SCOTS CELEBRATE CENTENARY

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26244, 16 October 1950, Page 3

SCOTS CELEBRATE CENTENARY

OVERSEAS GREETINGS RECEIVED THANKSGIVING SERVICE AT ST. ANDREW’S During the week-end the Scottish community began a week of celebrations to mark the contribution of their kinsmen in the foundation of Canterbury. Colourful Highland games were held at Lancaster Park on Saturday, and in the evening there was a Scottish concert. Yesterday afternoon at a centennial thanksgiving service in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, the mother Presbyterian church of Canterbury, messages of greeting were received from the Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian Church of tralia.The Rt. Rev. R. S. Watson, of Dunedin, the Moderator of -the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Chur.th of New Zealand, who preached the sermon, said that the past should be regarded with humility and gratitude, and the future should be faced with a dependence on God such as had been possessed by the pioneers, and a pioneering spirit. The. one lirtk between the past and present, said Mr Watson, was God.

“I don’t think I am unjust or unfair if I say that the people who were the early pioneers were a’ mixed bunch,” he continued. “We are apt to put halos round every one of them, but we are not dealing fairly with them or with facts. We should not regard them all as being of a high station. If we remember this we will realise what God can do through all sorts of men and women.” About 2000 Present

About 2000 persons attended the service. Of those about 550 were accommodated in the church, and the others sat or stood in the church grounds and heard the service over a loud-speak-ing system. The whole of the Christchurch Presbytery under Mr Baird attended the service, and lessons were read by Mr John Deans, a descendant of a pioneering Canterbury family, and Mr J. K. McAlpine, M.P. representing the Prime Minister (Mr Holland). Among specially invited guests at the service were the Mayor (Sir Ernest Andrews), the Mayoress (MrsJL Hardy Cookson), the Town Clerk (Mr H. S. Feast) and Mrs Feast, members of the City Council, Mr J. Mathison, M.P., representing the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Fraser), the Primate of New Zealand (Archbishop WestWatson), the Rev. L. J. Boulton Smith, representing the Baptist Church, Major E. R. Sansom, representing the Salvation Army, the rector of St. Andrew s College (Mr L. W. Stewart) and Mrs Stewart, the president of the Canterbury Caledonian Society and chairman of the Scottish centennial celebrations committee (Mr C. S. Thomas), the chief of the Scottish Society of New Zealand, Christchurch (Mr A. Gray), the president of .the New Zealand Pipe Bands’ Association (Mr Nicholson) and the deputy-chairman of tne Pipe Bands’ Association (Mr R. L. Will).

Seven Highland pipe bands paraded to the service. They were the City of Christchurch A and B bands, the City of Christchurch Ladies' Band and the Christchurch Ladies’ Band, the Scottish Society of New Zealand Band, the Canterbury Caledonian Society’s Band, and the St. Andrew’s College Band. Members of the Scottish Regiment, the Boys’ Brigade, and girls’ marching teams of the Canterbury Caledonian Society were also present.