CHURCH CENTENARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25514, 19 April 1944, Page 6

CHURCH CENTENARY

PROPOSAL FOR MEMORIAL RECONSTRUCTION OF KNOX COLLEGE A suggestion that the Presbyterian Church should make provision for a new Theological Hall as a memorial to mark the centenary of the arrival in Otago of the first Presbyterian settlers was made at the annual meeting of the Synod of Otago and Southland in Dunedin yesterday. The Rev. H. J. Ryburn. master of Knox College, who made the suggestion, referred to the unsatisfactory conditions under which the Theological Hall was now operating. “The idea of a new hall building is no new one,” Mr Ryburn said. “There is a crying need for a new building. In a few days’ time we will be welcoming a new professor, and I am ashamed of the conditions in which he will have to lecture. There is no retiring room for professors in Knox College, nor are there any individual studies or a common room for the members of the teaching staff. The lecture rooms are badly lighted and in general the facilities leave much to be desired.”

Mr Ryburn produced plans showing the suggested alterations and additions to Knox College to incorporate the proposed new Theological Hall. It was decided to set up a special committee representative of the presbyteries of the synod to explore the possibilities of making fitting commemoration of the centenary of the province in March, 1948. The committee is to prepare a report for the 1945 meeting of the synod, and it will give consideration to the suggestion made by Mr Ryburn. The committee will comprise the Very Rev. H. H. Barton, and the Revs. W. H. Howes, A. M. Elliffe, R. S. Watson, S. T. Nicholls, .W, H. D. Warin, G. M. Yule, and J. G. S. Dunn.