ST. PETER'S CATHEDRAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23382, 26 June 1939, Page 13

ST. PETER'S CATHEDRAL

ATTENTION TO INTERIOR BISHOP CHERRINGTON'S APPEAL [from our own correspondent] HAMILTON. Sunday An appeal for support of a fund with which to improve the appearance of St. Peter's Cathedral, Hamilton, is made by the Bishop of Waikato, Bishop Cherrington, in his monthly letter to the Waikato Diocesan Magazine.

Over 12 years ago a petition was presented to him asking him to constitute St. Peter's, Hamilton, his Cathedral Church, he states. "This was a most unfair petition to present to one who had only been in Now Zealand 10 days, and in Hamilton 24 hours," the bishop adds. "I ought to have replied, 'Present this petition in five or 10 years time.' " The diocese had a cathedral which was also a parish church. The people of the parish had to contribute toward parochial needs, and it took them all their time to do that. They could not be expected to supply three clergy and a properly trained choir, as were required if a cathedral were to function as it should.

On the whole the cathedra! was not too bad. It was beautifully kept, but the colouring of the church right through was badly needed. "The

Friends of the Cathedral" would meet shortly, ami they would consider whether with tlu> small sum they had in hand they could not do something in the direction of improving the interior of the building. The bishop appeals for voluntary gifts with wjiich to carry out the work. A cathedral, he says, could not be maintained as it ought to be on au income of less than £2OOO a vear.