SIMPLE PRAYER IN STONE

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1933, Page 5 (Supplement)

SIMPLE PRAYER IN STONE

GRACE AND PEACE AND FAITH WHERE TIME HAS “STOPPED STILL.” THE FIRST STONE LAID IN 1845. (By John Brodie.) At .the foot of Marsland Hill, New Plymouth, lies St. Mary’s Church. In simple beauty, it asks for grace and peace and sturdy faith, a prayer in stone. It is in the town but not of it; there is a feeling on leaving the street to pass within it that time has stopped still; and the business .of market values and making money falls away like a dusty cloak unheeded. . - •/, ' The sun pours through the stained glass windows shedding a radiance on the figures of the Christ. The standards of dead armies spread their colours, dimmed and stained with time, on the grey walls. High above, the dark timbers of the roof aspire swiftly, like a quick gift of,vision. In the chancel of the building shine the crosses on the altar table. The building is rich with treasure. It is a safe; with the door unlocked. Built in stone taken from our own hills and beaches, only one part of the first church of St. Mary’s remains to-day—the north wall standing between the main entrance and the north transept. The section of roof belonging to it was made of timber taken from the site of Pukekura Park. The first Bishop of New Zealand, the wise and beloved Bishop Selwyn, in October of 1842 walked to New Plymouth from Wellington, 270 long miles. The infant settlement pleased him by “its honest agricultural character,” and he saw “a hopeful field of usefulness, for a zealous clergyman among the Devonshire immigrants.” On that visit, the Bishop chose the site, partly a rambling Maori garden, partly native. bush, for the future church of St. Mary. MR. BOLLAND ARRIVES. The advent of the zealous • clergyman was not far distant. In September of next year, the Rev. William Bolland, ad - mitted to deacon’s orders at the Bay of Islands,, sailed with his wife round the North Cape for New Plymouth. Once again on foot, the great Bishop crossed the island from Thames to welcome him. On December 3, in a raupo building on the south side of Currie Lane, the Bishop, assisted by Mr. Bolland and Mr. Butt, conducted the service which marks the foundation of the Church of England in Taranaki. Idleness had no place in those first years of settlement. The little raupo building was swept away by a gale and for a time the courthouse on Mt. Eliot was used as a church. But early in 1844 at a meeting of churchmen, the Rev. William Bolland and Mr. Wicksteed were appointed a committee to solicit contributions from the settlers, either in cash, produce or labour, for the erection of a fitting place of worship; The first stone was laid in 1845, and the new church opened by the Rev. William Bolland in September of the next'year. Death stepped in shortly after the completion of the building, and from a severe bout of fever the young clergyman who had worked so hard for his parish passed away. He died attfie age of 27. He had been in Taranaki only a little over three year. Yet he left an imperishable monument to his memory. He was followed in 1848 by the JRev. Henry Govett who, over a period of 55 difficult

years, watched over the young church and guided it until it grew to maturity. Notwithstanding the enlargements which have had to be made from time to time, the church has preserved a remarkable architectural unity. In 18601862, the west porch and west wall were removed, and the church lengthened westward. Four years later the whole of the south wall was demolished and the width of the church doubled by" a gabled south aisle, with a small vestry. In 1893 the whole of the east wall was pulled down and the church lengthened by . the building of the present chancel, sanctu-ary-apse and organ chamber. The. final addition was made in 1915, when the transept and chapel were added to the north wall. MEMORIALS AND TABLETS. Inside the church itself the memorials and tablets to pioneers in church work make almost a miniature history of the province. The chapel is a memorial to Archdeacon Govett. The reredos commemorates his jubilee in Taranaki, and the brass lectern is a memorial to. his wife. The windows on the northern side of the chancel are in memory of Major Atkinson and those on the southern in memory of the Rev. H. H. Brown. Of the two large windows in the north transept one is to the memory of Archdeacon Walsh and the other to the mem- , ory of the Rev. A. H. Colville. On the west wall of the nave there is a tablet to. the founder of the settlement, Mr. F. ' A. Carrington. On the west wall of the south aisle are two coloured windows to the memory of Mr. and Mrs. John Weston. The font, which/has been in the church almost 80 years, was presented to the church soon after its formation. by Mr. Cotton, domestic chaplain to Bishop Selwyn. The pulpit is in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hirst. Military hatchments, studiously exact, look down from the walls, representing the men of each regiment which lost lives during the Maori War. The. Royal Artillery, the Engineers and the 12th, 14th, 18th, 40th, 43rd, 50th, _s7th,‘' 58th, 68th and 78th Imperial Regiments are represented, besides the Taranaki Militia and Volunteers, the Friendly Natives qnd Native Allies. And there is the hatchment of H.M.S. Niger for the Royal Marines The complete data for the hatchments was obtained by Mr. W. H. Skinner and the paintings were done by Archdeacon Walsh.

Outside, in the quiet grounds of the church, are the graves of soldiers and early colonists. They are scattered on the close-cropped lawns, under the spread of the great oak, the Indian cedar and the cypresses. It is good that these men should have a last resting-place by the church they lived or died for. Under the dark green branches of two cypresses, the trees of mourning, lie side by side the graves of William Bolland and Henry Govett. On the ground the’ trees stand slightly apnrt. Overhead their branches unite—a single tree with a single purpose.