HISTORIC CHURCH BELL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19459, 15 October 1926, Page 13

HISTORIC CHURCH BELL.

RUSSELL TO OTAHUHU. REASON FOR THE TRANSFER. The missing link in the history of ths bell that has been doing duty in the tower of the Otahuhu Anglican Church, and. bearing an inscription that shows is to have been cast for the old church at Russell in 1840, is now available. It is supplied by Colonel George Barclay, of Auckland, and is based on information given to him by the late Mr. J. C. Martin. Some months before Mr. Martin's death Colonel Barclay was in Russell, and Mr. Martin informed him that hs had been engaged upon an investigation of the historic old church of the township, but had found himself unable to ascertain the fate of its original belL According to the old records of the church, Mr. Martin found that the ball was damaged in the sixties by being struck with a stone while vibrating. Bishop Selwyn took charge of it and sent it to England to be repaired and retuned. That it was returned to Auckland city was known, but from that point all trace of it ceased. The supposition entertained at Russell was that the bishop had handed it to one of the missionary churches, in South Auckland, which had a large place in his affections. It is now evident that he gave it to Otahuhu. Knowledge of the fact, however, seems to have passed out of the memory of living rsen. It was revived when one of the students of the Auckland School of Architecture, Mr. A. C. Marshall, in pursuance of Professor Knight's scheme of taking measurements and collecting the history of old buildings in the Auckland district, discovered the inscription upon the bell at Otahuhu a short tinw ago.