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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
St. Matthew's Church, Dunedin
St. Matthew's Church, Dunedin . The foundation stone of this church was laid, with Masonic honours, on the 11th of July, 1873. It was opened on the 3rd of December, 1874, and cost £4,854 4s 3d. The style of architecture is adapted Gothic—cruciform, with apsidal chancel. The chancel five lancets have been filled with stained glass to the memory of Sergeant Sam. Gourley, the first of the Otago volunteers to die for the Empire in the South African war. This window—subject. The Ascension—was erected by Sergeant Gourley's father (Hon. H. Gourley), relatives, co-parishioners, and friends. There are other memorial windows. The walls without are of dark bluestone, with white facings; the walls within are of white plaster, and the fine roof is painted in a dark shade. St. Matthew's is one of the finest, if not the finest, of the Anglican parish churches in New Zealand, and by far the largest and noblest ecclesaiastical structure in the Dunedin diocese. It is comfortably seated for 750 persons, and has seated 1000 and upwards. The parish declined the overtures made by the diocese for its church becoming the Cathedral. From a parochial point of view this was probably wise; from a diocesan point of view, unfortunate, since the diocese lost the only building worthy of being its Cathedral. The organ is a three-manual one, by Bevingtons, of London. It was erected in 1830, at a cost of £1,400. By renovations and improvements, and the addition of a new trumpet stop, in memory of the late Archdeason Fenton, M.A., the total cost has been £1,700. St. Matthew's has had many vicissitudes. Owing to its heavy indebtedness one vicar after another found it necessary to resign. In 1898 the present vicar (Rev. W. Curzon-Siggers, M.A.) formulated a scheme for paying off the debt of £2,700 on the church. Mr. Curzon-Siggers supervised the scheme with the help of Mr. Maris Clark, churchwarden, and in three years the whole sum was raised by straight giving and the debt paid. In commemoration thereof the last Sunday in July is observed as Dedication Sunday as on that day, in 1901, the vicar dedicated the church as being free. The parish now gives what it used to pay annually in interest, towards the stipends of a missionary in the New Hebrides and of a missionary to the Maoris. During the first five years of the vicar's incumbency, £8,224 was raised for various church purposes, and the congregation is in no sense a wealthy one.