NEW CATHEDRAL BOARD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14381, 26 November 1908, Page 4

NEW CATHEDRAL BOARD

POSITION OF THE FUND. The annual meeting of subscribers to the New Cathedral Fund was held in St. Paul's Schoolroom yesterday afternoon. His Lordship tho Primate (Bishop Ncvill) presided, and there were present, amongst others, Archdeacon Gould, Dean Filchstt, the Rev. Fynes Clinton, Messrs A. Hill Jack, W. T. Talboys, W. Burnett, and Captain Easther . (members of tho board), and Messrs Washer, Kerr, Quick, and a number of ladies. Apologies we're received from Archdeacon Neild, the Rev. W. Curzon-Siggcrs, and Mr Statham. • Tho annual report submitted to the meeting was as follows: — "The board presents to subscribers the report for the fourth jcar. The hon. treasurer's report shows that the amount received to November 10 is £6925 17s 6d, subscriptions and donations promised to date £5239 10s lid, leaving' £2303 13s 5d to be puid at stilted times. Tho grant of £1000 lrom S.P.C.K. is not. included in tho above, but will be paid when a part of tho Cathedral is roofed and able to accommodate a congregation. The architect (Mr Edmund Sodding) is arrive in Dunedin from England next February for the purpose of consulting vyith the board and arranging, if possible, for the laying of tho foundation stone in June, 1910,, in compliance with a resolution of Synod, already reported. The board has recently renewed its appeal for contributions to the fund, an additional sum of £4000 being needed to cover the cost of erecting a portion of the building, in compliance with the terms of the S.P.C.K. grant."

His Lordship said tho. business of the meeting was of a very simple nature —ju.6t to receive the annual report of the New Cathedral Board. He might say a few words as to the present position of their/ fund and what they were proposing to do in the future. In his judgment the present position waa a satisfactory one. Speaking broadly, they had the sum of £7000 in hand, and nearly tho whole of this was bearing interest. In addition to that they had some £2540 of subscriptions promised, and there was no,doubt that by far the greater part of these were good. By the timii they proposed to bagin the work of laying the foundation .stone—that was, on June 4, 1910—t.h'ey ought to have received between .£450 and £500 of interest upon tho amount already invested, so that they might say that by that time- they should pretty well have the £10,000 which was part of the conditions laid down by the society which offered theni £1000. They would remember that the Society for the Propagation of Christian. Knowledge, gavo them £1000 when they had themselves raised £10,000, and on condition.that they built with it a portion of the new Cathedral such as would accommodate a congregation. If they did so use the £10,000 they would then be in a position to claim the society's' £1000, but, as they, were probably aware, it had been thought much bettor on many grounds not to he satisfied with building £10,000 worth of the new Cathedral, but to expend some £14,000, which would not only build a larger portion of the Cathedral, but would better suit the architect's plans. In'•that ease they would see that after'getting the S.P.C.K.'s grant they would still have £3COO to raise. That was a rather large undertaking, but it would _ relieve the diooese very much for a considerable time afterwards. The practical outconio of it all was that there must be a long pull and a strong pull and a pull all together right throughout the length and breadth of the diocese to raise tho £3000. Ho did not think it was beyond their power if they were thoroughly in earnest. They had only a very (short time -a year and a-half.-but if all parts of the diocese* looked on it as a responsibility he had no doubt they would accomplish tho desired result. There would then bo £6000 to raise before they could claim Mr Harrop's bequest; but interest would be accumulating, and it would enable them to carry out the work without in any wav cutting down tho beautiful plans that had been put before them. His own idea was that, they should erect tho building in 1910 rather in outline, and leave the ornamentation until they could lay their hands uppn tfcrt larger sum which - they hoped, to ■obtain.. He would ask some gentleman to move the adoption of the report. Mr W. T. Talboys, in complying wift tho request, said -he could not agreo with his Lordship in considering what they had! done satisfactory. fr looking, timn £ n : the list of donations and subscriptions, he ! found that five people had promised fully' half of the total amount. Somo 370 donations had been, (received, and th«y had promises from a number of subscribers i I'-ven supposing that, none of tho names' 1 were duplicated, it only showed some 780 ' and ho thought they could hardly lake it | as satisfactory that in such a diocese they had cnly got somo 700 or 800 fiulacribere i As a member of the English Church, ho i was sorry to have to say so, .but he took it that there was hardly any other denomi- I nation that would not have done better those who had promised had promised up to their ability, hut there wore thousands of others who should bo brought into touch i with oho project and interested in it. Be I quoted the case of St. Matthew's congrc- ' gation, which had raised £2700 in threo : years. He was sorry to see so few of tho clergy present. If the clergy had interestcd themselves then the congregationswould have taken tho oue from thorn and acted on their suggestions. He saw no ' difficulty m raising £700 or £600 a year ' if a scheme ware properly organised. For i instance, St. Paul's niiglit raise £100 and I i>t. Matthew s and All Saints' a similar ' sum; Monnngton and Rodyn could K i ve I £75 each, and the Valley and South Dunedin £25. He thought that was a very ; low estimate of what-they could do. They were so much indebted to the ladies of the congregation that he felt it was hardly fair to place 'any more work on them, but unless the ladies came to their help he felt quite sure they would never bring this thing to a successful termination. To allow it to go on for any great length of time would bo a disgrace. The ladies had more energy than the men, and would work out a scheme more successfully. He suggested that, the ladies in every parish should form a committee to canvass their district, and lie dwelt on the importance of small subscriptions. If Dunedin itself gave liberally they could then with confidence ask tho country towns for assistance. Ho would formally move the adoption of tho report. Mr W. Burnett, in secondiiipt the motion, said lie could hardly agree with his friend' in his rather mournful prophecies. 'If the men could not do (lie work ho did not think they should hand it- over to the women He thought they'had not done so badly. In tho Wellington diocese, wnich was much more wealthy, they had been many years in gathering £6000, whereas in a few years almost £9000 .had been gathered in Ota.go. There was no good reason why wealthy Presbyterians should not give money to tho Cathedral fund, and no good reason why they should not. lx> asked. If any Presbyterian objecfid to help Iho building of the now cathedral he might norhaps l:o willing to contribute towards the destruction of tho o'-l one. The motion, on heiii" put h\ hi:; l m{ \ ship, was carried unanimously., ' ' «