THE NEW CHURCH AT WAITARUNA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 34

THE NEW CHURCH AT WAITARUNA.

I The new church at Waitahuna, known as St. Matthew's Church, which was opened and consecrated recently by Bishop Nevill, ia a very pretty one, and is a oredit lo those interested in its erection. It was built from the designs of Mr J. A. Burnside. Mr Robert York was the contractor, and well and faithfully hate the work been carried out. It is built of brick on a concrete foundation, with high-piiched roof, all the gables being carried up above the roof, and finished in moulded cement work, corbelled at bottom, and terminating at the top. with suitable cross finials. .The building is entered by a neat porch on the north side, fitted with inner baize-covered swing doors. The nave is 31ft by 20ft, being; dado lined and plastered above, and fitted with close-framed panelled seats ahrl book boards of kauri timber, which give accommodation for about 100 sittings. At right angles in front of the chancel are the choir seats of a similar description. The roof is an open timbered one of red pine, the highest part being about 22ft. The church is lighted by lancet-headed lead light windows. The chancel is 12ft 6in by lift. The partition dividing it from the vestry is of picked red pine, made ornamental by the beams and uprights b6ing dressed and filled in with cut brackets, etc. The prayer and reading desks and altar raik axe of neat design, being made of kauri. The whole of the timber work being varnished gives the building a finished and neat appearance. The vestry, lift by 9ft, is entered from the nave, and also has an outside door. The approaches to all the doors have substantial concrete steps. The services at the consecration were very impressive. At the service the bishop was " met at the main door' by Archdeioon Beaumont and the church committee. The archdeacon pieserted to -the -bishop the -petition -for consecration. This being acceded to, the bishop and others proceeded Up the aisle, repeating the 24th psalm; until the bishop reached the chandel, where he proceeded 'with ' the- consecration service. This was followed by morning prayer: The bishop preached tfr a crowded ' congregation (many having come from a long distance) a most ■eloquent,- appropriate, and- - impressive sermon. At- the celebration of the -holy communion there were 42 communicants. In tha afternoon the church- was "crowded; every inch of roomibemg occupied, and very many could nob obtain admission.. The bishop again preached. The sermon' was a masterly one, and most suitable-to the occasion.- The "chants and hymns were- effeotively-rendered -by the choir, Miss Gertrude Cooper being organist. The offertories for the day amounted to hiA. The church 1 members of Waitahuna ■ 3 to be congratulated on the possession or a .nuldW in every way writable for divine womup. The church would -have been built years ago had it not been for the difficulty in the choice of site between the gully and the township.

With the advent of lighthouse keepers and their cat and dog petstto East Island' (says the Gisborne Herald) there will probably soon disappear the few tuatara lizards- that remain. This remarkable species of reptile is already becoming scarce— so much so that foreign collectors have recently been visiting the colony ■with the view of buying up all the available specimens and eggs, to prevent which the Government have brought the tuatara within the shelter of the Animals' Protection Act. East Island is one of- the few places in the colony where the tuatara lizard can be obtained. Mr Henderson, of Hick's Bay, informs us that he has seen lizards on the island fully 18 inches long. A remarkable characteristic of the tuatara, as with several other species of lizards, is that if it loses limbs it is able to reproduce them. Thus, if a leg gets knocked off, - or a few joints of its tail, these grow again. But it is not generally known, nor would it be suspected, that' even the eye can be reproduced in this manner. Yet this is actually the case, for tuatara .in the possession of Carl Hansen, of Awanui, had the misfortune to lose its eye some -little- time ago, and now "a complete new optic, as perfect as the undamaged one, has • grown in- place of that which was lost. Mr Hansen has three of these beasts in his possession".' ' In 'ft' fight between two of them one lizard lost a leg, which after a lapse of time grew again. .Moth the above circumstances are vouched for by the stipendiary magistrate. "'" ' ■ — In Cochin-China, when hushandand wife find-fchey'can no -longer agree,-they give a dinner, to which they- invite their relations and the patriarch of the village. The latter, during the meal, -takes the chopsticks of tha pair and breaks them, and by his action they, are legally divc-roed.. : i - • ■-