PRESBYTERIAN PROGRESS

Taranaki Daily News, 9 August 1928, Page 11

PRESBYTERIAN PROGRESS

NEW CHURCH TO BE ERECTED DECISION OF THE CONGREGATION. HANDSOME DESIGN WITH SPIRE. The erection of a handsome new church for tho Presbyterians of New Plymouth was authorised at the annual meeting of the congregation of St. Andrew’s Church last night. The building, which is to be built of New Plymouth stone, will be located on the section recently purchased by the church at the corner of Courtenay and Liardet streets. The design, ae circulated in the annual report, is a very pleasing one in the gothic style, characterised by a stately spire at one corner, and the cbureii should bo a valuable addition to the bet-ter-class new buildings of the town. The congregation instructed the incoming managers to organise, at the earliest possible date, a drive to raise funds to build the new church, and to invito the Rev. J. Patterson, of Wanganui, to come to New Plymouth to assist in the campaign. Tho managers were also constituted a special committee to consider tho advisability of subdividing and leasing the property on which the present church in Devon Street is standing, and to report back to the congregation. The design submitted in plan to tho congregation and approved by them is the work of Messrs. Clcre and Clere, of Wellington, whoso appointment as architects of the new building was confirmed. As stated, the church is to bo of New Plymouth stone, obtained locally. The rough stones arc to be split and set split face outward, and are to be pointed with cement mortar. Tho wall will be backed with reinforced concrete to a thickness of about 14in. The windows and door dressings, also the corner stops, will have irregular cast concrete groins, smoothly plastered and finished white. The interior walls will be plastered and finished white, the woodwork to be heart of rimu, oiled and stained. The seating accommodation will provide for about 500 persons. The gallery, which will seat about 100, may be left to a later date.

The plan provides for a handsome spire. This, as well as the roof of the church, will be covered with Welsh slates.

With regard to the lay-out of the grounds, tho committee has in mind the erection of a low stone wall aoout two feet six indhes high, running along the Liardet and Courtenay Street boundaries. The high bank in Courtenay Street is to be trimmed to an even batter and faced with pungas. Tho entrance will he from Liardet Street, near the corner of Courtenay Street. From this point it is proposed to form a crescent drive emerging near tho right-of-way on the southern boundary. It is suggested that access to the main section level, which is approximately nine feet, bo obtained by a flight of curved concrete steps, the face of the bank to have a battered slope to be turfed or grassed. Tho entrance will have neat iron gates.

It is further- suggested that provision could be made for a Sunday school by taking off the top storey of the dwelling on the new church site, and carrying the building back to the southern boundary of the right-of-way. In this way it will be possible to erect a building from timber in the dwellinghouse providing an assembly hall, 60ft by 22ft, some class-rooms, a kitchen, a storeroom, a library, etc, The estimated cost of this alteration is £lOOO, and the managers have been advised that the building will not in any way detract from or interfere with the appearance of the church itself. Tenders for the erection of the church will be called as soon as a scheme of finance hag been adopted.