Church May Be Shifted

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30900, 5 November 1965, Page 3

Church May Be Shifted

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Nov. 4. Historic St Paul’s Church, Wellington, will be removed to Rathkeale College, an Anglican school near Master ton, if an offer announced today by the standing committee of the Wellington Diocese is accepted. The offer to give the church to the college will stay open for six months to enable Rathkeale to raise an estimated £25,000 required for the transfer, plus £lO.OOO as an endowment for a maintenance fund. The removal was proposed by the college. If the offer is not accepted or lapses, the building will be offered to the Government The chairman of the Historic Places Trust, Mr G. H. Ormond Wilson, said today he greatly regretted the committee’s decision. The trust considered St. Paul's to be part of Wellington, and one of the very few early buildings worthy of preservation. “It is also, perhaps, the most beautiful building in Wellington,” he said. “The trust is of the opinion that while St. Paul’s as it stands could be preserved almost indefinitely, the process of dismantling and shifting it is an extremely dangerous and difficult one.” Mr Ormond Wilson said the

trust would like to see St. Paul’s preserved on its own site as a church, but failing this it would greatly prefer that it should be taken over by the Government as a national monument and managed by its own board of trustees. The chairman of the St. Matthew’s Schools Trust Board, Mr H. A. R. Dunderdale, said today the board was confident the building could be shifted and preserved, and used as a “live” church. He was pleased the board’s proposals for the preservation of the church as a chapel at Rathkeale had been agreed to.

The Masterton architect for i the transfer, Mr T. H. > Daniell, said the shifting of t the church would take about > four months and would be “a - very tricky operation.” t He has been carefully I planning the operation for a year. The committee considered : the removal would give old ■ St. Paul’s a new lease of life, ; keep memorials of past worI shippers before the rising I generation, furnish a new church school with a historic . chapel unique in architecture ' and story, and free men and 1 money for the present work '■ and development of the . church.