THE LATE MONSIGNOR COLEMAN.

Evening Star, Issue 8118, 18 January 1890, Page 4

THE LATE MONSIGNOR COLEMAN.

His coming to New Zealand was, we believe, to a considerable extent the result of what is commonly called accident. While absent from Ireland on a holiday, during which he visited France and Scotland and England, he happened, while in London, to meet a friend in one of the lobbies of the House of Commons ; and this friend, if we remember rightly, had just previously been in conversation with Bishop Moran, then preparing to leave for his new diocese of Dunedin, New Zealand, and on the lookout for a priest of exceptional character to accompany him and be, as the popular phrase has it, his right hand man. Father Coleman'a friend told him that he was the man for the Bishop, and that he (the friend) had told the Bishop as much. This called from Father Coleman a laughing remonstrance, which, however, wag quite serious at bottom; for he had little inclination to cut his holiday short,. and was still less disposed to leave his work in Ireland for work in New Zealand. Notwithstanding this, he and Bishop Moran were at last brought together, and though they had never met before, the Bishop's knowledge of character enabled him to see in Father Coleman the man he wanted, while a kindred knowledge on the other side enabled Father Coleman to see in the Bishop a man whom he could follow and with whom he could work with a high sense of satisfaction. The result was that he accompanied the Bishop to New Zealand, and the relationship thus entered upon has been maintained for well nigh twenty years with mutual satisfaction to the Bishop and Father Coleman, and with admirable advantage to the Roman Catholic Church in this part of the world.' Perhaps it may not be amiss to mention' here that only a day or two ago Monsignor Coleman, while in conversation

with. a Protestant fellow-townsman iu Oamaru, spoke about the recent rate of mortality amongst well known people here ; and, while wondering in the way customary on such occasions whose turn would come next, he observed that when his came he hoped it would come to him in the Bishop's residence in Dunedin. This hope has been realised with pathetic suddenness.—'North Otago Times.'