$200,000 Needed To Finish Cathedral

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32142, 11 November 1969, Page 18

$200,000 Needed To Finish Cathedral

About $200,000 is needed to finish Christchurch Cathedral by extending the chancel 40ft east so that the choir can move to its proper place within the chancel area, the Dean of Christchurch (the Very Rev. M. L. Underhill) chairman of the Friends of Christchurch Cathedral Association, says in his annual report.

The report will be presented to the annual meeting of the association in the Horticultural Hall on December 4. Dean Underhill says that the pilgrims arrived in Christchurch in 1850. It took them eight years to get a cathedral committee, 14 years to start the building and only 31 years until the cathedral was officially opened with a temporary wooden east end. Fifty-four years after their arrival they built part of the choir and chancel as it was at present “Do you think we could finish the cathedral by 1981 when we celebrate our centenary?” he asks.

Dean Underhill says that he is not one of those who enthusiastically look forward to the Cathedral Square improvements to cost $700,000. “We shall lose a bit of ground at the back and be given a bit extra in the front” he says. “I rather like the Square the way it is.” He also says that he is alarmed at the news of the proposed building on the old Dalgety site next to the cathedral. This building will be 11 storeys with a two-storey penthouse on top. The Bank of New Zealand building, which is further away, is only 10 storeys.

The Cathedral Chapter was not decided how to spend the $lOOO given by Mr and Mrs A. M. Satterthwaite during the visit of the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, London (the Very Rev. Martin Sullivan), says Dean UnderhilL

The west porch is due to be cleaned outside and some of the stone work repaired. The money for this is from a bequest The new dean’s stall has been approved in design by the chapter. In his annual report, the secretary-treasurer of the association (Mr G. S. Hamilton) says that on July 31, the accumulated fund amounted to $1906.63. During the year the six carved oak canons’ stalls were placed in the cathedral and the cushions for the canons’ and choirmen’s stalls were also in use. Part of the balance of funds will be used to contribute towards the cost of a new dean's stall which will adjoin the new canons’ stalls, provide further internal telephones and provide a moveable ramp to enable wheelchairs to be brought into the cathedral more easily. Mr Hamilton says that at July 31, there were 486 members of the association, compared with the record of 490 the previous year. This included 24 of the original 216 foundation members. During the year 26 ordinary members were enrolled and 15 life members of whom nine were transferred from ordinary membership.