THE LATE MISS GIBSON.

| MEMORIAL SERVICE. | __ BISHOP'S GENEROUS TRIBUTE. A deeply impressive memorial service for the late Mary Victoria Gibson, headmistress of the Christchurch Girls' High School, was held in the Cathedral at 5.15 o 'clock yesterday afternoon. In addition to the tremendous body of present and past students of the school, the service was attended by many wellknown people of the City drawn from every walk of life, and the congregation was indeed a wonderful testimony to the profound effect which the late Miss Gibson exercised on all who came into contact with her. The service began with the twentythird Psalm, by the choir of the Cathedral. The Lesson was read by the Dean of Christchurch, and was followed by Mendelssohn's anthem, "Happy and Blest Are They Who Have Endured." "It is not many years," said the Bishop, in his address, "since there gathered in this Cathedral a body of men and lads to do honour to the memory of Mr Bevan-Brown, and we are here to-day in thankful memory of a great headmistress, Mary Victoria Gibson, for thirty years headmistress of the Christchurch Girls' High School. Happy is the city that has been blessed with two such great and noble teachers. "Both as a citizen of distinction and a great headmistress, and as one devoted to her faith and to her Church, Mary Victoria Gibson has left behind her a memorial which the lapse of time may dim. But she has left a memorial which it will be impossible to do away with in the shape of the pupils of thirty years past on whom she has left her stamp. This is her true and noble memorial. "There has been much discussion for a very long time oa the best methods of teaching, but all great teachers have risen superior to such matters. They are born teachers, and their teaching lives. It has been said that the highest aim of teaching must surely be to take a great thought out of one person 's mind and to implant it in the mind of another. In my opinion, this is the true great teaching. And Miss Gibson was a master builder in the spiritual fabric of this city. There is no one acquainted with her work who does not know how profound an influence she exerted on the minds of those under her care. And so it is not in sorrow that we gather to-day, but in thanks to God that He has given us such a great teacher. "Miss Gibson was also a great Christian. In her own mind, her work and her faith were blended in one, and through her work she glorified God and served man. It was because of this coherence in her faith and her work that she was able to pass on something that would live in the minds of her pupils throughout the rest of their life. The art of living is the true teaching, | and to Christians the thought of God and His love gives to their life a solidity and Divine purposefulness. Many I of you will soon pass out into life, and it is probable that at some time in l your life you will ask yourselves, "Is ! it worth while?" Then will the work of your teachers eome back to you. "She of whom we think to-day combined with all her distinction and her I work and her greatness a splendid, wonderful humility. There was nothing j impressive about her; and her work j and her faith were the fibre of her life." The Bishop concluded his address with a prayer that the heritage which Miss Gibson had left behind her might continue to reign in the years to cofoe. j ELLEN TERRY. MEMORIAL CASKET. ROSEMARY SPRIGS. CntoM ova owm coasaspoßßurr.) LONDON, August 23. A silver casket containing the ashes of Dame Ellen Terry was enshrined at St. Paul's, Covent Garden, "the actors' church," on Saturday, by the Rev. R."A. de Vera Hart-Da vies. The memorial, designed by Mr Paul Cooper, is set in a niche carved out of the wall near the Lady Chapel, and guarded by an artistic grill of oxidised metal. This is crowned with porphyry, and a plinth of the same material holds a beautiful casket of silver repouss6, with emblematic figures, to contain the great actress's ashes. Below is the inscription: "Ellen Terry, Actress. Born 1848, died 1928." "Rosemary for remembrance," picked from Dame Ellen's garden at Small Hythe, Kent, was brought by her gardener, who presented sprigs to the congregation. Near relatives occupied the front pews. One was Miss Marion Terry. Others present were Miss Edith Craig, Mr Fred Terry, and Mrs Kate Terry. The service was preceded by Bach's Fugue in D Minor, played by the musical director, Mr W. A. Gardner, and the singing of a hymn, "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say," led off by St. Paul's choir. Sir John Martin Harvey I read the lesson from the 44th Chapter j of "Ecclesiasticus" in praise of the famous who "were the glory of their times," and whose name "liveth for evermore." Miss Edith Craig unveiled the memorial, and the rector read the prayers of dedication. Three Characteristics. The rector said that three characteristics had always struck him in Ellen Terry. One was her love of beauty—the beauty of life, or flowers, and of Nature. She was no less remarkable for her love of art, for art was beauty, not merely sentimental prettiness, or whatever was bizarre or abnormal. She was an actress of insight, with bear in her art, and charm in her acting, so that whatever character she took' she made beautiful. She also appreciated the higher beauty of Catholic faith and worshop,f as expressed in music and stately ceremonial. A second characteristic was her love of simplicity, of simple joys, and simple speech. It was his privilege to have seen a collection of many of her letters, and this note of simplicity ran through them all. It was one of the secrets of her attraction, and explained her love of children, and the way they cam> to her naturally. Not many years ago she came to one of the garden feW in connexion with that church, and when the photographers pressed around her she refused to be taken except in the midst of the children. The third mark of her character was her faculty of happiness. No one who knew her, however superficially, could fail to perceive the sunny and unselfish nature of her disposition. She delighted in home, family, an( j friendship, and the other gifts of God. Now that she had come home to that church they would greet and cherish her and God grant that she might help' them to learn those lessons of her life to love beauty, to rejoice in the glorious .worship of God, to put simplicity in their lives, and thus to find true happiness. r After the recital of the "Masrnificat " Ellen Terry's favourite hymn, "All Things Bright and Beautiful," was sung, and the service concluded with the "Nunc Dimittl*.*