ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH

Southland Times, Issue 19822, 19 March 1926, Page 4

ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH

NEW BUILDING TO BE ERECTED. After many years of constant use St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church at South Invercargill is to be replaced shortly by a more modern and befitting erection. The first step in the accomplishment of this aim was taken at a meeting of the Southland Presbytery recently, when an application for a grant was referred to the Synod at Dunedin for consideration. The proposed style of architecture of the new building is a modified form of Gothic, which will give the building a plain and simple appearance. It is to be constructed of brick, while the interior will be calsomined, with panel work running round to the level of the windows. A wise provision is the building of a temporary wall at the rear of the church, so that it can be enlarged at a later date if necessary. Its dimensions will be 36 feet in width by 55 feet in length and it will have seating accommodation for 300 persons. A large vestibule will be built at the front of the building. The total cost of the new church has been estimated to be about £3400.

Mr N. R. Lightbody, the architect, proposes to employ the -principles of acoustic correction, as formulated by Professor Wallace Sabine, of Harvard University, U.S.A., in the building of the walls. This involves the use of special materials, including felt and calico, in conjunction with air spaces in the walls, and by this means a good percentage of unnecessary sound is absorbed. Mr Lightbody states that the discovery is a recent one and to his knowledge has not so far been used in New Zealand, though the system is employed extensively wires are used to get rid of too great a volume of sound, but Mr Lightbody conin the United States. In many churches siders that this is an unsatisfactory metjud.