ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 103, 25 January 1933, Page 8

ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD

A Most Remarkable Man DIAMOND JUBILEE’IS NEAR Perhaps the most remarkable man in New Zealand is Archbishop Redwood, of Wellington, head of the Roman Catholic hierarchy of the Dominion. A man who at 94 years of age can still take the pulpit, and deliver a sermon in which Biblical example and precept is forcibly brought into conjunction with topical events, is surely no ordinary man. Yet his Grace does this v frequently, apparently with as little effort as he flits from one side of i the world to the other. This reminds one that he has always been a great lover of the sea. He came to New Zealand in 1842 in the ship George Fife, a tiny vessel of only 560 tons register. At 15 years of age he travelled from Nelson in an even smaller vessel, the Mountain Maid, of 150 tons, to France, so that at a very early age he got to know the rolling deep in all its beauty and majesty, and terror, but it never disturbed him. His Grace generally feels at his best at sea, but on the last voyage he had a touch of bronchitis, which made things rather unpleasant for a time. Archbishop Redwood is remarkable in many ways. He can still read small print without glasses, phenomenal for a person nearly 95 years of age; and he can remember incidents which occurred when he was just over three years old. He was born in 1839, yet can remember clearly incidents which occurred on the ship on the voyage to New Zealand in, 1842. His Grace is now looking forward confidently to his diamond jubilee as Bishop. He has already been a Roman Catholic bishop longer than anyone else in the world, and has been a priest for 68 years. His silver jubilee was celebrated in Wellington nearly nine years ago, when there was a great gathering of the heirarchies of several countries. The diamond jubilee In March, 1034, promises to be even a greater event. Then his Grace will make for the century.