NEW SUVA CATHEDRAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23574, 7 February 1940, Page 14

NEW SUVA CATHEDRAL

FOUNDATION-STONE LAID CENTRE OF GREAT DIOCESE [from OUR OWN correspondent] SUVA, Jan. 27 The foundation-stone for the Cathedral of the Diocese of Polynesia was laid by the Governor of Fiji, Sir Harry Luke, in Suva yesterday, in the presence of a large public gathering. Prior to the ceremony a service was held in Holy Trinity Pro-Cathedral. His Excellency read the lesson at the service, over which the Bishop in Polynesia, the lU. Rev. L. S. Kempthorne, presided. The bishop was attended by the clergy of the diocese, and the service was conducted by Archdeacon H. Mayo Harris. From the pro-cathedral the congregation and clergy, led by the church officers, formed a procession to the site pf the new cathedral; which • is on an attractive and commanding piece of land recently occupied by the old Government Buildings. Before laying the stone, His Excellency referred to tlie generosity of Lord Nuffield, who had donated £SOOO to the cathedral appeal fund, and to the enterprise of the parishioners; who had decided not to let the outbreak of war interfere with their plans for a new cathedral. His Excellency also referred to the fact that recently he was in a cathedral built wholly of' grass and palm—the cathedral of the neighbouring diocese of Melanesia, at Biota', in the Solomon Islands. Ho said that, although the cathedral at Suva would not be built of stone, it would bo a cathedral in every sense of the word and the living centre of a far-flung-diocese.' Work will not proceed on the building immediately, but it is hoped to stiirt us soon as conditions permit. The structure will be built with concrete blocks, at an estimated cost of £13,000.