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Early Wellington

Sailors' Friend Society, Church and Institute

Sailors' Friend Society, Church and Institute.

This society (formerly known as the Missions to Seamen) was established by the Rev. James Moore in 1898. The first meetings were conducted in any available shed on the wharves, under very trying circumstances. The present edifice at the corner of Stout and Whitmore Streets, was presented by Mrs. M. A. Williams, who also presented the site of the Y.M.C.A. buildings in Upper Willis Street, and laid the foundation stone of that building.

Services for sailors and their friends are held in Whitmore Street every Sunday, and parlour concerts during the week. Many valuable pictures adorn the walls of the social hall, some of which are depicting the old wind-jammer type. A library, containing books written in the Victorian age to the present time, is much appreciated by sailor visitors in port, also an old piano, given mainly by the police some 25 years ago, as a mark of their appreciation of the decreased number of arrests on the wharves for stabbing and drunkenness since the establishment of the mission. A war memorial, and tablets commemorating the shipwrecks and lives of those that were lost at sea, are placed in the handsome little church upstairs. There is also a Sailors' Rest Society.—1928: President, Mr. C. J. Mackay; secretary, Mr. K. Purchas.

St. Peter's Mission, Taranaki Street, was founded in 1904 by the Rev. George Paul Davys, one time vicar of St. Peter's Parish. The first meeting was held in
Fig. 239.—“Pahautanui” Church, and last resting place of some of Wellington's old “Pioneers” at Pauatahanui, Porirua Harbour. This church stood near the site of Te Rauparaha's and Rangihaeata's fortified Pas, and were afterwards occupied by the Imperial troops under Colonel Russell, father of the late Captain Russell, M.H.R. Captain Russell, M.H.R. The “Weekly Press” of the 15/7/1921 shows the church and early settlers of the district. The present church was opened on March 8th, 1925.

Fig. 239.—“Pahautanui” Church, and last resting place of some of Wellington's old “Pioneers” at Pauatahanui, Porirua Harbour. This church stood near the site of Te Rauparaha's and Rangihaeata's fortified Pas, and were afterwards occupied by the Imperial troops under Colonel Russell, father of the late Captain Russell, M.H.R. Captain Russell, M.H.R. The “Weekly Press” of the 15/7/1921 shows the church and early settlers of the district. The present church was opened on March 8th, 1925.

page 395 a room above a Chinaman's shop, which was highly flavoured by the smell of vegetables and stores beneath. A crazy staircase gave access to it. The services of Mr. W. H. Walton, a church army worker from England, were secured.

Mission services were held, a Sunday School, Band of Hope and a lad's club were started, and efforts were made to provide some better influence for the children and young people who spent their time learning evil habits and foul language on the sordid streets surrounding the mission room. Later, a parishioner (his name is not mentioned in the little book “History of St. Peter's Mission,” published in 1921), of St. Peter's presented a brick mission hall, which was built in the very centre of Taranaki Street. Mr. Walton, after six months of strenuous pioneer work, resigned to take up work in Kilbirnie, and has since been ordained, and is now Vicar of Foxton.

During the war the mission was maintained by the staff of St. Peter's. In 1919 the Rev. Thomas Fielden (Canon) Taylor was appointed, and in the years that have followed the success of the mission has been remarkable, the King's Theatre being crowded with church people of every denomination, and visitors to Wellington, besides its own flock. Mr. Taylor, in his report of the work of the mission mentioned, at the annual meeting, held on May 4, 1928: “He was happy to say that during the past ten years he had never missed one day's work”—what an example!

That fact alone constitutes a record of a spirit of indomitable courage and dogged perseverance of one living in discomfort, in constant pain—and latterly on crutches—the effect of war wounds and severe exposure to bitter weather received in a self-sacrificing effort to rescue a comrade under fire during the war of 1914–18.