st ninian's church of avondale, 150 years 1860-2010

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St Ninian’s Church

of Avondale

150 Years

1860-2010

A compilation by the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society



2 St inians Church: 150 Years 1860-2010

Contents

The Presbyterian Church in Avondale 3

Knowledge in the Wilderness (the first Whau School) 6

A wrong step in the dark: the death of Rev David Hamilton 9

The legend maker: Rev Alexander MacKenzie 11

This collection of articles has been compiled by the Avondale-Waterview Historical

Society to mark the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Whau PresbyterianChurch, 8 April 2010. The building still stands, although it ceased to be part of the

Avondale Union Parish in 1984, and has been closed to the public since 2007.

We acknowledge and appreciate the generous assistance of the Avondale Community

Board, who funded the printing of 200 copies of this collection for free distribution to

the public. Our thanks also to Jane Hammond for the kind permission to use her

photograph, to the Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland City Libraries, and

the Avondale Business Association for permission to reuse “A wrong step in thedark” first published in the “Spider’s Web”.

Front cover sources:

(Top) St Ninian’s Church, 1963. Ref. 7-A416, Sir George Grey Special Collections;

(Bottom) St Ninian’s 2009, courtesy Jane Hammond, St Jude’s Photographic Collec-

tion.

Last page sources:

Article from ew Zealander , 14 April 1860

Photo: Pews from St Ninian’s Church, photographed at 103 Avondale Road by Bruce

Spencer (2002) from Avondale-Waterview Historical Society Collection

Other reading:Our First Century, the centenary booklet for the Avondale Presbyterian Church

(1960)

The Presbytery of Auckland , by W J Comrie (1939)

Presbyterian Archives website: www.archives.presbyterian.org.nz/index.htm

“The Avondale Princess”, Athina Tsoulis, Epitaph II ( 2001)St inian’s Presbyterian Church, St Georges Road Avondale, A Conservation Plan,

Dave Pearson Architects Limited (2007)

This collection printed by:

Words Incorporated, 557 Blockhouse Bay Road, Blockhouse Bay, Auckland

Published 2010 by: Avondale-Waterview Historical Society. All rights reserved.



John Shedden Adam, along with his sisters, helda large estate comprised of lands in what is nowthe New Windsor and St Georges Road areas,

and even parts of the present shopping centre.On 4 January 1859, from Sydney where he thenlived, Adam formalised the dedication of justover 1¼ acres of his land at Allotment 13 of theParish of Titirangi to the Crown for use as partof the Great North Road. This however cut off asemi-triangular piece of land bounded by the Great North

Road, Allotment 86, and a“road to the Manukau” (St

Georges Road). This was to

become the site of thedistrict’s Presbyterian Church.

It is likely that St AndrewsChurch dealt directly withAdam with regard to obtain-

ing possession of that piece of property. While traditionallythe Avondale parish hadasserted that church eldersJohn Lamb and John

Buchanan donated the land,this is incorrect. John Lamb

was not in the country at thetime that tenders were adver-tised for the building of the Whau church, arriv-ing in Auckland in August 1859 to settle inFreeman’s Bay and then Riverhead by Novem- ber that year. As for John Buchanan, he did notreach New Zealand until 1861. Instead, newspaper reports of the opening of the church describethe site as “the liberal gift of John S Adams,

Esq.” [sic] The “liberal gift” was the transfer of the title of the 3 ½ acre piece of land from Adam

and his sister Margaret to Rev Bruce for the sumof five shillings in October 1859, just beforeconstruction commenced the following month.

Initially, the Whau district was part of theOnehunga parish, but with the arrival of RevAndrew Anderson in 1865, he arranged to holdservices as far away as Riverhead andHelensville, as well as West Auckland, and theconnection with Onehunga ceased. From thetime of the church building’s opening until the

completion of the Whau Public Hall across the

road, the church was used as a schoolroom for the district’s children. “A hinged table fastened along the eastern side of the Church was

lowered against the wall out of the way for the

Sabbath services.”

In 1872, the church was lined and a new pulpitadded. A vestry was added in 1889, causingsome controversy as Rev Alexander McKenzie(see page 11) apparently insisted on placing hiswife’s grave “on the one place which the man-agers of the church had told him would be re-

quired for additions to thebuilding.” The church wasrenamed St Ninian’s in the

1930s. The kauri church building originally rested onlarge scoria boulders, and

was reblocked prior to the1960 centennial celebra-tions. In 1950 a portion of the church was divided off to form a minister’s room.

The two front frosted glasswindows were replaced byecclesiastic-styled memorialwindows supplied by theIngram family in memory of

Mr and Mrs Christopher Ingram, and Mr and Mrs

William Ingram c.1949.These were later removed

by the Union Parish authorities and installed inthe Avondale Union Parish Church on Rosebank Road in 1984.

On 8 October 1972, the churches at St Ninian’s

Victoria Hall on the corner of Orchard Streetand Rosebank Road, and Avondale Methodist

Church on upper Rosebank Road agreed to become one parish after several years planning.

St Ninian’s closed for services on 18 August1984. Two years later, the Union Parish advised

that they’d have to sell the old church, and thelocal community made an effort to prevent the building’s demolition and removal. AucklandCity Council purchased the church site andadjoining cemetery later that decade, andconverted the old building as a communitycentre.

In 2007, the building closed again, and to date(April 2010) remains closed. The 150th anniver-

sary year is overshadowed by questions raisedas to its structural integrity and concerns regard-ing lead contamination of the surrounding

The Presbyterian Church in Avondale

3St inians Church: 150 Years 1860-2010



grounds. The community awaits the decision by

Auckland City Council as to the future of this,Avondale’s oldest surviving building.

Lisa J Truttman

The following is taken from "The Presbytery of Auckland", by W J Comrie, A H and A W Reed,

1939. It covers the history of the church down to1885 only.

Among the early settlers in the Whau districtwere several members of St. Andrew's congre-gation, but the distance was so great and theroads and the means of transport so poor that

regular attendance at the central Church was not possible, and services were desired in their own

neighbourhood.

The first of these of which there is a record wereheld in the dwelling house of Mr James

Comrie (later of Pukekohe), and were con-

ducted by his brother, Rev William Comrie, of Auckland, who preached on 16 January and 6

February 1859, from the texts John 3:7 andPhil. 3:13,14. From that time a weekly service

was aimed at, and, subject to a good many breaks owing to weather and other conditions,services were held there until the Church was

built. Mr McCall and other laymen from Auck-land gave valuable assistance.

The Rev D Bruce, who had previously visitedthe district on week-days, preached on Sabbathafternoon, 3 April 1859, from the text Jeremiah10:23, and thereafter gave a monthly afternoon

service until the settlement of theRev G Brown, as recorded under the heading of

Onehunga.

The little band of worshipers faced the questionof a building and bravely set to work. There was

at first difference of opinion as to the best position, but ere long, with general approval, thesite on which the Church still stands was

secured. Plans were prepared, a contract was let,and the erection of the building was begun on

Monday, 14 November 1859, without ceremonyof any kind.

An entry in Mr Comrie's diary may interest present-day students of the weather:-"Friday,2nd December: Had a terrible wind and rainlast night which drove the carpenters who were

working at the church here for refuge." Mr.Brown conducted his first service in Whau on

26 February 1860, and the Church building,

while still unfinished, was used for worship byhim on 11 March.

It was formally opened on 8th April 1860 byRev John Macky, who preached from Psalm45:11 to a congregation of over sixty hearers. Itwas opened free of debt. The quality of thetimber used and the soundness of constructionare evidenced by the building as it stands to-day.

This was the first church building in that local-ity, and members of other churches assisted bothin raising the building fund and by attendance,their preachers also taking a share in conductingthe services.

In November 1864, the Rev Andrew Anderson,a Cameronian minister from Scotland, applied to

the Presbytery for admission, and on the favour-able report of a committee, he was admitted on4 January 1865. Having received the right handof fellowship he took his seat as a member of

Presbytery. A Committee appointed to consider his sphere of labour reported on

22 February 1865:- "That making Whau hisheadquarters he might arrange to hold divine

service more or less regularly in the Manakau, Lamb’s Mill, and Helensville, in addition toTitirangi and Henderson and Macfarlane's Mill.

That having communicated with parties in thesedistricts, the Committee are of opinion that £200

might be raised without difficulty. But in theevent of the sum falling short of that amount,they recommended that the deficit be made up

from the Home Mission Fund."

The Presbytery adopted the report, and thoughthere is no record either of a call from the

district nor of any induction service,Mr Anderson's name appears on the Presbyteryrecords as Minister of Whau, and he was

accepted by the people as such. Mr Andersonwas not strong physically, and on 24 October 1866, he gave notice to the Presbytery of hisintention to resign present arrangements, with aview to a new arrangement much more limited.The Revs J Hill and J Wallis were appointed toarrange supply. To anticipate a little it may be

stated that on 13 February 1867, Mr. Andersonresigned his charge, and after giving temporarysupply for a few months he left for the Home-land.

A long vacancy followed during which serviceswere supplied chiefly by laymen,

St inians Church: 150 Years 1860-20104



flourishing suburban congregations." However,

the difficulties were overcome and services re-sumed in the Church.

In 1887 Rev. MacKenzie left for Australia butreturned some years later to live at BlockhouseBay. He died in 1920 and is buried in theChurch cemetery.

1888-1893: Rev Charles Warboys. Little isrecorded of his ministry except that after fulfill-ing the duties of his arduous parish for fiveyears he left to become minister at Opotiki, andfor three years the parish was again dependenton layman for supply.

1896-1910: Rev Alexander McLean, BD

Rev McLean's ministry lasted 15 years, the

longest of all. During that time his earnest preaching and faithful pastoral work resulted ina great increase in growth and spiritual power.

His horse and trap were constantly on the road,carrying him to attend to the duties of his wide-spread preaching places, and on the Sabbath thechurch was crowded with earnest worshipers.

1910-1911: Mr James Dawson Crawford

Madill (Student): For a few months, whileKnox College was in recess, a student (later Rev

J D C Madill, MA) gave extremely acceptable

supply and church members regretted that hecould not remain longer.

Other ministries (including lay) at thePresbyterian Church:

1911-1912 Mr David James Albert

1912-1916 Rev William Marshall

1916-1920 Mr J Charteris

1920-1922 Rev Angus MacDonald, OBE

1922-1924 Rev George Paterson Campbell

1924 Mr R Ashton

1925-1929 Rev Frederick Arthur

Thompson, Rev Michael BawdenHarris

1930-1936 Rev John Hemingway Combes

1936-1941 Rev C H Lowden, Rev John Weir

Smyth, Rev James ewbold Lea

Andrew, Mr O Baragwanath,

Mr John orman Christie

1941-1949 Rev Leonard John Hodson

1949-1950 Rev Frederic Lang Smart

1950-1955 Rev Sefton Windsor Campbell,

MA, BD

1955 Rev W Anderson

1955-1963 Rev Stanley Tamatea icholls,

BA

1964-1971 Rev Keith Lawrence Sellar

Mr R Sommerville taking a large share. When

the Rev D Bruce returned from the Homelandthere came with him the Rev D Sidey, who

settled in Napier, and the Rev D Hamilton fromIreland, and they were welcomed by the Presby-

tery on 7 February 1872.

After preaching in several vacant charges,Mr Hamilton received a unanimous call fromWhau, which he accepted, and he was inducted

there on 21st May, 1872. Though the conditionswere new and strange to him, he set himself strenuously to supply services from Whau toRiverhead and Manukau Heads. His ministrywas proving very acceptable, but it was short

[see page 9].

In October 1875, a call was given to Mr. Robert

Sommerville, who, a few months previously,had been licensed by the Presbytery. It wassigned by 109 persons and was supported byMessrs John Lamb and John Buchanan.

On 12 January 1876, it was accepted, and on9 February the Presbytery met in Whau Church,when the Moderator, the Rev R F Macnicol, preached from the text 2 Cor.5,14, andMr Sommerville was duly ordained and in-ducted. The occasion is noteworthy because itwas the first when a man from the local business

circles had been trained and was ordained to theministry, and because of the prominent placewhich Mr Sommerville took in the life and work of the Church as the minister of two charges,

Clerk of Presbytery, one of the Church PropertyTrustees, and as Moderator of the General

Assembly in 1883.

After more than nine years' service, during partof which Mr Sommerville's health was not goodand riding became painful, a call to St. Peter'sChurch was accepted and the Whau Charge

became vacant on 16 July 1885.

The following comes from "Our First Century",

the centenary booklet for the Avondale Presby-terian Church, 1960.

1885-1887 Rev Alexander MacKenzie, MA,

BD: When Rev Sommerville left Avondale, theRev A. MacKenzie was appointed. His ministryseems to have been a stormy one, and at onestage the congregation even took the extrememeasure of meeting for worship in the public

school at the same hour as the minister offici-ated in the Church. The newspaper of the day

commented that, "If the trouble is not settled,the Presbyterian Church will lose one of its most

St inians Church: 150 Years 1860-2010 5



On 15 December 1853, a new Auckland Provin-cial Council set up a sub-committee looking intothe state of education in the province. It wasn’tuntil 12 January 1855 when the committee wereto report back to the Council. They expressed afirm belief that the provinces were best suited to

dealing with education needs in the province,rather than the colonial government or General

Assembly, and that £1,000 should be set aside tofund “religious bodies that were maintaining public school for the education of European chil-dren and that the distribution of this fund be

made according to the proportion of Children inattendance at these Schools, to be ascertained byQuarterly Returns furnished to His Honour theSuperintendent by the respective Clergymen whosuperintend the schools.”

The recommendation wasn’t taken up by theCouncil immediately, although the report wasaccepted. A group called the Freedom of Relig-ion Society opposed the funding proposal, as

they saw it as a threat to the independence of religion from the state. Instead, they advocated

that denominational schools were funded solelyfrom voluntary contributions.

The driving force behind the setting up of organ-ised education facilities in the province in the

1850s came from those religious groups, such asthe Presbyterians, who saw the acquisition of

knowledge as being just as important as the pro-motion of their faith.

“An Act to Promote Education in the Province of Auckland” was passed by the Provincial Council

on 6 February 1857. A Board of Education wasset up. Those schools which reported to the

Board and requested grants were to have sumsvoted on by the Council, and in those schoolssupported by the Board, apart from infantschools, the following subjects were to be taught:reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography,

history, grammar and “the theory and practice of vocal music.” In mixed schools, plain needle-

work was to be encouraged. The schools were to be superintended by patrons or committees of management, and these were to be at liberty to

make what provision they saw fit with regard toreligious instruction. They did, however, have toensure provision of a matching pound-for-pound

payment toward the cost of teachers’ salaries,

and payments made by pupils in the form of school fees was not to exceed 1/- per week per

pupil. To qualify for provincial aid, the districthad to provide “a sufficiently large and well-

ventilated schoolhouse supplied with the neces- sary furniture together with an open space at-tached to it for playground and the requisite out-

buildings.”

Teachers and assistant teachers at these schoolshad to be of good moral character, and receivedcertificates of first or second degrees, indicatingtheir fitness to conduct a school. The maximumsalary for a headmaster was £75; £50 for a head-

mistress and second-degree teachers.

Presbyterian schools were started by the local

congregations, not the Auckland Presbytery. Atthe Whau district the first roll of pupils in 1860when the Presbyterian Church opened amountedto ten, according to recollections published years

later. The first teacher appears to have been MissChalmers. There were two Misses Chalmers,

both mainly working in Presbyterian-administered schools in the Auckland area in the

late-1850s to early 1860s, and one received afirst class, second grade certificate in music andneedlework at an Education Board “Examination

of Teachers” held in the year ended 30 Septem- ber 1860. This Miss Chalmers was appointed tothe “Whau School.” The school was listed as asuccessful applicant for an extension of Provin-cial Government aid in that year. But then, theschool seemed to have vanished for a time fromofficial records. I was delighted to have found aninspector’s report on “Whau School” from 17December 1860 in Auckland Provincial Council papers held in Special Collections, Auckland

City Libraries as I compiled this history – but,alas, it may have been a report describing the

“Whau Road School”, managed by the Wesley-ans in Mt Albert at the time, rather than our Whau School at the Presbyterian Church. Whilethe teacher named was the skilled and capableMiss Chalmers, the superintendent or schoolmanager was “Rev J Harding”, likely to be RevIsaac Harding, the Wesleyan superintendent for the Auckland Wesleyan circuit in the early1860s. Sadly, it appears that the first Whauschool was short-lived, lasting a matter of per-haps only seven months at most.

On the 15th

July 1911, John Bollard was pre-sented with an illuminated address by the resi-

dents of the Avondale school district, in the

Knowledge

in the Wilderness




presence of fellow members of parliament both

from his side of the House and from the opposi-tion benches, celebrated in the Avondale Public

Hall. The occasion was to mark the 50th anniver-sary of Bollard stepping forward to join a school

committee in a country district in 1861. A districtwhich, at that time and by what reports we haveto hand, seemingly had no school in operation.

John Bollard (1839-1915) came to Auckland

from County Wicklow in Ireland in 1860, butwas diverted by the opportunities of the Austra-lian goldfields, according to his obituaries. Hereturned in 1861, met his future wife and marriedher at St John’s College on 9 May that year.

They then immediately settled in the Whaudistrict, on a farm which began just down from

present-day Elm Street and was leased (from1863-1882, when Bollard bought it outright)from Tamaki horse-dealer and farmer WilliamInnes Taylor. It bordered on another farm closeto the line of today’s Riversdale Road. That farm belonged to a doctor from Dublin named ThomasAickin (1814-1897), who had bought his landfurther down on the Whau Flat towards the end

of 1859. The 21-year-old Anglo-Irish farmer-cum-horse trader Bollard probably had consider-able discussions with the 46-year-old Scots-Irishdoctor, academic, and experimenter that winter

in the Whau, 1861. Between the two of them,they formed the nucleus of a school committeefor the district that year, even if only with a total

membership of two, to start off with. But, whatthey had in mind was to ensure that there was a

school where the children of the countrysidearound them, stretching up even to theWaitakeres, could learn in an organised fashion.

It is possible that they restarted the school as

early as July 1861. We may never know for sureexactly when they were able to get the students

back in the room at the church, and when theyconvinced the families to send their childrenthere and pay a contributing fee towards the costof someone teaching them. The Presbyterian parish at Onehunga may have been able to help, but the Whau part of the parish was far-flung tothe west, and Onehunga was busy with the build-ing of their own church at the time.

We know the names of only two teachers duringthe period down to 1865: a Mr. Knox, whoworked at the school only from March to

September 1865, and a Mr. Spicer, who suc-ceeded him. But during the year before, ended 30

September 1864, the school applied to the

Education Board for an extension grant as a newschool. That breakthrough probably came about

through the slight increase in settlement aroundthe district in the wake of the Whau Canal

proposals; the start of local industries such asPollen’s brickyard on the Whau Flat around 1863and Gittos’ tannery at the end of 1864; and therevitalisation of the Whau Presbyterian parishleading up to the breakaway from Onehunga in1865 which was likely to have been driven bythree men. These were parish elders John Lambof the Riverhead flour mills, John Buchanan(who arrived at the Whau in 1863), and another newcomer to the district: Rev Andrew Anderson.

Rev Anderson arrived in Auckland 12 October

1863 on the Ganges from London. He hadinitially headed for the Pollock settlement, but bythe end of the following year, when he appliedfor admission to the Presbytery, he was living atthe Whau. He made his application for admissioninto the Auckland Presbytery at this time, and hetook his seat as a member of Presbytery inJanuary 1865.

In the first quarter of 1865, the school had 17 pupils enrolled, with an average attendance of 9.It appears to have closed while staffing issues

were dealt with: from 13 May, Rev Andersonhad employed Knox as a teacher at the school,serving for a time as superintendant. Dr Aickinserved as the school’s patron, tasked to obtain agovernment grant for the school — but heappears to have been unsuccessful, so RevAnderson resigned as superintendant. Dr Aickintook over that role.

Despite this setback, Aickin advertised for a pub-lic meeting in the Whau Church on 12 October 1865 for the election of a district school commit-

tee. The names of the first formal school com-mittee were:

Rev. A. AndersonDr. Thomas AickinO. R. RaysonJ. McLeod,

J. N. CoplandJ. BollardA H. Spicer

“A vote of thanks was passed to the Rev. A.

Anderson, for allowing the use of the church, and for his efforts in forwarding the cause of educa-tion in the district.”




By the end of the following year, Rev Anderson

reported that a school in the district was superin-tended by Miss Marks, “a most efficient and

painstaking teacher”, but “he regretted to say the people had not availed themselves of [the school]

to the extent he desired. It was the duty of par-ents to attend the education of their children bywhich they would prove an honour to them” Thismay well have been the church’s Sunday School.The main district school remained at thePresbyterian Church until 1868, when it wasmoved into the new public hall, and a newchapter of our district’s education history began.

Lisa J Truttman

Painting of St inian’s on display at afanua Hall foyer, Avondale Union Parish Church, Rosebank Road 2002. Photo: Bruce Spencer, Avondale-Waterview Historical Society Collection




and call you to undertake the office of pastor

among us, promising you all dutiful respect, en-couragement, and obedience in the Lord, and

engage to pay a stipend of not less than £160 per annum, in witness whereof we have sub- scribed the call before the Presbytery of Auck-land, on the eighteenth day of April, one thou-

sand eight hundred and seventy-two years.”

There were 141 signatures to the call.

A collection of districts contributed toward the

stipend, as these were then the areas of the total parish: the Whau, £60; Riverhead, £40;Hobson’s Villa (Hobsonville) £30; Henderson’s

Mill £15; Titirangi £15; Huia, £20; andCornwallis, £7. As can be seen, this added up to£187, £27 more than the base stipend, and didn’tinclude contributions from the likes of districtsin the Kaipara, to which the vast parish ex-tended.

The Auckland Presbytery agreed to the call, andappointed Rev. Hamilton to the vast Whau

Parish. They joined the congregation on 21 May1872 for the formal induction service at theWhau Church.

During the remainder of his life, Rev DavidHamilton applied himself diligently to the task of supplying ministration to the outlying dis-

tricts of the parish, from the Whau to Riverheadand the Manukau coastline. But as later came to

light, his parishioners and friends found that hewas not a good horseman, having fallen from hishorse more than once along the road; he wasalso absent-minded and not very observant, withlittle “bush sense” (hardly surprising, comingdirectly from Belfast to the wild colonies). Hishealth was given as good, but he was not“robust”. At the annual meeting of the congrega-tion in July 1873, Rev Bruce remarked on the

In a corner of the little graveyard beside St Ninian’s, a sturdy obelisk monument standsguarded by rusted metal railings. Once thismonument was in danger of collapsing, butformer Avondale resident and then-Minister of

Internal Affairs, Richard F. Bollard, noticed andsaw to it that the foundation around the stonewas strengthened. And so, it has survived to

stand today in a quiet suburban churchyard.

This is the grave, hard between the old churchhall and modern playgrounds and the present-day picket fences, overlooking the Mobil Ser-vice Station, of the Rev David Hamilton. Hecame from Belfast, and arrived with noted

St Andrews minister the Rev. David Bruce to New Zealand on 7 February 1872. He was an

enthusiastic minister of the Presbyterian Churchin this country; he was well known for travellingwidely to outlying areas, and preached even onthe Coromandel Peninsula in late May 1872, themonth after the parish at the Whau (Avondale)

called for him to be their new minister.

The little country church had been without aminister of their own since 1867. Once wordhad reached them of this fine young enthusiasticIrishman, and Rev. Hamilton had visited them togive service at one point in the Whau and at

Titirangi, the parishioners convened a meetingon 18 April 1872, and put Rev Hamilton‘s name

to a “call“ or formal request from the congrega-tion to the Presbytery. The “call” read:

“We, the undersigned elders, other office bear-ers and members of the united congregation of the Whau and neighbouring districts, in the

province of Auckland, being Protestants, desir-ous of promoting the glory of God and the good of His Church, being satisfied, by good informa-tion and our own experience of the ministerial

abilities and of the suitableness to our capaci-ties of the gifts of you (the Rev David Hamilton)have agreed to invite, as we hereby do invite,

A wrong step in the

dark:

the death of Rev. David Hamilton

(c.1844-1873)




Thursday 10 July but hadn’t arrived. The coun-

tryside in the area was described in 1873 as being “rugged and broken, nothing but barrenrocks and bleak cliffs; a dense bush and danger-ous sidelings running along the edge of the

Manukau Heads. Precipices from 400 ft to 500 ft abound …”

The manager at Gibbon’s Sawmill at Huiaclaimed to have seen Hamilton passing by on

the afternoon of Tuesday the 15th in one report.If so, that is odd as well. The reverend may have been wandering around in the bush,disorientated -- but why didn’t the sawmillmanager help him as he would clearly have been

seen to be in distress by that stage? It is doubtfulthat this report was correct.

After two and a half miles from Huia Streamand the first Gibbon’s mill, the tracks stopped.With the help of the men from the Karamaturamill, Archibald and Todd found a fresh set of

tracks leading to a log where the reverend appar-ently sat down to rest, possibly as night was

closing in on him, and tried feeding himself onthe inside of nikau ferns. His horse was located

400-500 yards from the log and the reverend’slast known footprints, tangled up in supplejack,starved, and obviously stuck there for some time

before the searchers found it.

On Tuesday 15 July, over 40 men from the millsengaged in the search for the missing man. JohnBollard, Hepburn and Harper from the Whau joined the search parties the next day. On Thurs-day, the search continued along the coast,

between where the horse was found and the log,and then from the coast back to the mill. Local

Maori reported that they’d heard “cries in the bush” on Thursday the 10th, and thought theywere the call of an “atuati” (the report may have

meant “atua” or spirit) so would not go out toinvestigate, though their dogs barked loudly.

The reverend’s body was discovered on Sunday

20 July, face-down in a waterhole in Foote’sCreek, Destruction Gully, near Whatipu beach,

about a mile from where his horse was found.He was fully clothed, but minus his hat, and awhite handkerchief was tied around his head. Itwas theorised that he wandered about for awhile near where he had left his horse, thendecided to follow the creek to the sea, but hadmissed his step in the dark, fallen, and drowned.His skin was reported as sodden, so he had beenin the water for some time.

difficult roads Rev Hamilton travelled on his

ministry, and “how fortunate (Rev Hamilton)had been in escaping accidents so long.”

A week later, Rev Hamilton was reported miss-ing.

The reverend set out on Wednesday 9 July 1873from the Whau to conduct service at theManukau Heads, at Whatipu. He reached Huiasafely that day, then headed on horseback for

Robert Gibbons’ new sawmill at the Heads. Thedistance between Huia and Whatipu was onlyfour miles, a relatively short distance, but it in-volved travelling through dense bush, in themidst of a rainy, cold West Auckland winter.

When he hadn’t arrived back at the Whau onSaturday 12 July, the alarm was raised. Whau

settlers James Archibald and J Todd started outon Sunday the 13th along the route believed tohave been taken by the reverend on his last jour-ney. Six miles out, they reached Little MuddyCreek (near Laingholm), and found his tracks.They followed the creek, up over ranges to BigMuddy Creek to the southwest, finding the track about five feet wide and “a very bad one.”

Following Hamilton’s trail, they arrived atWoodman’s Hotel, learning there that Hamiltonhad passed by on horseback. They then followedthe beach track, and saw signs that Hamilton

had dismounted at that point, leading his horse because of the hard, stony nature of the beach.

At Mill Bay, south along the coast at Huia, threemiles from Woodman’s Inn, the two searcherswere advised by the workers at the mill therethat Hamilton had passed safely by. His foot-steps were traced two miles further on, toKakamatua Stream and the site of theCornwallis Sawmill. At that point, the reverend

was remembered has having passed, “all right,and well”, as far as the workers recalled. From

Kakamatua Stream, he travelled west to“Big Huia”, or the Huia Stream, and Mrs Bates’hostel. He’d remained there the night of 9 July,in good health and holding a service there thatevening. Reports said he was heading for Onehunga, but this is odd, as why would hehave been heading for Onehunga when he wassupposed to be visiting the mills at Huia and theManukau Heads?

The searchers picked up Hamilton’s tracksleading towards the Manukau Harbour, leading

his horse through dense bush, towardsKaramatura and Gibbons’ Sawmill there. He had

been expected there on for divine services on




Huxham, daughter of Hortensius Huxham andEleanor Emma Huxham ne MacCorguodale in

June 1880. Some sources say he may have been atutor of hers. There was indeed 17 year gap

between their ages. Jessie herself was born (oddly

enough for the legends of her being a ScottishDanish Princess) in Glamorganshire in Wales. She

resided with her father at Swansea, but must havereturned to Scotland briefly for her marriage toMacKenzie.

The couple with their two-year-old son TorquilGeorge headed for New Zealand some time in

1885. They’d arrived around November of thatyear, and Rev MacKenzie was warmly welcomed

by the Auckland Presbytery on December 1, 1885.Immediately, there was a call “by 77 members and

adherents” put forward from the Avondale Church

for Rev MacKenzie to provide service to their par-ish. Rev Sommerville had, for some time, been

unable to provide any more than basic and spo-radic service to the country parish for some time.

His health had been poor, riding too painful, and

After the progress and stability of the ministry of Rev Robert Sommerville from 1876 until 1885, his

successor to the Avondale Presbyterian Church in1885 was welcomed heartily. Under

Rev Sommerville the country church bought land

in New Windsor and constructed a manse for their ministers, and had seen the coming of the railway

to the district. Rev Sommerville himself had beenSchool Committee Chairman, in 1882, when theAvondale Primary School was settled into their

purpose-built accommodation on the Great NorthRoad property. But the ministry of Rev Alexander

MacKenzie who followed him was to prove thestormiest and most controversial in the wholehistory of the little country church. And the legacy

continues on, in the form of a headstone in thechurchyard’s cemetery.

Alexander MacKenzie was born in Bonar Bridge,Sunderland in 1842. Evidence points to him being

a learned and meticulous man in early life,especially when it came to his own achievements.

In Row, Scotland, he married Jessie Eva Hort

At first, it was intended that the body be taken to

Onehunga, and then overland to the city, but thesawmill workers took it upon themselves to

carry the body overland by way of the rangesthemselves. They reached the Whau on the

evening of 22 July, and were met with warmgratitude and refreshments. A coffin was prepared and the body conveyed to St AndrewsChurch for inquest the next day, followed by thesombre journey back out to the Whau and thelittle church at the five roads intersection. Thehearse, decorated with black plumes, wasfollowed by around a dozen carriages. Severalshops closed along the route from the city, andextra mourners joined he procession as it passed.“These,” said one report, “as the destinationwas neared, numbered close upon 50, and

assumed the appearance of an attendant escort of cavalry.” By the time they reached the Whautownship at 3 pm, the procession stretched for

nearly a quarter of a mile, numbering 200-300 people. “A number of foot passengers had comeout to meet the funeral, and remained ranged on

either side of the road with raised hats as it passed … Every shop [in the township] was

closely shut, and business was suspended in sympathy with the solemn occasion.”

The Legend Maker:Rev Alexander MacKenzie (1842-1920)

The words around the four stone sides directly

beneath the obelisk, now faded and damaged bytime and perhaps vandals, reads:

“Rev. David Hamilton B.A., Clergyman of the

parish, who after a pastorate of 15 months, died from exposure in the Manukau Forest, in themonth of July 1873, a. 29. ‘To me to live is

Christ, and to die is gain.’ The above words,which aptly describe his career, are those fromwhich he last preached the gospel to his people.

He left his home on 9th July for Huia, to con-duct Divine service, and proceeded on the 10th

for Manukau Heads, but missed his way in thedarkness. His body was found on the 20th and

interred here on 23 July 1873.

“Erected by his parishioners and friends, inaffectionate remembrance of his goodness as aman and his devotedness as a Christianminister.”

Lisa J Truttman




“At one time the school had been held in thechurch, and, as the sequel to a dispute, the parish-ioners reciprocated by holding services of their own in the school. It is recorded that when Mr.McKenzie vigorously rang the bell of the churchthe summons was responded to only by the mem-

bers of his own household.”

The church committee, knowing that the church’sexistence relied heavily on donations, grew

increasingly discontented, and had apparentlydemanded in December 1886 at a meeting possibly

chaired by Rev Sommerville that MacKenzie

resign, declaring that any claims from the reverendfor his stipend would not be recognised from the

17th of that month. The battle began between thereverend and the church committee that was tocontinue until 1889.

The stir of discontent amongst parishioners at

Avondale that was kept private and out of themedia’s eye finally blew up in February 1887.

An event within the Presbyterian communityoccurred around this time which may have givenfuel to the discontented parishioners at Avondale.In early February 1887, at the meeting of the

General Assembly in Wellington, clause 216 to the

book of order and rules was voted on and passed.This proposed:

“That if it appears after Presbyterial visitationthat from any minister’s inefficiency, remissness induty, or unsuitableness to the sphere, spiritual or general interests of his congregation are being sacrificed, the Presbytery should be entitled todissolve the pastoral tie, and declare the chargevacant, or report the matter to the General Assem-bly for its decision.”

Two weeks later, some unknown member of the presbytery whispered into the ears of the Z Her-ald reporter.

“We are informed that the state of affairs in the

Avondale Presbyterian Church is not at present very peaceful or comfortable. A number of thecongregation are much dissatisfied with the RevMr McKenzie, the minister, and all efforts of the Presbytery hitherto have failed to heal the breach.The malcontents form a majority of the congrega-tion, and they are now meeting in the schoolhouse.We do not know the causes of the dissatisfaction,but it is said that the minister’s faults are those of “manner”, not of doctrine. So far as we can ascer-tain, he is quite sound on the Westminster confes- sion.”

The Herald then published an angry rebuttal on 16March 1887 from Rev MacKenzie, accusing

since 1883 he had the extra roles of being minister of two charges, Clerk of the Presbytery, being one

of the Church Property Trustees, and Moderator of the General Assembly from 1883. He accepted a

call to St. Peter’s Church in July 1885, and so the

charge at Avondale fell vacant.

The seeds of trouble were planted right from the

start – and the first one was that of money. Presby-terian ministers relied, for their incomes, on the

stipend paid by the parish to which they gaveservice. But Avondale was in a bit of a cleft stick

at the time. It already owed Rev Sommerville an

amount of his stipend in arrears; the mortgage wasstill being paid for the manse and lands up at New

Windsor (and wouldn’t finally be paid until 1897);and possibly the building of the St Jude’s Anglicanchurch meant a diversion of income away from

their parish, seeing as the Anglicans had used thePresbyterian Church for some of their services.

The Avondale Presbyterians said from the outset

that they couldn’t promise MacKenzie the mini-mum stipend of £200 (such a huge sum coming

from the fact that his parish stretched from Avon-dale to Helensville and Kaukapakapa, taking in the

whole of West Auckland and included Riverhead.All covered by horseback). They offered instead atleast £150, and asked the Presbytery for a grant of

£30 or £35. Rev MacKenzie was formerlyinducted on 17 December 1885 at a soiree in

Avondale, “thanking all those who had taken part in the warm reception that had been accorded tohim. He would do his best, “he said, “in his new sphere, and he hoped to be supported by thoseamong whom his lot had been cast.”

The Avondale parish seemed, from the outside, to be doing well under Rev MacKenzie. The Sunday

School featured prominently on prize lists at

regional competitions in October 1886. In January1887, MacKenzie as Chairman of the church com-

mittee reported that “the Church services had beenregular and well attended”, that there was “a

Communion roll of 72 members, about 20 of whom joined the church during the year, and 10 othersnot yet enrolled,“ the manse had been painted and

papered, grounds and fences improved, while thechurch itself had been repaired and graveyard laid

out and improved.

However, this may have been deceptive optimism.

Rev Alexander MacKenzie has in sources since been described as “harsh”, “domineering”, “a mis-

erly man” whose style caused the large congrega-

tion built up by Rev Sommerville to dwindlesharply. The Z Herald , at the time of the 75th

anniversary of the church in 1935, reported:




his wife’s passing to create a legend that continuesto this day here in Avondale. He had inscribed on

Jessie’s headstone that she was BaronessMacCorquodale, of Loch Tromley, Scotland, and

Princess Torquil of the Royal House of Denmark,

and so started the rumours of a Danish royal con-

nection with the little church cemetery. The Z Herald in 1935 wrote about the grave in the

church burial ground, which often attracts inter-ested visitors, serving curiously to perpetuate one

of the acts of her husband. He is said to haveinsisted on placing her grave on the one place in

the graveyard which the managers of the church

had told him would be required for futureadditions to the building. Consequently when the

vestry was added it had to be built with a recess init so that the grave might not be covered. Thiswould explain why Jessie’s grave is today almost

hard up against the south wall of the extension, adamp place with hardly any sun.

MacKenzie may have taken much of his belief inthe royal links of his wife from a book published

back in 1869, William Anderson’s The Scottish ation. Like many such “genealogies” of the

Victorian era, it was as much comprised of

traditional speculation and belief as it was of hardfact. Through her maternal grandfather John

MacCorquodale, Jessie was said to havedescended from Torquil who had fought in thearmy of Kenneth the Great and been granted

extensive lands by Loch Awe in Argyll. Torquilwas said to have been from the stock of Danish

princes – hence the belief that Jessie in turn was a

“Danish Princess”. But in fact her grandfather wasmerely a factor on an estate (or in other words an

estate agent, one who acted on behalf of the land-owner in collecting rents, maintaining the estate,

etc.) He owned four properties, mainly cottagesand allotments, one of which he left to Jessie in hiswill. Chances are that Rev MacKenzie sold this

land on Jessie’s death, and the proceeds went

towards his incremental purchase of land at

Heaphy Street in Blockhouse Bay and the buildingof his own house there.

A week before Jessie’s death, the Auckland

Presbytery met. They did not seem to be in a patient mood with regard to the shenanigans at

Avondale, or with Rev MacKenzie. MacKenzie

sent them a telegram asking to be excused atten-dance, “his wife and child being unwell” and

asked that the meeting be deferred so he couldattend at a later date and speak against any resolu-

tion by the meeting. This, after much discussion,

the meeting agreed to, but plainly some membersdoubted MacKenzie’s reasons for not attending. A

Mr. Huston “thought that there should be a medi-

Rev Sommerville and Avondale church elder JohnBuchanan, as well as the Auckland Presbytery it-

self, of being the instigators of a breach betweenhim and the parish, possibly the one which began

the previous December. This included, apparently,

Buchanan telling a lady of what the Presbytery planned to do, and this was duly circulated aroundthe parish by her, and Rev Sommerville asking the

parish treasurer about the church’s financial posi-tion. He accused Sommerville of failing to hold

communion during the last two years of his Avon-dale service, something Sommerville pointedly

denied in a letter of his own to the paper the next

day.

A parishioner of Avondale, Mr A Morrison, wrotein a letter published in the Herald on 18 March

that it was neither Sommerville nor Buchanan’s

influence on the parishioners which created therift.

“The cause of dissension arose in the congrega-tion, and Mr MacKenzie was the sole cause of it. He was not long moving about among us when webegan to look at each other and express fears for the future, and these have been more than realised.We could not respect him as our minister, sorather than go wandering about we had a meeting and resolved to have services among ourselvesuntil we see what action the Presbytery will take. It will give you some idea of the state of matters

when I state that we have an attendance varying from 70 to 92, while Mr MacKenzie has an atten-dance (so I am informed) verging from 4 to 16. Weare the congregation, and we are perfectly united in our aims and desires … That letter of Mr.MacKenzie’s is sufficient, by its spirit, to show theoutside public the man we are supposed to respect as our guide in matters religious. In addition to its statements being at variance with facts, his char-acteristic sneering at men who hold a place in our esteem he never can raise himself to is its owncondemnation.”

The reverend’s wife Jessie, described by parish-ioners as a gracious little lady of delicate health,died on 12 April 1887 of tuberculosis, 5 monthsafter giving birth to her second son George (who

died the following September). Mrs Forsythe,

Jessie’s nurse, described how Jessie was only fed porridge during the pregnancy, until Mrs Forsythe

stepped in and corrected the diet. Stories like this,and one of the reverend placing Torquil down a

well for 24 hours for some misdemeanour, did

little to enhance the reputation of Rev MacKenziein the eyes of the parishioners, and Avondale.

In the midst of the dispute he had with the church

committee and parishioners, Rev MacKenzie used




cal certificate put in, and not go upon the mere statement of Mr MacKenzie.” MacKenzie’s letter

to the paper was described as “imprudent”, andnow meant that the private matter was being dis-

cussed “in open court”. In speaking against post-

ponement, Mr. Morris reported that the congrega-

tion at Avondale was indeed “getting supply at present”, but McKenzie had been preaching for the

past nine Sundays to only three persons in themorning, and eight or ten in the evening.

Two weeks after Jessie’s death, the Presbytery met

again, this time with MacKenzie in attendance, but

“at considerable inconvenience”. No mention wasmade of the passing of his wife. He accused

Sommerville and Buchanan of having financial

interest in the Avondale Church, which they de-nied (the Church did still owe Sommerville £50,

but he hadn’t pursued this), and he railed againstmembers of the Presbytery meeting, declaring that

a number of them had no right to meet in judgment

of him. He queried whether the matter was beingdealt with by the old book of rules, or the new.

There was some confusion over this, but itappeared that the Presbytery, despite being

brought in to sort the matter two months before the

new rules, decided to use them anyway. The meet-ing decided to ask McKenzie for his resignation,

and gave him until the 7th of June to make his de-cision.

In June, the Presbytery voted that MacKenzie’sresignation be accepted (although he refused point

blank to tender his resignation until he’d received

arrears of payment from his stipend plus costs in-curred by him in doing up the manse). They did

agree to provide him with a certificate on his ap-

plication for same, but did not respond when heasked for a recommendation to the Church

Extension Committee for further employment.Plainly, the Presbytery had now tired of him, of the troubles at Avondale, and of being accused by

him of being at fault and for meddling in

Avondale’s affairs.

The Avondale church committee continued their

efforts to have Rev MacKenzie resign all during

1887, and only succeeded on 31 January 1888. The parish regained possession of the manse dining

room 3 days before, and found the dining room inwhich MacKenzie had stubbornly locked himself

away “uninhabitable”, in need of thorough clean-

ing and repapering of the walls.

This did not end matters, however. At a meeting of the Auckland Presbytery on 7 February 1888, as

the Avondale parish asked for a moderator for ameeting to issue a call to Rev Worboys to takeover the charge, a letter was received from

MacKenzie again requesting payment of the ar-rears of stipend he claimed was still owed to him,

being £70 4s 7d, or around half a year’s pay(possibly from December 17 1886 to June 7

1887). Mr. Morrison from Avondale reported that

the congregation refused to pay the arrears, claim-

ing that MacKenzie’s service had ended from thedate of their letter to the Presbytery. The parish

apparently offered him £15 in lieu of claim, whichhe refused.

At the call meeting itself in March, MacKenzie

protested right through the meeting that no call

could be issued to Rev Worboys until his arrearshad been paid. He later protested to the Auckland Evening Star that he hadn’t caused disruption tothe meeting at all, and claimed that one parish-

ioner later “followed me to the door to have a

fight”. The dispute over his stipend continueduntil at least October 1889 when a certificate was

signed by Sommerville stating that MacKenzie’sAvondale ministry terminated officially on 7 June

1887. He left for Australia soon after this, with his

son Torquil and his housekeeper Jane SophiaField.

In Australia, Rev MacKenzie married his house-

keeper, but the family didn’t stay long in

Australia, returning to New Zealand after a fewyears. Torquil ran away from home to live in

Hillsborough in 1895, and Rev MacKenzie is

believed to have ended his days somewhere inBlockhouse Bay, outliving his second wife who

died in 1913. He buried her in the grave plot atAvondale, with her headstone perpetually facingthat of Jessie’s. It has been suggested that he ran

a small school from his home, the property later becoming Hilltop School in Heaphy Street, and in

the 1960s a girls’ secondary school. The writer of the St Ninians centenary booklet said that it was

remembered that Rev Alexander MacKenzie

attended Avondale Church in the mornings, andevening services at Blockhouse Bay. No doubt not

quite as cantankerous towards the churchmembers as he had been in the previous century.

He had nothing to do with his son Torquil or withTorquil’s family after 1895. Torquil apparently

tried to make contact twice – first to take his first- born baby daughter to visit MacKenzie, but was

not allowed to cross the threshold. The same

happened when Torquil took his 11 year old sonalong. No word, it is said, ever passed between

grandfather and grandson.

Alexander MacKenzie died in 8 October 1920 in a

private hospital in Grafton, the only one to iden-tify his body being his undertaker. He is buried

beside his wife Jessie, the posthumously famous




“Danish Princess”, and his second wife. He leftTorquil £5 in his will, out of an estate valued at

£1800. Torquil contested the will, and wasawarded £800. MacKenzie did leave the remain-

der of his estate, after £100 went to a Martha Uren

(possibly his last house keeper), including all his

books to the Auckland Public Library.

Out of all the controversy during his time atAvondale, and of all the players in the drama

acted out at the little country parish, it is after allRev. Alexander MacKenzie’s fanciful legend inthe cemetery at St Ninian’s Church, born out of

Victorian pride and a need to be special and“better” than those around him, that has outlived

them all.

Lisa J Truttman


As they are today: the grave stones of (from left): Rev Alexander MacKenzie, his first wife Jessie, and second

wife Jane. Originally, these three were side by side. During the late 1980s conversion of the building by Auckland City Council, however, the stones were reconfigured to this position, the two wives facing each other with Rev MacKenzie in the middle.

st ninian's church of avondale, 150 years 1860-2010

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