TIME AND PLACE

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 58, 6 September 1945, Page 6

TIME AND PLACE

Sir.—Expectant Wellington mothers are desperate to find a hospital in which they may bear their children; eminent doctors have stated the city's urgent need of a modern hospital for tubercular patients; parents with young families are in sore straits because they cannot find homes; colleges and general hospitals are overcrowded; the Boys' Institute and the City Mission need funds; everywhere the cry is for labour, materials, money. Amid all this comes the Cathedral appeal in "The Post." Wellington citizens are asked, in the manner of the timepayment merchandiser, for a penny a I day for a year. Apparently this way it sounds smaller and people will not appreciate that there is £150.000 involved or that a lot of material and labour will be absorbed during the building. Can any reasonable argument in justification for this undertaking be advanced at this time? Is it suggested that present Wellington churches are too small to accommodate those who would worship? Or is it just that as the Capital City Wellington should have a cathedral of great magnificence to emphasise its pre-eminence. I suggest that a cathedral is the last place to be built on such a motive. If the reason is a simple desire to create something worthy and beautiful' that is splendid, but there are other desperately-urgent jobs to do for the spiritual and physical well-being of the people. See the first part of this letter. If this cathedral is built in the next five j'ears, other worthy and humanitarian works will be thereby delayed. The question that springs to mind is: "Will the Church's spiritual work be impaired if the erection of this edifice is delayed?" I think not. The Church has an idea to offer. That idea started in a manger and has flourished in amazingly humble places.— I am, etc.. FIRST THINGS FIRST. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. i H.G.L. —Condemnation is too sweeping. "Inquirer."— \Xa cannot admit discussion of the quality of different materials as this is a mutter for expert opinion.