REV. ALEXANDER GREIG

Evening Star, Issue 22722, 9 August 1937, Page 6

REV. ALEXANDER GREIG

NIHETY-HiNE YEARS Of AGE TO-MORROW The distinction of being the oldest minister of the Presbyterian Church, in New Zealand is held by the Bey.Alexander Greig, St. Clair, who will celebrate his ninety-ninth birthday tomorrow. Further, Mr Greig has been connected with only one Presbytery since his appointment to the charge of the Otago Peninsula 69 years ago. Considering his age, Mr Greig still enjoys good health, and retains the- full possession of his mental faculties, - Ho is living with his daughter, Mrs J. Bell, of Bay View road, St. Clair,, and to-morrow many of his old friends are to visit him and extend congratulations on the attainment of a ripe old age. Included in the visitors will be the moderator (Rev. S. C. Francis) and the clerk (Rev. J. D. Smith) of the Dunedin Presbytery, who are to convey Presbytery’s greetings to him. • - Mr Greig was born in the parish of Durris, Kincardineshire, on ’August 10, 1838. His parents both died when he was very young, and in consequence he had a hard struggle to secure any special education. For years he worked 10 hours daily on his grandfather’s farm, and, with very little lmlp» studied for another six or seven hours. After attending the Aberdeen Grammar School for a short period, he com. peted for a bursary, and being successful, he attended Aberdeen University, where he gained several prizes, and at the end of four years obtained the degree of M.A. At the completion of four years at the Free Church Divinity Hall, Aberdeen, during which he had a distinguished academic career, he served as locum tenens at Gamnc, in Banffshire, and Auldearn, near Nairn. , ~ . Failing eyesight made it necessary for him to refuse an offer to taka up missionary work in China, and ha was then asked by Principal Lumsden, of Aberdeen, convener of the Colonial Committee, if he would go to Otago, where ministers were urgently needed. 1 After short deliberation, Mr Greig consented, and was ordained to the work of the ministry in Otago in the Nairn Free Church on August 8, 1867. Ha was then just 29 years of age. ; On August 23 he was married to Miss Jane Masson, and on September 2 left with his wife for New Zealand in the ship Robert Henderson, which arrived at £ort Chalmers on December 14. A month later the Presbyterian Synod sanctioned Otago Peninsula aa a charge, and Mr Greig was sent to the district to “ break _ ground.” There was no church organisation and no communion roll, so all the churchgoers signed the call for Mr Greig to come to the charge, and he was duly inducted on April 18, 1868. For 33 years, without a break, he laboured at his charge, until, in April, 1904, feeling that he could no longer continue such strenuous work in a manner satisfactory to himself, he resigned and made his home at Portobello, where he lived for six years. Since then ho has resided with his daughter at St. Clair.