SUGGESTED MEMORIAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 September 1938, Page 7

SUGGESTED MEMORIAL

TO LATE ARCHBISHOP JULIUS (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, September 13. Substantial additions to the Christchurch Cathedral, estimated to cost £25,000, have been suggested by Bishop West-Watson, as a memorial to Archbishop Julius. It is proposed that the raising of funds for the memorial should be a civic project, and to this end the mayor of Christchurch, Mr R. M. Macfarlane will call a meeting of citizens next week. Although Bishop West-Watson made it clear that the project was yet only a suggestion, arid had not received official endorsement, it is considered almost certain that the scheme will be adopted. The plan involves the extension of the chancel, a work which the Archbishop himself had always hoped to See undertaken, and in which he was actively interested until a few weeks before his death.

Bishop West-Watson said that the extension of the chancel was considered an urgent need, and he keenly hoped that the work would be accepted as the form of memorial to the Archbishop. It was expected that the cost would be about £25,000. The question might be asked whether the cathedral was not big enough for its ordinary Sunday congregation, but that was not the point. The cathedral was a building which should be capable of holding great congregations on occasions of special religious, national, or civic importance. On some such occasions in tne past the accommodation had proved inadequate.