THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6488, 7 April 1908, Page 6

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE AT DUNEDIN. FOUNDATION-STONE LAID. PB.XSS ASSOCIATION. T DUNEDIN; April 6. The foundation-stone of the residential college of -the Presbyterian Church _was laid V Mrs John Boss at North-East Valley to-day before a large and representative gathering. The Eev. A. Don, Moderator of the General Assembly, presided, and addresses were delivered by tho Eev. A. Cameron, the Hon. Goo. Fowlds. and tho Mayor of Dunedin (Mr J. Loudon). A warm letter of greeting was road from the Baptist Union of New Zealand, rejoicing at the success of the enterprise. _ , _ In hia address, the Eev. A. Cameron said that for six years a committee of tho General Assembly had been quietly at work, and at tho’end of the year they hoped to see the college ready for occupation. The cost of the building would be £18,807. This would give accommodation for thirty students in residence, each having a separate bedroom and a study between two, in addition to class-rooms for the theological college, common-room, dining-room, and servants’ offices, the building would be three stories high. In the future,’ accommodation for fifty students would be provided, with a library, ehapel, and assembly hall. The speaker touched upon the value of tho college in training candidates for the ministry in a knowledge of the ways of men. Tho college was to b® broad-based and catholic and a Christian college home for all students of all classes. Mr John Ross had been the real founder of tho college, by reason of-his princely gift of £IO,OOO. ' Altogether the donations received, with interest, amounted to £25,700. Prizes to competing architects and nreliminary expenses, had com© to £505.* The result would not only enable them to open the college free of debt, but also to do something in the way of furnishing it. To avoid it becoming merely a class institution, they must have endowments, and for this purpose they had set themselves to raise £15,000. ’Of this the sum of £IO3O had already been promised. The Hon. Geo. Fowlds said he looked forward to tho time when the other University centres would follow the example of Otago in this respect. It had been said that many ministers had a full knowledge of books, but little of men and life. This latter the college would give them.