PRESBYTERIAN DISPUTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15325, 11 June 1913, Page 4

PRESBYTERIAN DISPUTE.

THE FAIRBURN SITE. OTAHUHU AND PAPATOETOE DECISION OP AUTHORITIES. A matter which has for some time .been a bone of contention between the Presbyterians of Otahuhu and Papatoetoe respectively took up a considerable amount of the time of the Auckland Presbytery last night. With regard to the Fairburn site at Otahuhu, the committee appointed to go into the matter reported that it found it had to deal with a trust deed, and to determine the purpose for which the trust was devised. In the judgment of the committee, the property was vested in the trustees designated by the Presbyterian Church Property Act of 1885. Under these trustees the present administrators of the property were the managers of St. John's Presbyterian congregation, Papatoetoe, and the fact that tney had dealt with the intromissions arising out of the management of the property did not prove ownership, but trusteeship. The trust deed • stated the site had to be used " as a site for a church and schoolhouse for Christians adhering to the Presbyterian form of worship." The people of Papatoetoe held that the site was intended for a central church for the whole parish of Otahuhu as constituted in 1855, and including at that date Papatoetoe, Mangere, Tamaki West, Howick, and Otahuhu, while Otahuhu held that the site was intended for those within the shorter radius of Otahuhu township. The Papatoetoe opinion, said the committee in its report, obviously implied that the site was never intended for the special benefit of Presbyterians residing in the Papatoetoe district of the parish, and this was confirmed by the fact that the Papatoetoe Presbyterians were afterwards specially provided for by a site gifted by Mr. Thos. • Baird, in 1857, on which their present church and school now stood. If the Papatoetoe contention were sound, the difficulty was to see how a site intended for the benefit of the whole parish could be used for the benefit of the Papatoetoe portion exclusively". On the other hand the duty of the trustees, according to the Otahuhu opinion, was to use the Fairburn site for the benefit of those Presbyterians resident in Ota-

huhu township. This the committee thought the more probable opinion, and would perhaps be beyond question, but for the tact that the said site was not now, and for long had not been, considered, perfectly suitable for the purpose, although it was nevertheless fairly suitable. Committee's Recommendation. The committee was of opinion that the deed meant the site to be for the benefit of those Presbyterians contiguous to the site, It was rather a curious coincidence that the only Presbyterians who now required a church and school were precisely those nearest the site, the people of Otahuhu. The committee thought that the purpose of the trust would be rightly fulfilled if the Fairburn site were used for the benefit of Presbyterians resident in, or near to, the township of Otahuhu, and advised : —(a) That the site be used either directly or indirectly, as the Church Pro-

perty Act provides, for the building of a church and schoolhouse for the benefit of the Presbyterians of Otahuhu-; (b) that the managers of the Otahuhu congregation be made the administrators under the general trustees, in place of the managers of St. John's congregation, Papatoetoe.

Papatoetoe's Attitude,

After the Rev. R. Sommeirville had moved the adoption of the report, a lengthy discussion took place on the claims of the respective townships. The Rev. C. Porter (Papatoetoe) pointed out that the Papatoetoe people had come to consider the property their own. They had paid all the expenses connected with the estate, and were surely entitled to some share in the property. The Papatoetoe people were looking forward to building a fine new church, to cost £2000 or £3000, before very long, and they wanted their share of the estate to go towards that/object. Mr. Porter then moved as an amendment that the site continue to be administered by the managers of the St. John's congregation, Papatoetoe, as hitherto, but that when a suitable opportunity offered the property should be disposed of and the proceeds divided equally amongst the, Papatoetoe, Mangere, Otahuhu, Tamaki West, and Howick Presbyterians, the money to be employed in building a new church in each case. »

Appeal to the Assembly.

Mr. Porter added that he considered that a very fair way of dealing with the matter, but if Papatoetoe were excluded from the benefits of the site, they would have to take the matter before the General Assembly, " the supreme court of the Presbyterian Church." On the matter being put to the meeting, Mr. Sommerville's motion that the report be adopted was carried by a -large majority. Mr. Porter said that although he would do all in his power to help on the Otahuhu people, he had instructions from the office-bearers.of his church which he would have to fulfil, and he gave the presbytery notice of' an appeal to the General Assembly.