Old – time Echoes.

Southern Cross, Volume 24, Issue 2, 15 April 1916, Page 10

Old - time Echoes.

The following' notes, culled from various sources, complete our report of the jubilee 'gatherings- in connection with the Wallacetown Presbyterian Church :—'••■■ The late Mr John Blue was the first precentor. In Dec, 1863, he was thanked "for his past highly . creditable services dn conducting) . the psalmody" and requested "to continue for a time to act as precentor. When Mr Blue removed to Woodlands,' Mr Vesey Wilson took > his place, and Mr P. Gilkison followed "from 1871 to 1875, when Mr Blue was again appointed. He held the position until his death, except for when Mr Prentice officiated. In all it is said Mr Blue rendered 21 years' service. His son, the late Mr Daniel Blue, succeeded him, and Iheld office for four years, and in March, 1896, the present precentor, .Mr J. S. Blue, was appointed. The laird o\ Kintyre, Mr H. S. Hunter, who was present at the opening of the church 50 years ago, and •who was also at the jubilee gathering, discharged the duties of precentor 4for one Sunday, obligingly filling a gap. He still tells how on that occasion three Psalms were sung to the same tune. He comforted himself with the hope that the congregation didn't notice that the same air 'did duty three times. The 'same thing, it may be added, happened during:a bygone service conducted by the Eev. A. H. Stobo in Mr Barclay's house near Woodlands. Mr J. S.iGrieve, the treasurer, has been in office since 1880. Old identities will remember the Murihiku store kept by his father in Esk St., InvercargSll. Mr J. S'.- Grieve came ' with his parents to Port Chalmers -in 1957 in the Strathmore, and was a pupil in the first school opened in 3>unedin and also at Invercargill, completing his education at the In-vercarg-iil Grammar School, conducted by the ,late Mr A. McDonald. Mr J. Officer, the' session clerk, was appointed to the position in 1809, and still officiates, r Messrs Duncan McArthur, Kenneth Finlayson, and Alexander Law were appointed t assessors to take steps to form.a Session. The first elders and deacons were ordained on Mar. 15th, 1868. The elders were Mrs Jas. Laing, .Tames Gray, John Mcllwrick, Charles Coster,, William Baird, and DonaldV McKerchar ; the deacons were Messrs Vesey Wm\ Wilson, Andrew Blakie, Ronald Mcllwrick, Alexander Hamilton, ; and Archibald Cameron. Mr McKerchar, the oldest inember of the well-known Southland family, is , the only i surviving elder appointed in ( 180 S. The Rev. Mr Stevens spent the i evening of his life in Wallacetown, 7 and died on January 9th, 1592, at r the age of Si. Of the family, the surviving members are Miss Stevens < (who has been a Sunday school tea- ] cher for over 50 years), ,' and Miss -, Amy. Stevens (Wallacetown), Mr . Alex. Stevens (Ryal Bush), Mr John 2 Stevens (Awarua Plains), Mrs Sel- 1 Jars (Woodlands), and Mrs •. Riddle i (North Island). 7 Of Miss Stevens and her work as a . Sunday, school teacher, it may be I said, in the words of the poet— i Not stirring words, nor gallant deeds x alone, ] Plain, patient work fulfilled that £ . ..length, of life ; 1 : Duty,, not ' giory service, not a throne, f Inspired her life, set her for the JS strife. j Cottage services were conducted oc- e casionally at the houses of Messrs g 'James Blaikie, John Grieve, James a Laing, and Mr McLean, of Ryal B,ush, e and Mr Patterson, of. Makarewa. Subsequently regular services were r commenced at Mr Allan's (between ' Makarewa bridge and North Makare- "V wa school). i The pj'oneer in Sunday i school work .was Mrs Riddle, who gathered the * children in. the church vestry before ' the midday service. ■ ; c At Waianiwa Mr Kempthorne was the -first to take up.., Sunday School " work. The place of meeting:., was the f" house of Mr Lindsay and -the school. l£ In Ryal Bush Mr Darley, school tea- c] cher (still hale and and leav- ( dhg the country to live in Invercar- a gill) led the way. "" In 1883 a vote of the congregation iwas taken in regard to the formation of a choir to lead the singing, a] Fifty-five voted in favour of the pro- a< posal and nine against it. F In January, 11884, the Deacons' . . Court came to an end through' the W

resignation of the members, and a committee of management was elected in its place. The first managers were Messrs R. Blakie, J. Cockburn, •: C. Gray, J. S. Grieve, H. Howells, W. McNaughton,, D. . Scott, and D. Taylor. Presby terianism' was active in Southland before the induction of the Rev. Mr Stevens in 1866, for ,we read that on March 19, 1863, a;'meeting of settlers of'the N"ew River district and neighbourhood was held at Wallacetown, when it was decided (.to erect a meeting-house for public worship. Messrs John Grieve, of Branxholm, John Wilson, of Argyle, James Blakie, of Wooden'd, Charles Coster, of Woodlands, i John Mcllwrick, of Rilimi, and Donald ' Mackay, of Oatlands, were appointed a committee a committee to take the matter in hand.. \ Messrs Coster and Mackay resigned from the committee in October, and Messrs Geo. McLeod, Waianiwa, and John Robertson, Ryal Bush, were elected to fill the vacancies., Mr( Angus Kerr was ! appointed architect, and Mr John Thorne was the builder. Among the throng at. Tuesday's nieeting we noticed : Mr . Andrew Murray, , a native of Waianiwa. Mr Walter Blakie, . and representa- , tives of the Brown., and Jenkins families, long associated with the church. Mrs Colin. McDonald, late of Ryal Bush, now of Gladstone, Invercargill,, a daughter of the late Mr K. Fin-' laysqn, one of the first elders of the church, and two of her daughters (Misses Jessie and Christina McDonald) were also present. Also Mr and Mrs Bickley (nee v Fraser). Mrs Peter Blakie, daughter of the late Mr James Gray, of Waianiwa, also one of - the first elders; . accompanied by her daughter, Mrs F. . J. Lillicrap and Mr Lillicrap. . Mr and Mrs Thomas McDonald, West Plains and his wife (nee -Tay-

lor) represented families who arrived here over .50 years ago. Mrs A. Beaven, whose late son, Mr Arthur Beaven, helped -to carry on services in various parts of the district. Mr and Mrs John Officer., Mrs John Blue, North Invercargill, widow of the first precentor, accompanied by sons and daughters, and grandchildren. Mrs John Wilson, formerly of Argyle, Waianiwa, was represented bychildren and grandchildren. , Mr W,, Ronald," his daughters, Miss M. Ronald and Mrs John McKenzie (Northend, an ex-member of, the Wallacetown church choir), and Mr McKenzie. The family of the late Praser,. who came here years ago, was represented by his daughters, Mrs Colin Gray, Misses W. and A. Fraser, aind Mr T. Fraser. Mr and Mrs Wm.' Blakie - and family (Ryal Bush). Mr Blakie was present at Uhe induction of Mr. Stevens in 1866. Mr and Mrs Fowler. (Branxholm), members of two old iaentity families. , Mr Walter Grieve, son of the late Mr Robert Grieve, who settled at Branxholm in 1856. i The above are only a few out of the inany present. , Nearly every pioneer . family in i Southland was represented. "The biggest meeting I've "ever faced in Wallacetown," said the Rev. A. McDonald. The memory of one:* speaker betrayed himi when he spoke of certain livers not having been bridged \ at a : given date. "He's out there,*' commented a real old identity who knows Southland ' like a book. The story of how the Rev. Mr Stevens stopped firewood-cutting on Sunday recalls one about Willie Steel, who was i the Invercargill postman in the early days ; he was also town bellman and , beadle of the "First Church. When he was going along

one Sunday morning he descried a clergyman cutting firewood for the day's services. Willie approached I and remonstrated at such an un- \ seemly desecration of the 'Sabbath, !and he offered to come on a fweek day and cut the wood gratis. Many people nowadays decline to follow the example of His Majesty, Lord Kitchener, and other notables, in . resolving to cease the use of spirituous liquor till the war is oyer ;1 but the late Rev.. A. H. Stobo would not have found it hard to abstain, for his diary contains the following note :—"May 23rd, 1'869 : Preached in the forenoon from Hab. 2-15, a sermon on the 'subject of temperance, in which I declared nly resolution to abstain from all strong drinks as beverages for ten years, and not to give them as beverages in my house. One of the out stations, ,after the Rev. Mr Stobo's arrival, was Woodlands, and service was held there as often as possible. Of these ser. vices the late Mr G. pawson wrote : . "Prior to the advent of Mr Stobo, my wife and I would go to town to hear Mr Bethune, she going one month and I the next, and it just served to keep us in touch with the .Sabbath. We had no school then, and when Mr Stobo came to hold a service the people met in Mr Barclay's house to. hear him. One day, during the course of the sermon, one of the audience took some remarks amiss. He got up and asked the preacher if he referred to him. His wife, who was beside'him, gave his blue shirt (coats were not the fashion then) a tug, and told him to sit down, which he promptly did. The • plank that did duty as a seat was narrow, and stretched between two supports, and he sat down "suddenly and landed on his back on the floor with his,feet sticking up by his wife's side. A very open smile went through the audience..