BELLS OF ST. MATTHEW'S.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13369, 26 December 1906, Page 4

BELLS OF ST. MATTHEW'S.

'{RINGERS 'AND THEIR WAYS.

k (CAMPANOLOGICAL possibiliV" '• . • ties.

JAt hist a merry peal of bells may be heard lin Auckland City. The bells have been 'here for many years, but they have never been hung in so favourable a position as they now are, in th© great tower of St.

Matthew's Church. When the tower was designed provision was made for a peal of eight bells, and were those now in position

made to order they could not have fitted

better than they do. The sound of the bells' burst out from the lancet mullions of the ; tower, but ringing requires practice, and bellringers are made, not born. Therefore, those who are inclined to be hypercritical in matters of campanology should be a little indulgent to the team who first

essayed to ring a peal on the bells in St. Matthew's tower., A bellringer now in Auckland, who "was among the' first to ring the Christchurch peal, gives it as his opinion that it takes two years of consistent practice to become a proficient bellringer. If that be so, then Aucklanders must bo prepared for. some music .by

'prentice hands lor a time; but to the

uninitiated the jangling of bells on a feast day, or on the occasion of some groat pubis;: lic rejoicing, is quite as satisfactory as the

finest'change ringing ever heard.

Considerable uncertainty surrounds the history of,the bells now in St. Matthew's. V Consequently the following 'details, gathered from , the most trustworthy source ;in

Auckland, are subject to correction; but

li' it is understood that the bells (made by ■ the celebrated firm of Warner) were first

Sv;exhibited at the London Exhibition of 1862.- They were purchased by members

.?■ and friends of the family of the Earl of

Powys, and presented to Mrs. Sehvyn,

•wife of Bishop George Augustus Selwyn,

5n 1863. Since that time, until they were removed to St. Matthew's, they have been at Parnell, and back to Parnell they are 'to go, -when a great cathedral rises on the land set apart for that purpose, and which land is now occupied by the Parnell Tennis . Club. For the bells are lent to St. Matthew's on . that . condition. The contingency of their removal back to Parnell is,' howeverj. lather remote, for it must be very . many years before a finer building than St. Mary's and that in more permanent materials will rise on the ground opposite. ; Mr. A. Burt, jun., of Messrs. A. and •T. Burt, found the bells fixed at the base of the extinguisher-like tower at Bishop's- : court. . They were operated from above, \ and struck by a hammer much in the same way as a pianoforte wire is made to vibrate. .This was not conducive to the full, rich tones of the bells being heard at their best. The work of transferring them and hanging them in position was laborious and ' highly skilful, but it did not take long. 'The eight bells weigh eight tons, and one of them, the tenor, measures 4ft in diameter at the mouth, stands 3ft liin high, and weighs two tons. This bell took one hour and twenty, minutes to lift •from the ground floor of the tower into position, and the whole peal were successfully hung. 1 The sizes of the bells are: No. 1, 30in in diameter; No. 2, 31in; No. 3, 33in; No. 4, 35in; No. 5, - 38in; No. 6, 40in; No. 7, 43iin; No. -8. 48in. The bells are /mounted on solid oak framework, "well braced. together with wrought- _ iron fittings, and gunmetal bearings. They are hung 91ft from the floor of the church. An Englishman in a large town in an i 'English-speaking country misses a peal of bells more than most things associated ■with his Home life. The early colonists felt this .want, and when they could they supplied it for themselves. Trinity Church, Hobart, has a very fine peal, and as the church Is set on a' hill the music of a 4 bell has a free and uninterrupted course. Hobart is not, however, so busy as Melbourne and Sydney, -where the voices of the bells are /smothered by the roar arid rumble of street traffic. The Christchurch "Cathedral bells ' are not so loud-mOuthed as they ought to ' be. and lately the openings in the louvres of the bell-chambers have been increased, in order to let free the fullest volume of sound. • The bells of St. Matthew's will have nothing to intercept their flow of melody but some wire netting and thin stone mullions. In the days when clocks were not, or ■were at least rare, no doubt the bell served a useful purpose in calling worshippers to 5y church, but most Nonconformist places of e worship get , along very well without them. :" St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Auckland. uses a bell, for calling worshippers to : church, but bells are rare on any but Anglican churches in English-speaking countries, % ■while they arc exceedingly common on churches in all Roman Catholic countries. The famous carillons of the Belgian churches- are unique. No one who has

heard the fairy-like tinkling of the silvery-toned bells of ' Antwerp Cathedral can forget their music, even though the customary tune is that secu- , lar melody of " Mandolin, Indeed, ; } operatic music seems to be preferred to any other for . Belgian carillons, and not only those situated in Flanders, for away down ■ in the. Ardennes- one may hear, at Dinant, ' strains from "The Daughter of the Regi- ; ment " wafted across the sleepy Meuse on bummer evenings from the great steeple ' under the fort-crowned rock at the feet of •i'hich the town of Dinant crouches. ■ The number of "changes" that can be rung on the peal at St. Matthew's is .40,320, so that once the ringers get thoroughly accustomed to their work they will . leave no room for- complaint on the score of variety. The ringers will be able to give a '"Bob Major" and other changes, give the . solemn muffled peal for days of national i sorrow, and the passing bell on the death of ~ a great and notable man: it is all a matter of time and inclination to become expert. Bellringers are ticklish folk to deal with. They like their work as a rule, and when -they know it they resent any interference! from Bishop, vicar, churchwarden, or anybody else. 1 • It does not always follow that the bellringer, having rung the public into church, takes his place with them. There are no more conscientious objectors on matters of . . worship than bellringers, for they usually preserve an attitude of independence in all matt-eve of pastoral ministrations. They - (Jo not necessarily become part and pared of the church, as it were, like the choir ■ or the vergers but once they take to their work they wax intensely enthusiastic in it,

Bf;; L '"id place almost filial trust in the master ringer, never thinking for a moment to contradict him, or to differ from him when ringing the changes, or on any other occasion. Moreover, they get to know and love ,1 their bells, and some think the bells know their - ringers, so closely do both become associated. ■ ■