THE COMPLETION OF THE CATHEDRAL.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 12027, 31 October 1904, Page 6

THE COMPLETION OF THE CATHEDRAL.

The who J e cemmunity .will morrow with the members of the Anglican Cmwch in this province, when /tfce loo* hoped-for consecration of the completed' Cathedral takes place. The ceremony; ends the doubts and fears of half a cen* tery. At tames hope and f«th had almost died in the hearts of the most hopeful, and. the existence, of the beautiful church in the midst of the city, is only due to that quality of dogged resolution that marked so many of the pilgrims. : The pity is that so many of those who bore the burden of the enterprise in the days when it was ail too great for the little

community should have passed away without seeing the fruit,,of their.labour* jtxul their? prayers. : - Tew,-indeed, remaii ci those who, with heroio raahnecvy as it seamed (or many years, initiated the building of the CUthedral." But their work ie visible now" in Its full completion, and whilo it stands their names Jbe' I forgotten. For their successors something still remains to "do. "The cost of finishing the Cathedral has grown beyond the original estimate, and there is still a deficit of some £3000 to be met before the building can be freed from debt. Fo much has been done, and that by,a community much smaller and much poorer than the Canterbury of to-day, that this seems but a little thing, and in these I prosperous times the debt will eurely not be allowed to remain after to-morrow's great festiv-U. The pioneers gave liberally, and we trust, for the sake of Canterbury's credit, that their descendarte will prove themselves no less liberal nowthat the goal of forty years' effort has been attained.