Anglican Church

Jubilee of Levuka’s Anglican Church

THE Anglican Diocese of Polynesia will celebrate the golden jubilee of its oldest church —the pic turesque Church of the Holy Re deemer at Levuka —on November 7.

The parish of Levuka was founded on November 15, 1869, and in the following year the Rev. William Floyd of Ballarat, Vic., was ap pointed Vicar. He became Arch deacon of Fiji in 1908 and died in 1909 after 40 years as vicar of Levuka.

Levuka’s first Anglican church was built in 1873 (the year before Cession), and the second in 1887.

The present Church of the Holy Re deemer was built in 1904.

The beautiful carving of the altar and lectern is believed to have been done by an Italian craftsman living in Fiji 50 years ago, and another famous feature of the church is a series of about 26 stained-glass win dows of excellent quality.

The Diocese of Polynesia was es tablished in 1908 under the wing of the Anglican Province of New Zea land.

The present Vicar of Levuka is the Rev. F. C. Bastian.

The Bishop in Polynesia (the Right Rev. L. S. Kempthorne) will return from visiting the USA in time to preside at the jubilee ser vices.

More than 24,000 plant specimens, £ cl s u c^‘"|e so “® h r l *^ l ° y “nested collected Fiji Albert C. Smith, curator of the Smithsonian Institutlon > Washington, USA. Dr. Smith completed a nine months collecting

trip to Fiji in January this year.

Fiji is of special interest because it appears to represent the eastern rim of an ancient land mass that pre sumably extended westward from Fiji to Indo-Malaysian regions. The modern, isolated remnants of that great continent —Fiji, New Hebrides, the Solomons and New Caledonia— are, in effect, refuges where a great number of distinct species of plant life have evolved. New Guinea was apparently the centre from which much of the plant life spread east ward.