This lectern was donated to the parish by Mrs G. Wilkinson in memory of Fr Walter McDonald and remains in use today.
The Wilkinson family lived on the corner of Great South Road and Greenlane Road near where the Congregational Church now stands. A family member recalled Mrs Wilkinson always walking down to the church in the middle of an unsealed, muddy Great South Road and Main Highway as the surface was less muddy or broken up than the verges.
Among the very early supporters of the newly arrived Sisters of the Mission in 1912, Mrs Wilkinson is credited with raising sufficient money to purchase a sewing machine for the Sisters. Other parishioners provided a cow, and various practical items as the Sisters established their new Convent.
George Wilkinson was a blacksmith with premises at the Harp of Erin Triangle from 1899 until 1929 when a Triangle Service Station was built. The photos show a busy establishment which was of course in close proximity to the Ellerslie Race Course.
George Wilkinson involved himself in local body affairs and later went on to become chairman of the Ellerslie Roads Board.
