VETERAN PASTOR BEAD

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1785, 22 July 1926, Page 5

VETERAN PASTOR BEAD

REV. JAMES PATERSON. (By Telegraph. Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The death its announced of the Rev. James Paterson, aged 95 years, for 35 years minister of St. John’s Presbyterian 'Church, during which period he was greatly beloved by his people, and in the course of which he rendered valuable service to the city and the country. ; Mr Paterson was horn in the parish of Kirkoswalde, Ayrshire, educated at the Grammar School of Girvan, and! subsequently studied at the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. When twelve years of age he used to teach farmers to write, in order to provide the means to pay for his own education. Mr Paterson was inducted to bt. Peter’s, Liverpool, in 1857. In 1868 he camie to New Zealand, and was inducted to St. John’s in November of that year; and it was not until 1903 that he laid down his ministry to be taken up by a younger man. He was ■succeeded by the Rev. Dr Gibb, but continued 1 to hold the position of senioi minister n/ntil his death. > Mr Paterson twice occupied the position of moderator of the New Zealand Presbyterian Assembly, in 1876 and in 1902. 'For over a quarter of a century he was a member of the New Zealand University Senate. Mr s Paterson died fourteen years ago.