RACE FOR BIBLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 47, 25 February 1935, Page 5

RACE FOR BIBLE.

TALE OF A WEDDING.

CHURCH BEING DEMOLISHED.

FIFTY YEARS AGO. Fifty years ago on Saturday the demolition of the old St. Paul's Church ■was begun; and exactly that number of years ago, on the day preceding, an Auckland couple, both of them living to-day, were married in the church actually while it was being demolished. They thus came into possession of a Bible, which is still in the keeping of the old couple, who celebrated their golden wedding yesterday.

The tale of the winning of the Bible and the last-minute wedding of the couple is best drawn from the pages of the "Star" of March 7, ISSS. The account was written by the late Sir Henry Brett, who. like the bridegroom, was a member of the church congregation. The story runs: —

"The last scene in St. Paul's Church, which has now been razed to the ground, was a rather singular and interesting one. It was a hymeneal contest, and the prize was a Bible. The donor was the parson and the competition was open to all-comers. It was arranged that the good old Book should become the property of the happy couple who should be the last married in the old church, and two couples made up their minds to secure it.

"On .the last day upon which the church was intact, a gentleman in the book-selling line, whose name, by the way, is not indicative of a peacefullydisposed person, escorted her whom he had chosen to be the partner of his joys and sorrows to the altar, and they were bound together in the bonds of matrimony. They congratulated themselves on having won*the prhe. but they were speedily "troubled by serious doubts on the subject.

"Another claimant appeared on the scene in the shape of a popular dispenser of medicines, who hit on a better idea than his friend the bookseller. This was to be wedded while the church was in course of demolition. So with the roof partly off, the windows out, the workmen scattered round, and plaster flying about, he brought his bride before the fast-disappearing altar, and they left the building man and wife. Thi.s is how the chemist stole a march on the bookseller and how he secured the parson's Bible."