REPORT,

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 184, 15 July 1854, Page 10

REPORT,

Peadat the Meeting of the Members of the Scotch Church on the 11 th inst. Your conwnittee in accordance with a resolution passed by you at a public meeting held at this place on the 31st of January last, beg to make the following report of their proceedings from that period up to the present date. Agreeably to your instructions your committee circulated a number of subscription lists, and although all of these have not yet been returned, still those which have been received contain signatures for the amount of £424 as subscriptions towards the erection of a church, besides a promised yearly payment of £63 3s. towards the maintenance fund, both of which sums will, your Committee have reason to believe, be materially augmented immediately you have decided on your choice of a Minister. With respect to a site for a building, your Committee having learnt that the Government had granted building sites for the Church of Scotland in the other Settlements, thought it their duty to apply for a similar grant on your behalf; accordingly, they instructed your Secretary to address a letter to W. G. Brittan, Esq., Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Province, respectfully soliciting that the same privileges which the had afforded to the Church of Scotland in the other Provinces, might be extended to the Presbyterian population of the Canterbury Settlement. The Commissioner considered it his duty to refer the application to the General Government, at the same time courteously conveying to your Committee the assurance that it should have his strongest recommendation. The necessary time to receive a reply, smce the application was made, has not yet elapsed, consequently your Committee are at present unable to inform you of the result of their request. It has been suggested that it would be best to secure at once a well situated quarter acre not far from the centre of the town, on which to place the Church merely, whilst the land which is not unlikely to be given you by the Government would be available as sites for a Manse and Schoolhouse, which need not, necessarily, be contiguous to the Church. Should the majority of you approve of this suggestion, your Committee would direct your attention to Section 978, fronting on Tuam Street,or Section 252, fronting on Kilmore Street, either of which appear not unsuitable; the former can be purchased for £20 and the latter for £30, their respective positions being clearly indicated on the map of Christchurch now on the table. Your Committee further beg to submit to you the choice of three several designs for a building ; however, they would recommend the appointment of a Building Committee invested with a discretionary power to choose or reject any of the three designs, and to [enter into arrangements with a Contractor to eiect a building suited to your wants and proportionate to the means you are prepared to place at their disposal; and to them might safely be left the right to exercise their discretion in the selection of a suitable situation on which to build. With reference to the best means of obtaining a Minister, your Committee feel assured that a Letter addressed by your Secretary to the "Colonial Committee of the Established Church," or, to the " Colonial Committee of the Free Church of Scotland," whichever you may to-night decide upon, describing your intention shortly to commence the erection of a Church,

—the present extent of and certain yearly increase of your maintenance fund,- —youv present and prospective numbers, and such other inducements as circumstances warrant, would meet with immediate attention, and your application he at once complied with. Your Committee cannot conclude .their Report without congratulating you on the success of your undertaking ; but a few months have elapsed since the want -of a Presbyterian Church began to be strongly felt, and with no uncommon exertions, your subscription list already exhibits a greater amount of liberality than any other circumstance occurring within the settlement has yet called forth, containing the names of at least four different denominations, who have each combined to aid you in the establishment of a Church, which it is confidently hoped will go hand in hand with the other Churches and Chapels in this Province, in an energetic and earnest endeavour to subdue vice, to teach the principles of morality, and to disseminate the everlasting truths of the Gospel." W. K. Macdonald, Chairman.