TEA MEETING.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 108, 5 October 1874, Page 3

TEA MEETING.

A public tea meeting was held on Friday evening, in the schoolroom at New Brighton, with the object of raising funds towards the erection of a church in that district. An excellent tea was provided by the ladies of the district, the tables being presided over by Mesdaraes Corser and Palmer, and Misses Hamilton and Inwood. The bachelors also provided a table, over which Mrs Free presided.

After the table had been cleared, a public meeting was held, the Kev H. Glasson in the chair.

The chairman congratulated the meeting on the object and success of the gathering. The district was daily increasing in the number of its [inhabitants, and he felt assured had a great future before it. The hope that they would have a church there was not a dream, but promised to be a reality. It was a common thing in some new places to hear of a tavern being the first building erected, but such a statement would be a libel on Canterbury, as here a church was generally the first public budding erected. [Applause]. Their best thanks were due to the committee for permitting them the use of the schoolroom for the purpose of meeting together to hold services. Mr J. H. Twentyman, called upon by the chairman, expressed the pleasure he felt in seeing some of the old faces present whom he used to meet six years ago. They had met that night for the good object of establishing a church in their midst, the advantages of which would be increased by having a minister who would now often visit them and hold services in it. Mr Twentyman referred to the pleasure he had experienced in acting in that room as one of the lay readers, and exhorted his readers to continue the work of prayer, and instanced the effect of prayer now being experienced in England, where there existed such a blessing of plentitude as had not been known since the days of the Pentecost. He was glad to sec that a Sunday school had been established there, and appealed to the young persons present to pay attention to the religious instruction received therein. If they should never meet again, he wished them God speed and every blessing in this life and happiness in the next.

The chairman said that, as the "clergyman of the pariah, he felt deeply indebted to Messrs Tweutyman, Kennavvay, and Heywood, for the services they had rendered to the district as lay readers, and the presentation about to be made those gentlemen was specially graceful, and what gave it more point was, that they were about to lose Mr Kennaway, who was going to transfer his valuable services where he was certain he (Mr Kennaway) would not lose sight of the colony of New Zealand. He would now call on Mr D. W. Hamilton to make the presentations.

After a few appropriate remarks, in which Mr Hamilton referred to the services rendered by Messrs Kennaway, Heywood, and Twentyman, he presented, in the name of the inhabitants of New Brighton, a large and handsome family Bible to each of those gentlemen, the fly-leaf of each book bearing their names, and containing a label, on which was inscribed—“ Presented to ——, Esq., as an acknowledgment of his services and kindness towards the inhabitants of New Brighton, by his punctual attendance as lay reader for years.”

Mr Kennaway, who was received with applause, expressed the difficulty he always felt in addressing a public meeting, that difficulty being increased in that instance by the sudden surprise of the presentation, as when he went to the meeting he had no idea that he was going to receive so valuable and handsome a present. So far as he was concerned, his thanks were almost due to them, as during the six or seven years he had visited them he had derived great advantage from going there, and always looked forward from his hard work with pleasure to the Sunday, when he would conduct the simple service in that and the other rooms in which ibey used to meet. In his position as member of the Provincial Council, he had opposed the opening of the Museum on Sundays—[applause]—and why he did so was for this simple reason (though he did not give his reason at the time, as it was not one that could be discussed in a Legislature) that he looked upon the seventh day as a Divine institution for keeping certain portions of time to rest their minds and bodies. Mr Kennaway then stated the benefit this rest had been to him while engaged in public business, and the regret he felt at leaving the province, which had been his adopted home for twenty years. He trusted that in their prayers they would remember him and his family when they were on the high seas, and again thanked them for the kindness he had always received at their hands, and in showing their appreciation of his work as they had done by the very handsome present made him that evening. Mr Heywood and Mr Twentyman also returned thanks.

The Chairman proposed a vote of thanks to the school committee, who had permitted the use of that room on all occasions, to which Mr Kerr, the chairman of the committee, replied. Votes of thanks were also passed to the ladies who had provided the tea, and to those ladies who had presided over the tables. Mr Kennaway moved a vote of thanks to Miss Hamilton, for her aid to the Sunday services, by leading the music, which was carried amid acclamation.

The proceeds from the tea amounted to £6 .7s. A vote of thanks to the rev. chairman concluded the meeting.