SEVENTY YEARS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 235, 3 October 1936, Page 12

SEVENTY YEARS.

PITT STREET METHODISTS. CHURCH ANNIVERSARY. Seventy years of service in tha cause of Methodism will be marked in Auckland with special services and gatherings during the coming week held in connection with the seventieth anniversary celebrations of the Pitt Street Methodist Church, the mother church of the denomination in the city. The celebrations commenced this afternoon with an old folks' gathering at the church, the chairman being Mr. J. W. Shackelford. The Rev. H. Ranston and the Rev. E. T. Olds will speak. Tomorrow the Rev. A. C. Nelson will take the morning service, and in the afternoon the Rev. E. P. Blamires, president of the conference, will speak at the Sunday School and young people's gathering. The Rev. E. T. Olds will be the preacher in the evening. There is to be a reunion tea meeting on Wednesday, followed by a seventieth anniversary demonstration in the church. The chairman will be Mr. H. B. Halstead and the speaker the Rev. E. D. Patehett, chairman of the district. On the following Saturday a young people's social gathering will be held. Anniversary services on Sunday, October 11, will be conducted by the Rev. Dr. Alexander Hodge and Mr. Olds. Review of History. In a special souvenir booklet the history of the church in Auckland is reviewed. Records show that Methodism was established in the •iity as far back as 1841, over £>5 years ago, and that the first service was held in a sawpit at Mechanics' Bay on a Sunday afternoon in September of that year. In the following year, however, a weatherboard chapel was erected at a cost of £240, and the new station, then part of the Kaipara circuit, grew so rapidly that in 1847 a larger and more solid structure was built at a cost of £1200. It was during the ministry of the Rev. Thomas Buddie that the present site in Pitt Street was secured, and in 1864, since the drift of the population was continuing away from the lower part of the city, it was resolved to build on the new site.

The first plan drawn up was considered too . ambitious, but finally the building was erected at a total.cost of over £11,000 and opened in 1800. The Wesley Hall was built in 1877. In 1879 a determined effort was made to reduce the debt, which stood at £4000, and so heartily did trustees and members unite that by 1882 the amount was paid off. In 1904 the trustees carried out a farsighted scheme by erecting a block ol ten shops on the corner of Pitt Street and Karangahape Road; the block has since proved a regular and highly-satis-factory % source of income. A number of extensions and alterations have been made to the church, and on the seventieth anniversary it looks forward to a future of richer service than ever the past has known. The present minister is the Rev. E. T. Olds.