Page:Letters from New Zealand (Harper).djvu/387

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Letters from New Zealand
349

places at present, and so far no machinery for marble polishing has been available, but no doubt, as time goes on, the necessity for importation will cease. Rich as Australia seems to be in coloured marbles, I am told that at present the white marble of commerce, such as the Italian Carrara, has not been found.

I must tell you something of the stained glass in the nave. Except on the south side, which is our sunless side here, all the windows are filled with glass given as memorials. Most of it came from the Whitefriars Glass Works of Messrs. Jas. Powell and Son, London, and is worthy of their great reputation. The Western Rose window, in memory of Edward Elworthy, and the Clerestory lights, in memory of Philip Luxmoore, are filled with glass in the style of the thirteenth century, in rich, deep, glowing colour, sapphire, ruby, green and gold. The nave windows are in later style, not quite so richly coloured, but very beautiful, one of them having been given by the parishioners as a memorial of the first Bishop of Christchurch, H. J. C. Harper. The funds for this were raised by Mr. Melville Gray. In all the work the artist has not forgotten that the special glory of stained glass is in luminous colour, not laid on the surface, but burnt in and filling the whole substance of the glass. It is colour which no picture on which light falls can produce. It is due to light which passes through colour in the body of the glass; and yet they are all story windows, not merely gems of colour. Their story is that of the Bible. This was the object of glass makers in old days. The people generally were illiterate. Few, if any, possessed a missal, or had they one, could read it. They knew the Services by heart, but could not read the Bible, even had they