PRESBYTERIAN ASSEMBLY

Evening Star, Issue 22805, 13 November 1937, Page 20

PRESBYTERIAN ASSEMBLY

MODERATOR ELECT CHOSEN REV. t. E. RIDDLE [Special to the ‘ Star.’] • AUCKLAND, November 13. There wore five nominations by Presbyteries to-day for tho position of Moderator-elect, but four were allowed to withdraw their names. The Rev. J. A. Thomson proposed; the Rev. Thomas Ewart Riddle, of Kbararar, Punjab, India, son of the late Rev. P. J. Riddle, minister of the Presbyterian Church, who died in 1909, aged 57. Trained in Now Zealand, and for some time in Edinburgh, he worked in the City Mission. When the Rev. Thomas Smail died at Epi, New Hebrides, in 1902, Mr Riddle volunteered for service and was accepted and ordained by the Christchurch Presbytery on March 10, 1903. He worked in the New Hebrides for a number of years. This field was limited and the population decreasing, and when the church opened a field in tho Punjab, with opportunity for service in a wider field, Mr Riddle offered, and began in February, 1913, 25 years of work in the Punjab. Ho had war service with the Indian troops and was an intimate friend of Sadhu Sunday Singh. Sadliu disappeared, and Mr Riddle and a companion made a trip to Tibet seeking him, with Dr J. C. Taylor, co-executor of his estate.

Mr Riddle married Nurse Milne, of Jagadrhi, a daughter of tho late Rev. Peter Milne, the veteran missionary of tho New Hebrides. She is a sister of the Rev. W. V. Milne, who was recently murdered in the Now Hebrides. Sir Riddle is duo home in 1938. The nomination was seconded by the Rev. G. H. Jupp, andl carried enthusiastically. NEXT ASSEMBLY IN DUNEDIN £309,000 CENTENARY FUND [Per United Pkess Association.] AUCKLAND, November 13. It was decided that next year’s Assembly be held at Dunedin, A scheme to raise £300,000 in recognition of the centenary of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand was presented to Assembly by the Centenary Fund Committee, the convener of which is Mr S. J. Harbutt, of Auckland. The report stated that in the event of the

objective being achieved, £200,000 would go to liquidate the debts of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, £50,000 would be devoted to work in home, foreign, and Maori mission fields, £25,000 to the beneficiary fund, and £25,000 for a special centenary fund to be used for sites for buildings. The report stated that the Presbyterian Church had a membership of 54,417, representing 25 per cent, of the population of New Zealand. The report was received.