CATHEDRAL GUILD.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2361, 28 October 1881, Page 4

CATHEDRAL GUILD.

The annual meeting of the members of the Cathedral Guild was held last evening, in the library of Christ’s College. There was a good attendance of members and the public, and tho Very Ray. the Dean presided. The proceedings were commenced with the usual de. volional exercises, after which the Dean expressed pleasure at tho largo meeting, and excused any nnpreparedness for the same, owing to the sudden removal of the late excellent secretary, Mr Dodd, to Dunedin, also to the tax upon tho time of all, owing to Cathedral exigencies. There was no written report, but the treasurer had handed him the balance sheet. One general meeting only had been held during the past year, Mr Wells had been busily engaged for some months in getting ready for the opening services of Tuesday next. Mr E. A. Worthy had kept the collectors to their work, having arranged regular meetings for them at his house. The receipts from October 12th, 1880, to October 27th, 1881, were—Balance in hand, £5 12s lid ; sundry collections, £B9 18s 6d, making a total of £95 11s sd. Of this sum £75 had boon handed over to tho Cathedral Commissioners towards tho rose window of the Cathedral, on account of which the sum of £135 was still owing. They would have to elect two vice-presidents, a secretary and treasurer and ten members of committee. The Guild had been in existence for eight years, and ho thought a few details of tho history of Cathedral, also of the foundation of tho Guild, would prove interesting. Tho Doan then gave a full account of tho Dean and Chapter Endowment by the Canterbury Association and the subsequent formation of the Capitular Body. The nest-egg of tho Cathedral was tho £IOOO voted by the Provincial Council and some subscriptions in E ngland. A meeting was held ia St. Michael’s in 1862, when Mr J, E. Fitzgerald and others took the matter up warmly, and many thousands of pounds were subscribed in a few weeks ; but it was not till December 16th, 1864, that tho foundation stone was laid, and Mr Speeohly was sent out by Sir Gilbert Scott, the eminent architect, to act as architect for tho Cathedral, Several years elapsed before any superstructure was raised, owing to the severe depression in the colony, so that many despaired of the Cathedral being built. At tho very acme of the depression, Mr Anthony Trollope, who was a schoolfellow of J. R Godley, came herein the winter of 1872, and in his celebrated book on tho colonies said, if the cathedral was over built, it would probably satisfy one half and dissatisfy the other half, characterising the foundations as the burial place of £7OOO. Ho believed that Mr Trollope’s words turned the tide, and made all determined to wipe out this disgrace. Partly from this cause sprang the Guild, and at the Session of Synod in 1873 a sum of £SOOO was granted to the Cathedral funds by a large majority. This caused the walls to be raised to a height of 19ft. Tho next year another grant of £SOOO was voted. The work was never really stepped after that, although jokes about the man and the boy at work on it were freely bandied about, aud it was jestingly called an interesting ruin. In 1880, tho contract fer that portion of tho Cathedral now finished was let to Messrs Stocks and Btenhouse, and then Mr R. H. Rhodes came forward and most munificently built the beautiful lower, and the result was such as to call for tho most unbounded thankfulness, But tho work was not yet done, tho transepts and chancel yet remaining to bo built. Tho first work of the Guild was the west door of the Cathedral. The next was a column and arch, and the last was tho rose window, and ha hoped that during the coming year the debt on account of that window would bo wiped off. Ho also hoped that the Guild would still keep the man and boy at work, and that the temporary npae, beautiful though it was, would soon give place to the permanent one. The Dean resumed his seat amidst considerable applause. The election of officers resulted as follows: President, the Most Rev. the Primate, ex officio. Vice-presidents, the Very Rev. the Dean, tho Hon. H. B. Grossen. Secretary, Mr E. G. Stodman. Treasurer, Mr Alfred Thompson. Committee—Clergy, Canon Ootterill, Revs. E. Knowles, O. Bowen, T. Elavel, and W. H. Elton, Laity, Messrs Worthy, Evans, Jameson, Brittan and Boatson. It was resolved that a photograph of trie Cathedral in ita present state ho forwarded to Mr Anthony Trollope. The proceedings were interspersed by Shaksperian readings and ' musical selections.