Church of England

The first wooden church in Gisborne was erected on Kaiti by Anglican natives in 1864. White pine was used, and the building was in a very dilapidated state when it was taken down in 1901. The Matawhero Church (which has been the property of the Presbyterian authorities since 1872) is now the oldest place of worship in Poverty Bay. It was built of kauri by Captain Read in 1866 for the Anglicans. Although all the other buildings in the locality were burnt by the Te Kooti rebels in 1868 no harm befell it.

Prior to the erection of the first Holy Trinity Church (which was built of wood, had seating for 250, and was consecrated on 11 April, 1875, by Bishop W. Williams) Anglican residents of Gisborne worshipped in Read's courthouse until the first public school (erected in 1872) became available first to members of their faith, and, afterwards, also to members of other denominations. W. Dean Lysnar conducted the services from 1872 till 1874. The present Holy Trinity Church cost about £7,000. It was consecrated by the Right Rev. Dr. Averill (Bishop of Waiapu) on 29 June, 1913.

Anglican churches in the country districts were dedicated as under: St. Luke's, Waerenga-a-Hika, 11 October, 1903, but destroyed by fire in February, 1910, and replaced on 9 October, 1910; St. George's, Patutahi, 18 June, 1907; and St. John's, Te Karaka, 31 January, 1909. St. Paul's, Kaiti, was opened on 29 September, 1912, and the Church of the Resurrection, Te Hapara, on 16 April, 1917. There are also churches at Motu and Matawai.

Vicars: Rev. J. Murphy (July, 1874, till February, 1875); Rev. E. Williams (September, 1875, till April, 1882); Rev. H. H. S. Hamilton, B.A., who was in his 99th year when he died at Gisborne on 19 October, 1946 (January till June, 1883); Rev. W. Cocks (relieving in latter portion of 1883); Canon John Elliott Fox, M.A., who subsequently served at Waerenga-a-Hika (June, 1884, till January, 1892); Canon Anthony Webb, M.A. (1892 till 1902); Rev. W. Welsh (1902 till 1904); Rev. Dawson Thomas (1904 till 1914); Canon Horace Packe, M.A. (1905 till his death in 1932) Canon Alfred F. Hall, M.A., who became Archdeacon of Waiapu in March, 1949 (1932—).

page 335

Roman Catholic Church

The earliest services in Gisborne after the missionary period were held sometimes at the courthouse and, at other times, at the public school. At Ormond a hall was used. Poverty Bay was established a charge separate from Hawke's Bay in 1878. St. Mary's was consecrated on 26 January, 1880, by the Most Rev. Walter Steins, S.J., D.D. In June, 1903, the Gisborne parish was divided, the country portion being made a separate parish, with Ormond its headquarters. St. Patrick's, Makauri, was consecrated on 14 March, 1903, and St. Joseph's, Makaraka, on 15 April, 1923.

It is intended that all the main church and school buildings shall be situated in Upper Childers Road. Two modern primary schools—one for boys and the other for girls—were built there in 1927, and separate up-to-date secondary schools were opened in 1946. Post-war building difficulties have delayed the erection of a church at Mangapapa. No date has been fixed for the commencement of the building of a main church to replace St. Mary's.

Resident priests at Gisborne: Father John O'Connell, who held his first service at Gisborne in the public school on 27 October, 1872, and his first service at Ormond on 3 November, 1872 (1872–74); Father J. B. Simpson (1874–78); Father Stephen Chastagnon, who has been described as “a dear old partly-crippled French priest noted for his quaint sayings” (1878–80); Father Felix Vaggioli, who returned to Italy and was appointed Abbot-Visitator of Casino Congregation, and was the author of Storia della Nuova Zelanda (1880–83); Father Patrick Riordan, who had been a missionary in India and Mauritius (1883–84); Father Jeremiah John Murphy (1884–88); Father Joseph Paul Kehoe (1888–93); Father Joseph Loughlin Ahern, who was ordained at Ohio, U.S.A. (1893–97); Father Thomas Mulvihill, who died on 23/3/1906, and is the only priest buried in Poverty Bay (1897–1906); Father (later Dean and then Monsignor) Thomas Lane, who became a member of the Auckland Diocesan Council (1906–25); Father Joseph Patrick Murphy (1925–34); Father James McMahon (1934–48); Father N. Berridge (1949—).

Resident priests at Ormond: Father Lane, Father Dignan, Father Carran, Father Lyons, Father Curley, Father Leen, Father Bowling.

Father John Breen was drowned at Whangaparaoa in 1853, and Father Alletag in the Waioeka River in 1861.

Presbyterian Church

Whilst on a visit to Poverty Bay, at the instance of the Hawke's Bay Presbytery, in May, 1872, the Rev. George Morice, of St. Paul's, Napier, advanced the sum required to buy the Matawhero church from Captain Read. The Rev. W. Hevington Root (formerly an Anglican minister), who was sent out to Poverty Bay by the Free Church Colonial Mission, arrived at Gisborne on 25 February, 1873. He held his first services on 2 March, 1873, preaching at Ormond at 11 a.m., Matawhero at 3 p.m., and at Gisborne at 6.30 p.m.

When Mr. Root moved from Matawhero into Gisborne towards the close of 1873 he opened a campaign for funds to enable a church to be built. He promoted the first bazaar and the first promenade concert to be held in the township. The church site at the corner of Childers Road and Cobden Street, which had been allotted, by ballot, to the members of the Presbyterian faith by the Auckland Provincial Council, was enlarged by the gift of 1½ acres, which A. Graham, A. Blair, J. Ferguson, M. Hall and W. B. Mill had purchased for £25. On 25 October, 1874, a church—the main body measured 44 feet by 22 feet—was opened, dedicated and named St. Andrew's by the Rev. David Bruce, of Auckland. It was the first wooden church to be built within the limits of the township. The present St. Andrew's was dedicated by the Very Rev. Dr. J. Gibb, of Wellington, on 26 October, 1913.

Ministers: Rev. W. Hevington Root (1873 till August, 1878); Rev. John McAra (14 May, 1879, till 23 January, 1890, when his buggy overturned on the Peel Street bridge and he was fatally injured); Rev. Robert Middleton Ryburn, M.A. (October, 1890, till September, 1897); Rev. James Gillies Paterson (June, 1898, till his death, which occurred suddenly on 10 August, 1906); Rev. William Grant, who was one of page 336 the first ministers in the Dominion to offer his services as a chaplain for the first Great War, and who was killed in the trenches on Gallipoli (October, 1906, till 28 August, 1915); Rev. James Aitken, M.A. (March, 1916, till January, 1935); Rev. Alfred James Henry Dow (1935 till 1942); Very Rev. John Davie (1942–47); Rev. J. Kingsley Fairbairn, B.A., M.B.E. (1948—).

Knox Church, Mangapapa, was built in 1913, and St. David's, Kaiti, in 1923. Country churches are as under: Matawhero (acquired in 1872), Ormond (opened in 1895), Patutahi (1901) and Te Karaka (1908).

Fifty years' service as a Sunday School teacher at St. Andrew's was completed by Miss F. M. Witty in October, 1947.

Methodist Church

The Methodist Church in Gisborne had its origin in services held in the early 1870's in James East's home. Between 1874 and 1876 either the school or the courthouse was used as a meeting place. Mr. (later the Hon.) G. W. Russell (then a Divinity student) was the first minister. He preached his inaugural sermon on 5 July, 1874, and, in March, 1875, was transferred to New Plymouth. Subsequently, he engaged in journalism and, eventually, entered Parliament, attaining Ministerial rank.

As the acre section in Carnarvon Street which had been presented by the Auckland Provincial Council was so remote, the site of the present church in Bright Street was bought at a cost of £50. A church (34 feet by 24 feet) was opened on 2 January, 1876. Its successor was dedicated on 19 January, 1891. Suburban churches were opened at Te Hapara (1910), Mangapapa (1913) and Victoria Township (1915). In 1932, on account of the depression, the second minister was withdrawn, and this step led to the closing of the country causes, which included Matawai, Motu, Motuhora, Makauri, Kaiteratahi, Tolaga Bay and Tokomaru Bay. New church buildings closer to the main centre of population are projected.

Ministers: G. W. Russell (1874–5), T. G. Carr (1875–6), W. S. Harper (1876–9), L. Salter (1879–80), J. Dellow (1880–2), L. Hewson (1882–3), J. T. Pinfold (1883–4), G. W. Spence (1884–5), T. J. Willis (1886–7), J. A. Luxford (1887–8), J. Ward (1888–91), S. J. Gibson (1891–3), T. N. Griffin (1893–5), L. Salter, second term (1895–6), J. Blight (1896–9), F. B. Oldham (189901), B. F. Rothwell (1901–4), G. Hounsell (1904–6), C. Griffin (1906–9), J. A. Lochore (1909–14), R. Raine (1914–16), W. Wills (1916–19), W. H. E. Abbey (1919–21), E. T. Cox (1921–4), G. Frost (1924–30), W. J. Elliott (1930–3), H. Daniel (1933–6), F. E. Leadley (1936–40), A. Blakemore (1940–5), B. M. Tasker (1945–8), E. B. Chalmers (1948—). Assistant ministers: Revs. A. F. Attwood, I. M. Raynor and I. S. Williamson. Three Gisborne trainees—John Dawson, Selwyn Dawson and Francis Parker—have joined the ministry.

Baptist Church

The Baptist Church in Gisborne was officially established on 4 March, 1908, by the Rev. W. Lamb (formerly of London). Five deacons—Captain W. Cumming and H. East, N. Lambert, G. Minnis and O. Crafts—were appointed. There had previously been an unaffiliated Baptist communion in the town under the Rev. D. Parry. Its adherents built the Baptist Tabernacle, which was opened in June, 1906. When difficulty arose over the debt on the building the movement subsided. In November, 1907, the Auckland Auxiliary took steps to redeem the building.

Pastors: W. Lamb (1908–11), T. Keith Ewen (1911–13), P. J. Wainwright (1914–15), H. G. Goring (1915–16), J. Carlisle (1916–20), A. W. Stuart (1920–22), F. A. Crawshaw (1923–26), G. N. Garlick and L. C. M. Donaldson (supply, 1927), O. Allwright (1928–31), L. C. M. Donaldson (1931–34), E. W. Batts (1934–40), F. A. Parry (1940–43), E. M. Enwright (1943–47), A. Silcock (1947—).

Ex-scholars of the Sunday School include three ordained ministers: Rev. E. P. Gill, B.A., B.D., Rev. A. L. Day and Rev. Rex Goldsmith, M.A.

Miss Jean Thomson, B.A., of Te Hapara, became a Baptist missionary in East Bengal in 1941, and was recommissioned for a second term of five years in 1946.

Salvation Army

The Gisborne Corps was formed under Lieutenant Holdaway on 31 October, 1886. Hoodlums created unseemly scenes at the early open-air meetings. A series of protests against the corps being permitted to hold page 337 street meetings led to a decision by the Borough Council, by 6 votes to 3, to request the police to take action “to abate the nuisance.” On 25 July, 1888, Major Peter Lovelock, William Wright, George Gleddin and William Hay were each fined 10/6 by Mr. Booth, R.M., in default 24 hours in prison. They elected to go to gaol. In Parliament, the Minister for Justice, in reply to a complaint by Richard John Seddon (who, some years later, became one of New Zealand's most noted Premiers) gave an assurance that no more prosecutions would be permitted. The present brick Citadel (dedicated in 1898) superseded a wooden building on the same site.

Churches of Other Sects

The Congregationalists opened a church in Gisborne on 25 April, 1886, but, two years later, when the pastor (Rev. A. H. Wallace) resigned to re-enter the Presbyterian Church, it was closed.

The Gisborne Group of Christian Scientists (formed in 1914) gained recognition as a branch of the Mother Church in Boston, U.S.A., in 1932, and four years afterwards built a neat church in Childers Road.

A branch of the Theosophical Society was formed in Gisborne in 1907.

Members of the Church of Christ in Gisborne first met for services in 1896 at the home of H. Veal, and, after making several changes in regard to their meeting place, built a chapel in Roebuck Road.

In 1886, Te Rahui became a Mormon centre for the East Coast. Six elders visited Te Hati Houkamau's settlement. Soon after their arrival they began a service, and, as they would not desist, they were trussed up and carried back across the Awatere River. Te Hati was fined 5/- for assault and the elders £5 each for trespass.

In Gisborne the Seventh Day Adventist Church was organised on 19 May, 1890. The church now in use was dedicated on 30 January, 1927.

Members of the Brethren were few in numbers in Gisborne in 1883, when they met for services at the home of Mr. Campbell Thompson. There are now three groups—the Open Meeting Brethren, the Plymouth Brethren and the London Brethren.