LOOKING BACKWARDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 127, 29 May 1914, Page 2

LOOKING BACKWARDS.

EABLY DAYS RECALLED. ISV MISSIONARY'S TOMTkSTuXE.

The announcement ntuls in last even- j in;;'<s i-sue <->f the .li-i-overy in the j _T..iinds of a residei near the top of Shortliind Street,, of a tombstne bearing! the name of Uie Uev. Charles J^ucas lieay, li.A.. of l,n n's C-ollefre, Oxford, and daf/'d IS4S. has caused m»ine interest older residents in Ain-klutul. The number nf such who date Uiek to IS4S is jrolling \ery litnited. but one of them is the Uev. C.nio'i Could, now residing near ()n<■ htuiuTii. Tin- gentleman «as mtii tuday liy a representative oi the -Auckland Star." I anon liquid is a wonderfully well pnwPrvi'd Hum, allhnupli S7 veurs uf tlfjc, and hi.- memory is quite clear. When inked repirdinii the llov. <'. 1.. Ili-ay. he promptly replie.l. "He died in IS4B. -<ime months before I arrived in AtR-k land. i wa- only tn-enty-one at the time, and had come to St. .John's Col lejie. ttljer- I conducted a school while f U.I-S MmUinj! for Holy Dnler.*. As far as my memory serves m< , . the Rev. lieay «as one of the men brought out by Itwhop Selwyn. He never had a rharce in Auckland. I be.lif-vc he wa* located further south. I -am under the impression that he died dawn there, aud not in Auckland." Asked as ;,i whether it was Die practice to inter bodies in the p-ound.s ot old St. I'atil'.s Church—now Kmily I'lai'i-—Cnmin Could sai.l he was not aware of any«n<« havinp ever been buried there. "Althoiljlll the Rev. Churton's monument was erected in the old church ground, still h< , never understood the body ua.s buried thereSeveral other old residents, seen rethis matter, were pretty certain t.hat Uiere was no cemetery where the stone was found; also that it Wis too far away from S:. Taul's .-.ite to have been left there when the hHI was cut down for reclamation purposes. There i-. however. Ihe possibility that t he stone. Ihoutrh prepared ready for erection, was never put in position over the e;ravc where the remains were interred. Kmidin;; tin , inscription. "Here lies." I would at lirst frive the Im7.res.sion that j the remains were underneath, but the | .-tone mhrht have been completi-d in ] someone's yard, and then stored waiting ! till il eoui Ibe ereetcl. In The early i days of Auckland there was a Ftore on the ,-i;e n.ra mn-upied by the Ne-vv Zealand Mines Trim Office, and this was .de-troyed by tire. .-siipposinj; t.he tombstone t> have 'been imported ready for erection, and that it was snored in this particular building. the expl.inution would be ea-ri- as to why it has just been unearthed in the adjoining property.