[Bell Historians] Christchurch New Zealand

[Robert Lewis]

At 11:15 26/02/2011, Richard wrote:

>Members may be interested to know that rescuers started the gruesome 
>task of sifting through the rubble of the collapsed spire of Christ 
>Church Cathedral looking for the 20 or so people known to have been 
>in the cathedral at the time of the earthquake.
>
>I feel that this makes Simon Jenkin's article even more 
>inappropriate at this time.
>
>You may also be interested to know that two of the victims from the 
>earthquake, already identified were the factory foreman, Neil 
>Stocker, and cabinet maker, Scott Lucy,  from the South Island Organ 
>Company (one of the most prolific organ builders in the Southern 
>Hemisphere).   Ironically, these two guys were removing an organ 
>from Durham Street Methodist Church to allow structural repairs to 
>be made following last September's earthquake.   Sadly, the building 
>completely collapsed whilst they were inside.   Neil and Scott were 
>known to several of us here in Perth as they had recently worked on 
>both the Anglican and Catholic Cathedral organs.

Terrible business. No doubt they will have had some difficulty 
getting the search underway while parts of the building remain 
unstable and dangerous.

The timing of the Simon Jenkins article did seem odd and insensitive. 
I'm surprised it got past the Guardian editor and they will probably 
have had correspondence to that effect. There are certainly a 
few  adverse comments on their 
website: 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/24/restoring-christchurch-bell-tower-earthquake 


RAL


           
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