The anglican cathedral church of St Paul, Wellington

Abstract

The New Zealand Government purchased Old St Paul's from the Anglican Diocese of Wellington in 1967 and almost at once commenced repairs and restoration work. In connection with this, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, which had been made responsible for the future use of the church, began an inquiry into its history. As the Trust's Research Officer, I was asked to do this work. There had been earlier essays on the history of the cathedral church. Special occasions, such as jubilees, had produced short articles. Several of the church's staff, notably Rt Rev. G.M. Mckenzie when he was assistant-curate of St Paul's from 1931 till 1934, and Rev. Minor Canon M.R. Pirani while he was assistant-curate in 1958, had made sustained efforts to compile histories of the church building and its furnishings. Pirani's work, which originally took the form of six talks for Young Anglicans, had been published late in 1958 under the title A Short History of The Cathedral of Saint Paul the Apostle Wellington New Zealand The First and Second Stages in the story of the Foundation.