New Zealand Conservative

A visiting American expert on historic buildings talks about the partially destroyed Catholic Christchurch Basilica: The cathedral was still "incredibly beautiful", McNamara said. "It's very sombre and melancholy of course - but I could see the beauty and sophistication in this architecture, and it really stands out as a fine building anywhere. "Even in the churches that you see ... in other parts of the world, to have this stone exterior instead of brick, to have these grand colonnades on the inside that are natural stone and not just plaster, reflects that it's at the higher end of buildings of its type. "You could tell coming down the street something grand, valuable and important was here. I wish I'd been here to see it in its full glory." With the cathedral's fate still to be decided, McNamara was reluctant to declare that it should be rebuilt. He said grand architecture was at the heart of Catholic worship. "It is an in...

A Cat among the pigeons Christ Church Cathedral has been issued with a demolition notice in a move criticised as "appalling" and "profoundly disturbing". The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) issued the full demolition notice on Friday afternoon, just hours after a press conference where cathedral leaders announced plans for partial demolition and work to make the earthquake-damaged building safe. I wonder how many of those who find this "appalling" and "profoundly disturbing" actually used this building for the purpose for which it was built? The heritage we are loosing my friends is not built out of bricks and mortar - no. The valuable heritage that is disappearing before our very eyes is our Christian Heritage itself. Do I care about Christchurch Cathedral? - well it is kind of sad to see its end but not nearly as sad as living in a culture that has turned its face from God and its back on its really important heritage....

The Chinese ambassador reckons the New Zealand Government (in reality the long suffering taxpayer) should pay extra to the families of the Chinese killed in last months earthquake. "There is a very notable difference in terms of the family situation between the Chinese family members and other foreign family members," he said. "You can expect how lonely, how desperate they are, not only from losing loved ones, but losing almost entirely their source of economic assistance after retirement." The notable difference is of course China's obnoxious "one child policy" which means that the parents of the dead students have lost everything. I grieve for them. But I ask this, every day in China there must be parents who loose their one child, through accident, disease etc - what provisions does the Chinese Government make for those people? Hmmm . Grief knows no international borders - we all want to do everything we can to alleviate the pain of the b...