CHARLESTON
that he would hold Divine service on the following day in Clunes’ Hotel, Darkie’s Terrace, in the morning, and in the Commercial Hotel, Charleston, at noon and in the evening. In the same newspaper a month before, tenders had been called for the building of St. Patrick’s Chapel, the Building Committee being Messrs. J. Creed, T. Glennon, P. Hehir, and Michael Barry; it was opened by Father Royer in June or July of that year, 1867.
The first Resident priest was Father Etienne Hallum, who occupied a presbytery on Darkie’s Terrace Road. He was a Frenchman who had been a missionary among the Maoris. Upon his leaving Charleston, early in the ’seventies, services in St. Patrick’s Chapel were conducted by Father Walsh and other non-resident priests, one of whom was Father Morrissey. Although the congregation of this church was greater than either of the others, no records are obtainable. The Rev. Father E. J. Carmine, now of Pungarehu, remembers visiting Charleston about 1901 with Monsignor Walsh, then Arch-priest. On that Sunday, James Lavery was altar-boy. He also said Mass at Charleston in 1920, and remembers that the old church “was then all worm-eaten. The vestments and organ were first-class. The congregation was small.”
METHODIST CHURCH.
This church stood upon Section 349 in Camp Street South or, as it was then called, Brighton Road. It was built in August, 1867, at the instance of the Rev. Joseph White but was, contrary to his wish, established on the “union basis,” for the use of all Protestant denominations, and termed The Evangelical Union Church.
There is not any record of the first meetings, nor of the first Committee which arranged for the building. The first meeting on record was a public meeting held on 10th July, 1867, in the partly-completed building, those mentioned as having attended being Messrs. —. Hudson (Chair), G. O. Clayton (Secretary), —. Renton, T. Crumpton, H. Masters, Richard Green, Snr., —. Bruce, —. Leggatt. This meeting decided that the building when completed be handed over to
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