ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH. 



197 



Assinniboia, and nucleus of Christianity and civilisation 

 in the great North-West. 



St. Andrew's Church, called also the Eapids' Church, 

 is a new and very substantial structure of stone, well 

 buttressed, and very conveniently and neatly furnished : 

 all its interior arrangements are attractive and substan- 

 tial. It is surrounded by a thick stone wall enclosing 

 a capacious churchyard. The parsonage house, also 

 recently completed, is in every respect fitted for the 

 severities of the winter climate of the country. The size 

 is 50 feet by 30, and two stories high ; the walls, of 

 limestone, are 2 feet 8 inches thick, the rooms lofty 

 and capacious, and in its internal arrangements it leaves 

 nothing to be desired. 



The Eev. W. W. Kirkby's (now of Mackenzie's Eiver) 

 house is roomy and comfortable, but its architectural 

 points are far from being attractive. A school-house, 

 constructed of wood, is admirably arranged, and in it I 

 saw sixty children pursuing their studies, under the 

 instruction of Mr. Mayhew, lately from Dublin, with a 

 decorum and attention not often to be surpassed in the 

 primary schools of this or the European continent. 



The parish of St. Andrew is the most populous on 

 Eed Eiver, and the Church of England element is very 

 largely in excess of the Eoman Catholic, there being two 

 hundred and six Protestant and eight Eoman Catholic 

 families. 



The commencement of the mission of St. Andrew may 

 be elated as far back as the year 1824, when four 4 or five 

 retired servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, with their 

 native wives, first sought a permanent home at the Grand 

 Eapids. To these, year by year, a few families were 

 added until 1829, when the Eev. W. Cochrane (now 



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