Church Service Opens Waimate Celebrations

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27405, 19 July 1954, Page 10

Church Service Opens Waimate Celebrations

(From Our Own Reporter)

WAIMATE, July 18. In the largest outdoor church service ever held in Waimate, more than 1500 persons—townspeople and descendants of the early settlers —this - afternoon opened the celebration of • their town’s centenary. The interdenominational service was held in the - grounds of Te Waimate homestead, * where Michael Studholme, the first white settler in the area, set up his ' home and where the Studholmes still - live.

Yesterday was to have been the first day of the celebrations (the Waimate • District Hunt Club was to have held a steeplechase race meeting), but the weather decided otherwise. Today the . sun shone, if only for a few minutes, . and the setting for the service was perfect. The people sat in calm, cool freshness which set off this solemn ‘ thanksgiving as few buildings could have done. I Before and after the service hundreds of people visited “The Cuddy,” . the tiny cob and thatch hut which was the first European house in the district and which is still carefully preserved by the present Studholme family The • rough-hewn walls of “The Cuddy” were cut by adze from a single totara and still bear the marks of the adze. . From inside the two-roomed hut the original snowgrass thatch may still be seen beneath more recently applied rushes. Inside walls are made of clay and the wooden slats in lath and plaster fashion. Three historic homesteads in the district were open to the public today— Waikakahi, Waihao Downs, and Te Waimate. Cars thronged the roads as nearly everyone in and around Waimate took the opportunity to peer back into the district’s history. Decorations in Town The shopping area of the town is a mass of decoration. Hardly a lamppost down Queen street is without its portion of fern, flax or tussock. Around and above shops similar greenery is festooned. Shop windows are filled with an amazing collection of antiques, copies of antiques, and of what went on when the first settler arrived. Examples of Victortan fashion filled drapers’ windows, a jeweller had several old clocks and watches and another shop displayed an ancient muzzle-loading gun. The severely-pointed boots of a bygone day which were displayed in one footwear shop brought sighs of relief from many women, thankful for the com-

fort of modern productions. Old photographs, prints and examples of tapestry and embroidery were also plentiful. The Service Messages for the people of Waimate at this time were contained in two short passages from the Bible, said the Rev. George Cartridge, vicar of Waimate, at the service. “The first is from Isaiah and says ‘Hearken unto me ye that would learn to serve the Lord. Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.’ Today we do so look back and* remember those who first came here and those who followed. And we think we have something we can be proud of—people whose example we can copy. Their achievements and their work'all sprang from the faith which was theirs.”

“The second message comes from a time much earlier in the history of the Jewish people,” said Mr Cartridge: ‘God said unto Moses, speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward.’ And that is a message for the people of Waimate today—that they go forward with the spirit and the character of those who have gone before.

“The dangers faced by the pioneers were real,” said Mr Cartridge. “The dangers and the difficulties we face today, though different, are just as real It is no use saying these things will happen somewhere else. They can happen here in Waimate. It all depends on us. The message is for us to go forward with faith and perseverance and with the assurance we have seen of those living in earlier days ” The service was conducted by three clergymen—Mr Cartridge, Dr. Gordon Parker, the Methodist minister, and the Rev. I. R. Polson, the Presbyterian minister. The Salvation Army was represented by Lieutenant R. H. Ford. The Waimate Salvation Army Band played for the hymns, which were led by a combined choir from the churches of the district. The choir also sang the “Te Deum” accompanied by an electric organ carried to the homestead for. the occasion. The choirmaster was Mr _ Rutherford Brown, and the organist Mrs M. E. Hayman. The lesson (Psalm 103) was read by Mr George Dash.

Tomorrow the celebrations will continue with the hunt club race meeting and, at 4.30 pjn., the laying of a foundation stone by the Minister of Works (Mr W. S. Goosman);