SELWYN’S CHURCHES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 922, 15 March 1930, Page 8

SELWYN’S CHURCHES

VARSITY STUDENTS DRAW SERIES OF SKETCHES IMPORTANT WORK DONE Two students of architecture attending the Auckland University College, Mr. A. J. Sedcole and Mr. C- I. Crookes, have recently completed a comprehensive set of plans and sketches of what are known as the Selwyn Churches of Auckland. The work is of importance ns a historic record of an architec tural style which has a charm and character of its own. The students undertook the task as a vacatn :nl . t >bby. In course of their holiday they journeyed by motor-car from To Awanmtu through the province anti concluded their labour at YYa.m to N\*rth.

And now after four months' exploration of the highways and byways of the province and persistence with rule and compasses the collaborators have finished IS sheets telling the story of pioneer church construction in New

Zealand. Faithfully done to scale, in terms of- ground plans and elevations, and relieved by soft-toned impressions deftly worked in here and there, the work stands monumental to craftsmanship and patience. In all, the young men have put on pajnr 1U churches and several old mission buildings, together with the first house built in this country. TRANSPORTED BY SCOW That architectural gem. All Saints’, Ho wick, removed from the city’s noise and bustle, liis drawn universal expressions of delight. The manner of its .coming to its rural setting is strange*. Bishop Selwyn supervised the construction not on its present site, but at St. John’s College, Remuera The church was then transported section on section by scow to Howick. It dates from 1847. All Selwyn churches are believed to have been built between 1543 and 1860. If properly looked after they should endure for a century from now, in the opinion of Messrs. Sedcole and Crookes. They found an incre;u?ing willingness on the part of the clergy to care for the little churches. Some which had lain in sorry dilapidation were being renovated and infused with new life. Bishop Selwyn had three of his clergy who readily absorbed the inspiration of the prelate’s architecture. The Rev. Dr. A- G. Purchas, a versatile man who composed music and practised medicine, was perhaps the most notable. Then there was the Rev. F. Thatcher, who before his ordination was an architect and planned St. John’s College Chapel, and the Rev. .T. Blackett. FOR REFUGE One of Dr. Purchas’s churches is St. Bride’s, Mauku, built in 1861. During the troublous times of the Maori Wars it became a place of refuge for settlers. Later the building was stockaded with logs and loopholcd as a military post. Nearer the City there is St- Stephen’s Chapel, Judges Bay. There among mouldering stones to the memory of early colonisers the little place rises in quiet sacredness. On that site Selwyn built his first stone church. It was not a success. The mortar perished and stone on stone the building yielded until destroyed by hurricane in 1847, after standing only four years. Writing to friends in England during its construction, the bishop remarked: “Being in stone, the chain is quite a relief amid a wilderness of weatherboard.” The present house in wood, a tvpical Selwyn church, was completed in 1857. The constitution of the Church of the Province of New Zealand, as the Church of England here is called, was signed on its altar in that year. Citizens of Auckland have an affection for the old mission buildings at Kohimiirama. Mr. Sedcole and Mr. Crookes found them of absorbing interest. Only a portion remain. The stone for their construction was quarried at. Rangitoto. The work came under the supervision of New Zealand’s martyr bishop, John Coleridge Patteson, who raised the block to house Melanesian boys studying hereThe refectory was built from proceeds of Charlotte M. Yonge’s novel.

“The Daisy Chain.” The writer was a cousin of Bishop Patteson. PINES WITH A STORY

The two towering Norfolk pines admired by visitors to Kohimarama were planted, with a third, by Bishop Selwyn, Bishop Pa.tteson and Bishop Abraham, of Wellington. Bishop Abraham’s tree died while still a shrub. It is said to have been killed through wool scour being placed too near its roots. In the winter when, the mission buildings were not in use (it being too cold in. Auckland for the Melanesians), the group was let to whoever wanted temporary housing, and wool dealers destroyed the piapfci The architects have been at pains to make a conjectural restoration of the entire mission block from portions left in the ground. The work is not the least valuable of their effort. Before going North the young men journeyed to Northcote, where they took details of St. John the Baptist, the first church, it. is believed, to appear on the North Shore. North Auckland, with its wealth of pioneer associations, gave the investigators scope for research. The old church and vicarage at Waimate were captured in ink and a visit made to Kerikeri. Here, standing sound though ancient (as measured in terms of New Zealand’s youthful history), the students found the oldest European house in the country. One hundred and eleven years the Georgian pile has looked out upon the Bay of Islands- The Kemp family built it and their descendants live there stilL Severe and almost forbidding, the famous stone storehouse a few chains away received attention. “This old building was ostensibly built as a store by the missionaries,” Mr. Sedcole commented. “It has w ills three feet thick and there is little doubt that th® builders had the idea of making a fortress of it if the Maoris gave trouble. It dates from 1533.’ He added that some mystery attaches to the quoins, or corner stones. Th€y are of sandstone, which does not occur in the North. Story, based on more than mere presumption, has it that the stone was brought from Sydney after it had been fashioned by convict labour.