PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20807, 25 February 1931, Page 12

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

ASSEMBLY POSTPONED.

CONDITIONS IN HAWKE'S BAY

The suggestion iliat the meeting of the General Assembly of tlio Presbyterian Church, which was to have begun in Wellington on March 3, should be postponed for 12 months, was brought before the Auckland Presbytery last evening by the Rev. W. Lawson Marsh. The moderator, Mr. S. J. Harbutt, presided over a large attendance. A letter was received from the moderator, clerk and treasurer of assembly stating that in view of the sad events in Hawke's Bay it had bnen decided that the assembly should bo considerably delayed and that only a I quorum meeting should bo held on March 1 3

Mr. Marsh moved motions suggesting the adjournment of the assembly for 12 months and tho setting up of a commission of the assembly to take any necessary action in the meantime. Regret that tho assembly had been postponed was expressed by the Rev. I. E. Bertram, and the Rev. W. J. Comrie opposed the abandonment of it for 12 months. After Mr. Marsh's motions had been carried the moderator of the assembly, the Right Rev. G. Budd, who has twice travelled through the stricken area, gavo an account of the conditions which, he said, had made the holding of the assombly an impossibility. "Nothing approaching it in its awfulncss has ever happened in this country," he said. "There is no St. Paul's congregation in Napier now, and there will not bo one. It has gone. We will have to put somebody in as if to a church extension charge and stand behind him. Men there who were worth thousands and thousands of pounds now have only the clothes they stand up in." Tho moderator and others expressed keen appreciation of the work done by Mr. Budd. and their hearty agreement with the decisions ho had made. It was unanimously agreed to nominato the Rev. Adam Bcgg, of St. Paul's, Timaru, as next moderator of the assembly. It was decided to recommend the Momo Mission Committee to givo a grant of £2 weekly to St. Enoch s Church for the next three months. The resignation of the Rev. A. MacDonald from tho charge of Richmond as from March 31, on the ground of illhealth, was received with much regret, and the Rev. F. B. Barton was appointed interim moderator of the charge.

A prcsbyterial certificate was granted to Mr. Owen T. Raragwanath, a student for tho university, to whom the Somervell No. 1 scholarship for three years has been granted The convener of tho youth committee, Mr. J. A. Thomson, reported on the arrangements made for the holding of youth institutes simultaneously at St. Luke's and St. Stephen's Churches for a fortnight during April.