A NEW SCHOOL HALL AT GREEN ISLAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10760, 26 March 1897, Page 4

A NEW SCHOOL HALL AT GREEN ISLAND.

The ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the new school hall in connection with St. I Mark's Church at Green Island took placs on I Saturday last, and was a matter of no small j interest to those concerned. Uofoctunitely > the weather was very inclement, and marred the i order of proceeding and attenuauca of friend* ) very much, Mrs Freeman, who was to h^va \ laid the stone, herself not being able to be ; there. However, the best was made of it, and ! the preliminaries were held in the church hard I by, where prayers were said, hymns sung by feh<3 ] choir, and addresses given by the Vicar (Rev. j D. O. Hampton), the Key. C. S. Bowden, i Messrs Bayley and Freeman, bearing on the ' interests connected with the occasion. The Vicar, while ackoowieogiuj the boon to parish work the new school hall ■ would be, emphasised the fact of the even greater need of i a vicarage to secure the independent permanency | of church work in the district. Mr Freeman I gave an interesting account of the early struggle j of the few church people to start chnrch work i thf-re many yesrs ago, making a v«-ry graceful \ reference to the late Rev. T L. Stanley a« toe j first clergyman to make the effort among them i in the days of early church pioneering, when ! wide ill-paid labours and killing work were for j •such pioueais the order of the day. Mr Biylsy laid great sires* upon the vital necessity of j Sunday school work under our present sy*ti-m ] of national education, which practically excluded tho Word ot God from tbe rising genera- \ tion in our day schools. £he Rev. G. S. Bowden, following up Me Bsyley's remarks, said he thought no work raors important and no workers more deserving of honour in the church than the Sunday school sod Sunday school teachers; and thgb, therefore, they must all be agreed that the occasion which had brought them together fehat day wa3 one of no little interei-5 i and importance. I Alter theso preliminaries iv the church, those | present betook themselves to the Echoo!-site, j where the vic^r called upon Mr Frieman t-.i lay j the foundation stone in tvs iurai3 ot Mrs Fie:- ---! man, which h3 did, noting, as he declared the atone duly laid in. Mrs Frsecniui'a uaroe, that she tiad often spurred him on with helpful, encouraging advice id anything that he had tried to Co for tha church, Hs was then called upon by the vicar to lay a stone in his own name, thus connecting the long past with the pressui; and future of parish work. The hall is to be of brick, and from end to end about 65f0 long by 25ffc wide ; two rooms about 14ft wide—one larger and one Bimller—with double Sreplace, in the rear. The floor of these rooms and of the body of the bs.!l will be on a level, a door leading into each through a 3ft passage on either side by the end of a platform 3ft high. Thus the hall will be suited to tha main intention—Sunday school work ; while iz will be equnlly suitable for social purposes. The vicar hopts to continue the young men's clnb in it in tfcfi winter months, and also to hold weekly classes for religious instruction there for children attending ths day school; so that the ball may be made a3 useful as possible to all. It is to be finished in May.