THE DAYS OF GOLD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18499, 11 September 1934, Page 6

THE DAYS OF GOLD

OLD WESTPORT CHURCH LINK WITH WEST COAST RUSH The little old Anglican Church <U Stafford. Westland, believed to be one of the first, six churches ‘built on the West Coast, was recently removed to a new site to allow the operations of a gold dredge to proceed. The Church News states that the church dates from Iho hectic days of bho gold rash !i the West Coast, ‘.‘The Australian company working the auriferous deposits near the church has gradually been approaching the section, and recently made an attractive offer to the vestry for it,” says the Church News. “The company undertook to provide >a good section in a better situation, to deliver iln* church in good condition, or to rebuild it if it came to pieces,. To re paint and repair it, to provide electric light free, and so on. The offer was accepted and the transfer of the church has been safely made. “fa the early days'Stafford was attached to Hokitika. The first resident clergyman at Stafford was the Rev. lE. ,1 Oongdon Gilbert ns curate-in-ehnrge. A house was rented for some months; but in M?7f» a parsonage was ibitill, the tender 'being for £l<i!) 10s. The Rev. A. R. Scott (afterwards archdeacon) followed; then came the Rev. John Holland. Since those early days of the gold rush Stafford has dwindled fiom a population of many hundreds to a tinv handful.”