FIFTY YEARS' WORK.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 339, 28 October 1908, Page 7

FIFTY YEARS' WORK.

ARCHDEACON HARPER'S REMINISCENCES. A BISHOP'S ADVENTURES. (BT TELEGBAX'B.—SFECUIJ CORBESPOR DENT.) Christchurch, October 27. ■ Archdeacon -Harper, who has lately completed fifty years of ministry in New Zealand, has been telling a "Press" interviewer some of his experiences in his early days. .He was educated at Eton and Oxford, and camo out horo ill (1856 to. assist his father, Bishop Harper. Ho was ordained deacon in 1857, and. priest in 1858. ' The dioceso of the late Bishop Harper then included the whole of tho South Island and Stewart Island. The A.rchdeacon was first dispatched upon an exploring expedition to Moeraki, in Otago, for the dual purpose of spying out the land, and of procuring a horse, for his father. Thore were no roads, the rivers had to bo forded or swum, and the population consisted of a few sheepfarmers at distressingly long distances apart. However, the' trip was safely accomplished, and later on tho Archdeacon set out to pilot his father" to the extreme south of the Island. They penetrated as far as tho Jacobs River to a spot upon which Riverton now stands, and were absent.from Christchurch three mouths. Subsequently tho Archdeacon was placed in charge of- what was called the Waimakariri district,, tlie boundaries of which extended from the Waimakariri to the Rakaia, and as far back into tho mountains as the adventurous spirit of the vicar chose to lead him. Beyond the fence surrounding tho Riccarton Church there were no. ; fences in the whole of .the vast area of country, tho inhabitants of which did not number 'more than 350.

"I lived in the saddle four or five days in every, week," the Archdeacon stated. "Tlierq were no .tracks;;ivWeihad >to sleep where .we could, and eat what wo could get. Later on a certain amount of land was purchased, and a little more settlement took place. After six years I' went home for clergymen. I' induced seven'to go to New Zealand. The West Coast Diggings. "In the meantime the West Coast diggings broko out. AY hen I left thero was no track across the mountains to the coast. I was asked to take charge of the West Coast district, and I returned to New Zealand. My district extended from l Hokitika to Greymouth in one direction', and down to Ross' in the other (a distance of about 30 miles each way) and back to the mountains. The country was covered with dense forest, and there was a' population of from 40,000 to 50,000 gold-miners. Hokitika boasted 10,000 inhabitants. On Bevel Street,, a milo and a quarter long, there • wore seventy so-called hotels. Most of ..the diggers had como from California and Australia, while a few hailed from Canterbury. I succeeded in establishing sevon centres on the West Coast, each with its wooden church. The miners were splendid, straightforward men. We used to ■get wonderful gatherings.' I recollect once being sent for from Eoss. Two Cornislmien had been killed in a mine. When I got there the whole community had shut down work, 'and the entire male community came to the funeral There must have been 5000 diggers in attendance. After the funeral they began to sing Cornish hymns, and stayed there singing for a, couple'of hours. After that it started to rain, the rivers got up, and nobody could move. A young, survey or offered to show me a track through the bush to the river. We found the river, in heavy flood, and that the boats had stopped , running. However, I found a good four-oared boat tvhich three men and I manned, the surveyor steering. I'rowed stroke, and a big I, Thames waterman was ' behind me pulling three. After a hard tussle we got across safely. They were getting up - a regatta about Christmas, and the Thames said' to me in a hoarso whisper,' 'Keep it dark, sir, we will enter for the pair-oar race.' " ,

Bishop Harper. "I spent nine pleasant years on tho coast, and ivas then appointed to Timaru about the end of 1875. There was a little church at Timaru, but no house and no land. One soon learned to rough it. I could sleep anywhere, and have sampled every possible kind of bed from a flax bush to a clay floor. My father repeated .his great southern journey for 20 years. It was marvellous how he adapted himself to tho rough primitive life. He was fifty-fivo'' years of age, when he came out, and until then one might say he had never slept away from his own bed. He took to tho new state of matters as to the manner born." The bishop and his son had many narrow escapes, tho former on one occasion being very nearly drowned while crossing the Matiiura River through mistaking the ford. ■'On another expedition," said tho Archdeacon, "my father and I attempted to reach the. Bluff from Fortroso by travelling round the beach. We expected to cover the distance in an afternoon, but found our progress barred by an immense brackish lagoon, the .water from which was pouring into the sea like a mill race. Wo stayed there all night, and tho next day waded round the lagoon naked, with our clothes on our heads. Wo had neither food nor water for two days, and our tongues were beginning to swell when we arrived at the hut of an old whaler, whose Maori wife fed us up on hot milk. More Prosaic Times. "By and by the wild country became subdued. The Bishop of Djincdin was appointed with the WaitaKi as tho northern boundary. Tho squatters' pioneering was followed by the cultivation ,of the agriculturists. The West Coast and Otago diggings began to fall off, and by degrees the romantic glamour that was over everything slowly faded away, and we were carried along to tho prosaic times of the present day. It does not seem half a century since one's work was begun. The pleasant years have sped along very swiftly. One .lias been cheercd by the goodness, the sympathy, and the large-heartedncss of his fellow men, and at the end of fifty years is as strOngly confirmed as ever in tho belief that the faith of our fathers, in spite of the commercial sentiment abroad in our days, stilt remains as much as ever the controlling and inspiring force in the lives of the people of New Zealand."