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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
The Rev. W. Curzon-Siggers
The Rev. W. Curzon-Siggers , M.A., Vicar of St. Matthew's, Dunedin, was educated at St. Boniface College, Warminister. St. Augustine's College, Canterbury (being Senior Student), and University College, Durham, where he graduated B.A. in 1885, and M.A. in 1889. During his college courses he took the prizes of his colleges in Hebrew, Greek Testament, Classics, Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Essays. He was ordained to the position of Bishop's vicar of St. Alban's Cathedral, Pretoria, after obtaining the first place in the first class in the Universities Examination for Holy Orders in 1882 in England, being the youngest examinee of that year. He was Mathematical and Classical Master of St. Birinus Cathedral School, 1882, 1884. Mr. Curzon-Siggers has received various calls to work from different Bishops and parishes, which has made him somewhat of a traveller, and so a frequent lecturer on various colonies. At Ballarat, in Victoria, he became honorary secretary of the Ballarat East Public Library, whose thousands of books he catalogued on a plan which noted the title, author, edition, size, etc., of every volume; and for this, and other services, his name is inscribed on a marble tablet of honour in the Library Hall. At a time of great distress he managed a relief movement in Ballarat for about four months, for which he received the thanks of the citizens inscribed on vellum and signed by the two mayors (of the city and the town). In conjunction with a friend, he raised £700 in shillings for the Benevolent Asylum, and was elected a life Governor. In 1895 he came to New Zealand, and became Vicar of St. Matthew's, Dunedin, in 1896. In 1898 he formulated and carried through a scheme for freeing that parish from its heavy debt—a scheme that has been copied by other churches in different colonies. He was one of the original founders of the Dunedin Competitions Society, and of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children—of both of which he still remains a committeeman. In 1898 he founded the “New Zealand Guardian,” of which he has always been the editor. He is the author of “Travels in Africa,” “The Immortality of the Soul,” “Religion of Science and the Bible,” “The Teacher's Church Catechism,” “The Catholic Faith,” “Lessons on the New and the Old Testament,” “The Scholar's Church Catechism,” and various monographs.