SYDNEY'S CATHEDRALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20084, 23 October 1928, Page 10

SYDNEY'S CATHEDRALS.

HOME OF ST. ANDREW'S.

DISAPPOINTED ANGLICANS. [from our own correspondent. ] SYDNEY, Oct, 11. Tho old battle of cathedral sites has broken out afresh in the councils of the Anglican Church. One of tho last acts of tho Lang Labour Government was to enter into an arrangement with the church for the removal of St. Andrew's Cathedral from its present site, alongside tho Town Hall, to Macquario Street, the homo of tho medical profession, of State Parliament) and of Sydney Hospital. For tho church it was a very nico bargain, and Anglicans clamouring for a better sito for a 'new cathedral more worthy of the faith and of a proud city, pronounced the Lang Government's namo blessed, oven if they did not see eye to eyo with its politics.

Tho trouble was that tho Lang Ministry was cast into tho outer political darkness before it had time to submit the compact with tho church to Parliament, for its ratification or rejection of the proposal. It left the task for the Bavin Government, which has now provoked the wrath of a big and influential section of the church by declining to submit the matter to Parliament, or to havo anything to do with the proposal. Tho Anglican " die-hards," who bitterly oppose tho removal of St. Andrew's from tho present site, mainly on sentimental grounds, are delighted at this turn of events. Those, on the other hand, who want a now site for a more stately cathedral, foci like Tantalus. Twice now, tho luscious fruit of a very nice bargain, which hung just above them, has been snatched from their graspTo tho passer-by in crowded George Street, St. Andrew's looks to-day more unfitted for its present site than ever, for it is surrounded and hedged in by an ugly, higgledy-piggledy mess of underground railway work. Jo make matters even worse, and to add to the chaos, workmen are tearing up tho tram rails right in front of the cathedral. It looks almost liko sacrilege, even if tho exigencies of Sydney's growth demand it.