CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 276, 29 May 1875, Page 2

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Thu present time affords us an appropriate opportunity to give a description or the commodious little building recently erected for the Episcopal Church members in Gisborne, and which forms so conspicuous a feature in our landscape. The architecture is in the early English styleof the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. It’s extreme length, exclusive of the porch, is fifty four feet, with a width of thirty six feet. The main building is forty feet long by twenty two feet wide, the height, to apex of roof, thirty five feet. The side aisles are seven feet wide, connected with the nave by handsome, semicircular, arches, resting on tetragon posts, having turned caps and bases. The chancel is separated from the nave by a series of steps, and a handsome altar rail consisting of open, perforated, Gothic panels. The seats are in accord with the whole of the building, and will accommodate 250 persons. The timber used is kauri throughout; the whole of the interior, being stained and varnished.

Light is obtained by day from eight semi-lancet headed windows, the nave and other parts of the buildings having twelve single windows of a similar description, and the chancel and front, two trigon lancet windows. The ventilation is well provided for by three louvre ventilators in the gables. By night the building is lighted in the nave by three handsome dependent chandeliers, consisting of thirteen burners, and the aisles by a number of side lamps with reflectors, which help to distribute the light evenly throughout the Church, and presents an appearance of comfort, not always to be found in more pretentious buildings. The plans and specifications were prepared by Mr. R. Reals, of Auckland, and deserve great creditfor their just and true proportions, and equal adjustment of resisting pressure on the building. A small tower, or belfry, and organ loft, are sadly needed but these will come in time. With this brief notice we can but congratulate the parishioners on the successful result of their labors ; andnow that they have for 'their pastor, in the person of the Rev. Mr. Williams, a gentleman at once popular as a preacher, and universally sought after by other communities, they may rest assured that the Gisborne branch of the church militant has been confided, by a beneficent providence, to the guardianship of one, in whose hands it cannot but prosper.