Heritage et AL

Image: Kinder House 1978. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 1213P-034-08. Photographer: Susanna Burton. Image: Kinder House 1978. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 1213P-034-11. Photographer: Susanna Burton. Nestled behind a screen of trees, on the corner of Ayr and Parnell streets, lies Kinder House. From the outside, it is imposing. Walls of basalt rise two storeys. Thin slits in this curtain open with elegant white window frames. The building is crowned by a steeply pitching shingle roof. As the name suggests, from its 1857, completion Kinder House was first occupied by the Reverend John Kinder. In 1855, Kinder had been appointed as the Headmaster of the Church of England Grammar School (also known as the Parnell Grammar School). This school was one of the earliest on the Auckland isthmus. It first occupied a site on Karangahape Road, before moving to Parnell, on the opposite corner from Kinder House. The house was occupied by successive Headmasters of the school ...

34 sketches in New Zealand for Mr Charles Abraham. Ref: Caroline Abraham, Sketchbook, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 3-111. Mrs Caroline Harriet Abraham is chiefly remembered as a recorder of the early colonial New Zealand landscape. Her cousin was the wife of Bishop Selwyn and she herself married Selwyn’s good friend Mr Charles Abraham. During the first half of their New Zealand residence, the Abrahams lived mainly at St John’s College where Charles was Principal. They moved south in 1859 when he was made inaugural bishop of Wellington. Ref:  Carolin e Abraham, Sketchbook, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 3-111.

Selwyn Church began life as the second Holy Trinity Church in Victoria Avenue (now Mason Avenue) Otahuhu. The church was dedicated by Bishop Selwyn and Bishop Patteson on St John the Evangelist’s Day, 27 December 1863. Ref: 4-8789, Old Holy Trinity Church, Otahuhu, c. 1900-1919, Sir George Grey Special Collections The following poem was recently discovered among Selwyn Church’s archives. It was written by an anonymous, bored synodsman (a church member ) at the Christchurch synod in 1969, probably during a lengthy and tedious debate on the ordination of women.  Enjoy!