlarged and an adjoining section, with a cottage, bought. Now it has been deemed necessary to erect an old scholars' memorial hall. Since 18S6 it lias been the practice to keep in touch with old scholars by sending each anniversary a circular letter to let them know they are still remembered.

Newton Church faced hard times when the. Thames goldfield was opened in 1867. Whole families left for the new El Dorado, and soon afterwards even a number of houses in Newton wore pulled down .and shipped in section? to Thames. This, of course, meant fewer worshippers at the church, but the Sunday school carried on. One Sunday, however, when the children assembled, there was no man present, but a woman teacher got up and said that as all the men had gone to the rush at Thames, the school would not be held. The children then sang a hymn or two and the woman said the Lord's Prayer, after which the gathering ended. By the following Sunday, however, arrangements had been made which enabled the. school to carry on and in due course most of the teachers returned the work.