FROM PULPIT TO PLOUGH.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 110, 1 February 1908, Page 3

FROM PULPIT TO PLOUGH.

The Rev. - Joseph Clark, who . is resigning the pastorate of the: Auckland Baptist Tabornacle on- account of .ill-health, is reported by ".Town.aiicl Country Life " to be going i:i :fo"i", fanning ■ enterprises.' In .this- lie is following the oxaniple of the liev. W. L, Salter, the lat(rpastor of 'the Waihi Baptist Church, .who is how farming at Athenree, ton miles from Waihi. . ' . ' Pastor Clark has been, during his church career,' one: of tlio' most popular men in Auckland—and-in New Zealand. . Ho has long, been a man of oniinonco in clerical, circles, and among .the young men'he may at once l;c described as the favourite'minister in "Auckland. He has a large family of sons iind 'daughters, but this fact will hot greatly facilitate his firming career, because they aic nearly all, by now, "out in the world.?' The sons, : two or three'years ago,. formed a poworful bunch of footballers in Auckland, representing ;the luili of the association game in : that 1 city,'.'and the Pastor used to be an enthusiastic, spectator at the games. The boys wore also,' with their 'father, prominent 'figures, .ill;-:V.M.G.A; work.- Mr.; Joseph Clark, -the- eldest aon, is' now a Hamilton

fruit-grower, and married a . fruit-grower's daughter, Miss Kay, uf llirkditlc.' T)ni« circumstances •|mv« been conspiring to attach the Pastor and his family to tlio land! Before, he followed his father to Xcw Zealand Joseph Clark was/a-Canadian wheat farmer. Pastor Clark, before he entered the Church in London, possessed a large, business in the great metropolis. His intimate friends know"that hq has long had his heart in tho soil, and'if liis rumoured-retirement to rural life bo true, and his health recovers, we expect, yet to hear the voice of the pastor in the farming councils of the State.