NEW WESLEYAN CHAPEL.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XVII, Issue 51, 26 June 1858, Page 3

NEW WESLEYAN CHAPEL.

On Tuesday evening, a tea party and public meeting took place in connection with the opening of the above chapel. About 400 persons sat down to a most sumptuous tea, after which, the chair was taken by D. Rough, Esq., Collector of Customs. After prayer had been offered up by the Rev. P. Calder, The Chairman addressed tho meeting, and expressed his gratification at being invited to preside over so large an assembly on the interesting occasion of opening so commodious and beautiful a building for the worship of God. After alluding to the great amount of good which had been effected by the Wesleyan missionaries in the South Pacific islands, and to the high esteem in which the pastor of the Wesleyan Church in Nelson was held by the entire community, the Chairman concluded by congratulating the inhabitants of Nelson, and the Wesleyan church and congregation, in possessing bo substantial, commodious, and elegant a Christian temple, which he prayed might prove a blessing to them, aud to their ohildren after them. Mr. W. Jenkins then read the following report :— "It is presumed that the public are already aware of tho circumstances under which we disposed of the old chapel and the site on which it stood. " The amount realized for the whole was £1,500. About £60 of this, however, was consumed in expenses connected with obtaining an act of General Assembly enabling us to dispose of the land, thus leaving a balance of about £1,440, £440 of which have been expended in procuring and fencing two-tlu'rds of an acre of land, on which the present building stands, leaving us in possession of £1,000, with which to commence the present erection ; the cost of which when complete, including bind, will bo £2,240 ; to meet which we have as follows : — £ *. d. Proceeds of old ohapel . . . 1,440 0 0 Collected by friends for Harmonium 20 0 0 Collected by Mrs. Foy and Mrs. ") Crisp, tnd Misses Hough and > 40 0 0 Warren, for Pulpit . . J Collected for General Building") A7n n n Fund, by Rev. J. Warren . j 4 ' U U U Proceeds of Sermons at Opening . 56 0 0 £2,026 0 0 Leaving a debt of 214 0 0 <c The proceeds of Tea Meeting and Collection on Tuesday evening, £46 6s. 7jd., and £5 subsequently collected by Rev. J. Warren, reduces tho debt to £162 13s. 4id." The reading of the report seemed to have excited the pleasure and surprise of the meeting. The Chairman declared that no place of worship of equal pretensions, had in any part of New Zealand, and indeed very few even in the old country, been opened under financial circumstances so cheering and delightful. The Rev. E. Thomas congratulated the congrcga!tion on having succeeded so well in their undertaking, as to leave the chapel less than £300 in debt ; and he addressed the meeting at considerable length, and with great eloquence, upon the pleasures of intellectual enjoyment ; concluding by moving the adoption of the report. The Rev. W. Watkik seconded the adoption of the report, and in an able and somewhat humorous speech alluded to the different causes that had brought together such a large assemblage, to the great good effected by the miisionaries which Great Britain had sent to all parts of the world, to the fervour with which every Englishman's heart beat at the daring deeds achieved by his countrymen at Waterloo, Inkerman, &0., and traced the cause of that invincible courage, not to the physical structure of the British, but to the free institutions of their land, and to the intimate connection of those institutions with W Captain Tinley, Mr. H. C. Daniell, and J. D. (Jreonwood Esq. also addressed the meeting, the latter of whom, after alluding to the nautical remarks of a previous speaker, compared the different denominations of Christiana in Nelson to the crews of different resseli, all bound to one common haven, yet each preferring his own ship and his own captain ; and concluded by saying that, although not belonging to the same denomination, he congratulated the church •nd congregation on having sucooeded so well in raising mob. s handsome building.

An enthusiastic vote of thanks was passed to the ladies who had gratuitously furnished the tea tables so abundantly; and also to the chairman for his courtesy in presiding over the meeting. A hymn was then sung, and the Rev. J. Warren closed with prayer one of the most interesting religious meetings ever held in Nelson.