So if no cornerstone was found, the question must be asked, "Was one ever laid in the first place?"
The answer is a most definite "yes" - the photographic record shows a large crowd in their finery gathered at the site. In the foreground is a stack of bricks ready for the project to commence and in the centre a tripod from which the stone is suspended.
A newspaper account (Wellington Independent 26 October, 1865), quoting an earlier Times story under the headline, "LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE OF CHRIST CHURCH" states:
"At one p.m. yesterday, the cornerstone of the above church was laid by the Right Rev. Charles John, Lord Bishop of Wellington, in the presence of a large and respectable assemblage of the inhabitants. The Bishop, attended by the Rev. Charles H.S. Nichols (sic), the Rev. Richard Taylor, and the Rev. Basil Taylor, with the Churchwardens and Building Committee, proceeded from the old church to the site of the proposed building where the choir, on their arrival, chanted the 132nd psalm."
The Bishop then preached a short sermon and said a prayer before the laying ceremony after which, "a small bottle, containing the following inscription was laid beneath, in a place prepared for it:- 'The foundation stone of a Parish Church, erected for the Worship of Almighty God, by the Parishioners of Christ Church, Wanganui, was laid by the Right Rev. Charles John, Lord Bishop of Wellington, October 16th, 1865.'"
Also listed were churchwardens, vestry and members of the building committee including the architect Henry C. Field.
At the time of the church's dismantling fifty-five years later, the Borough Council asked churchwardens what they proposed to do with, "two memorial stones on Christ Church property commemorating two important phases in the town's history," but it's unlikely the cornerstone was one of them. If the council had acquired it, why would the contractors
have looked for it? And why was there a hole in the ground?
Does the answer lie in the nature of the land on which the church stood?
Burials had long since been discontinued there because of the unsuitability of the swampy ground and when the first Church of England (1844-1866) was erected it took some time to locate a suitably firm site.
But it was a shocking tragedy which really showed up the instability of the ground and it occurred just a few yards away, the day after the laying ceremony.
"A dreadful accident has just occurred in Victoria Avenue. Dr Gibson has lately had a quantity of sand removed from the sandhill behind his house and had employed Mr W. Aiken to erect a substantial fence along the foot of the excavation.
"While Mr Aiken and three men were so engaged, a little earth fell and jammed the legs of one of the men and while his comrades were assisting him, fifteen or twenty tons more came down, burying three of the party and hurling the other a distance of several yards.
"Mr Aiken's head and arm were left free and he succeeded in uncovering the head of the man next him, but in spite of the eager efforts of a number of persons who rushed to the spot, more than twenty minutes elapsed before the man first jammed could be extricated, and he was then to all appearance dead. He is a carpenter, but even Mr Aiken did not know his name."
(Wanganui Chronicle 18 October, 1865).
A common practise to prevent heavy objects such as water barrels from sinking into unstable ground was to set them on a foundation of solid materials such as old bottles.
Did the church's elusive cornerstone simply sink under his own weight? The Whanganui District Heritage Inventory lists the site as Pre-1900 and of archaeological and historic interest. Is there something of archaelogical and historic interest still there, patiently awaiting discovery?
