MOVING A CATHEDRAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 132, 25 August 1927, Page 14

MOVING A CATHEDRAL

THE SUN’S SYDNEY LETTER

CHURCHMEN’S OPPOSITION HARBOUR BRIDGE PROGRESS The latest bone of contention in this city of squabbles is the question of transferring St. Andrew’s Cathedral from George Street, alongside the Town Hall, to the site of the old mint in Macquarie Street. Mr. Lang and his Government have offered to make the exchange and give £500,000 to boot, in order that an adequate civic centre may be laid out around the Town Hall and space provided for the new station of the underground city railway. The old mint site is in a commanding position, visible from the harbour and with no ugly warehouses near, only Parliament House, the Law Courts, and, in the near distance, St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathdral. The site contains one acre more than the site of the present cathedral, and the exchange seems an advantageous one, and has the support of a number of churchmen, though Canon Boyce and some of his die-hards are against it utterly. Their objection is based on the idea that St. Andrew’s was consecrated for all time. Melbourne Broadcasts Wrestling While Sydney’s stadium is always well patronised, in Melbourne the local leaning is toward wrestling matches, which in Sydney would never attract a crowd under present conditions. The broadcasting of a match in Melbourne to Sydney listeners next Saturday night may start a furore as it did in Melbourne. There, not only do enormous crowds see the matches, but shop windows in which champions’ pictures are shown attract throngs of fans, and books on the art are prominently displayed. The boom is attributed to the regular broadcasting by station 3LO of the big wrestling matches. It is possible that before long the Sydney stadium will intersperse boxing with wrestling. For Shipping or Amusement? Whether “Our ’Arbor” shall remain one of the shipping ports of the world or become a lake surrounded by electric signs and joy resorts and overrun by yachts and launches is a question which is agitating the minds of shipping men. On Saturdays masters of ocean steamers have to give way to scores of cheeky little sailing craft which, by the law of navigation, have the right of way over steamers —and they take every advantage of it. Now another menace to navigation is receiving attention at the hands of the Navigation Department—that of brilliant electric signs at the water’s edge, in the narrow stretch between North Sydney and the city. On the advice of the Harbour Trust, North Sydney Council gave permission to the owners of the signs to erect them there. But so many captains have complained about them that the Navigation Department has ordered their removal or the drastic dimming of the lights. Removal of Quarantine Station A more serious matter to shipping is the proposal to remove the quarantine station from North Head to Broken Bay, or some other out-port from Sydney. The promoter of this move is the Manly Council, urged by landhungry folk who desire water frontages. Shipping interests are fighting the proposal tooth and nail, for it would mean much added expense. Often a passenger or member of a crew is ordered into quarantine while the ship is released, and this would mean a special trip by a steamer to the new quarantine area. The large tract of land at North Head now isolated for quarantine purposes undoubtedly has a big value as building laftd, and would yield a rich harvest of ates to Manly Council, but Sydney is a port first—her whole existence depends on that, and the home-seekers and land agents will have to look fur-

ther afield if the combined resistance of shipping interests can achieve it. Scientist from New Hebrides By this week’s steamer from New Hebrides, Mr J. R. Baker, a professor from Oxford, returned from a tour of scientific observation of those islands. He brought with him four native pigs of a variety which have, partly by chance and partly by native selection, developed a sex peculiarity unique in modern times, though reference is often made to it in historic writings. These animals are to be taken to Oxford for study and observation. In the islands they are always kept for special ceremonial sacrifice, and are held in high estimation by the natives. The flora of the New Hebrides were also studied by Mr. Baker, and many new and interesting plants and roots discovered. In recent months some Sydney scientists also visited the islands of the Condominium, with surprising results, and another Oxford man, Mr. A. Humphreys, also passed through Sydney some months ago with cases of native handiwork for his Alma Mater to study. When the Arch Goes Over Interest in the Sydney Harbour Bridge grows every day among those who pass it in the ferries, and it truly is becoming a work which looms large against the skyline. A party of aidermen which was shown over the spans on each side of the harbour to-day was told some facts connected with the building of the 1,500 ft. span which will be started early next year. To hold the mass of steel, as it is built out with the help of travelling cranes weighing 267 tons each, steel cables, bedded in the rock at each shore, will be used. And after the span is made these will be scrapped, though they cost £150,000. The first of them will reach Sydney next week, and they have to be made fast in tunnels which have been cut in the solid rock so as to enable a loop of steel cable as thick as a man to be made to hold the weight without slipping. WILL LAWSON.