TO-DAY'S FOOTBALL.

Evening Star, Issue 14162, 11 September 1909, Page 12

TO-DAY'S FOOTBALL.

Wellington v. otaco. This match v.V played oil the Garisbrook Grefuad this s-ftwrpporu Otago wb’n the toff- Aityr twerjtytiva minute* of Capital play Cqsay cMrei. Patna jtyt failed to the major pedate. pull tha abeva in. ta-nighb'e Special*' pythfobed all 7«S(L V the Government tried to take away, but could not, being defeated by the appeal to the Privy Council. When tho bishop appointed me lip said : “You are here for tile natives; do what you can for the settlers,” and that was how I wont to work, ministering to them alternately. \ had no difficulty about the Maori tongue. My early experiences with the natives enabled me to speak their language fluently. We had a good school there—a boarding school—in which we had more than twenty Maori children. There was no race trouble with the Maoris locally, but after a while emissaries from the Hauhans came about, trying to persuade the Wairarapa natives to join them. In this the emissaries did not succeed, but the Wairarapa natives were so far influenced as to take their children away from the school. This was somewhere about 1864. The Wairarapa district at that time suffered from want of means of communication. There was no road across the Rimutaka. and as a result the furniture we brought from Home had to be sold in Wellington. In 1868 I wont to Motueka, under Bishop Sitter, and took charge of the Whakarewa Maori College, which appointment included charge of the natives at Gnllingwood and Whaknpttnka. The Whakarewa Colege was a small affair, and a mistake. There were very few scholars for it. It lasted three years, and then closed down as a college, the bishop getting a schoolmaster to succeed me. I went to Picton in 1871 to take charge of the church there, and bade farewell to teaching. I remained at Picton till 1877. and then came to Otago to take charge of St. John’s. Milton, where I stayed for three veare, and was then appointed by Bishop 'Nevill to St. Peter’s, Caversham, with Green Island, and later on St. Mary’s, Mornington, where I served for a long time, ami ■ ended my active connection with the ministry of the Anglican Church. I am one of those who suffered through the failure to establish a pension fund for aged ministers in Otago, though I subscribed to the pension funcMn Wellington, and also to the pension fund in Nelson for many years. I should like to add a word or two as to my very pleasant connection with the Freemasons. b'eoing them lav the foundation stone of St. Peter’s Church, in 1882, I said to the District Grand Master, R.W. Bro. T. S. Graham : “If you will accept mo as a member I will join.” That led to my becoming a Mason, and in time Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of New Zealand. That appointment was made in 1890, and I held the office till 1900, when I retired on half pay. and, thanks to the generosity of my brethren in the craft, that continues to tilts day. I feel that I should like to acknowledge this considerateness for one who has outgrown lus period of activity. The statement as given above is exactlv as dictated by the rev. gentleman. If told by one who was fond of the romantic stylo it would easily spin out to a page. Mr Ronaldson. however, is a man who always did prefer to he simple and direct, and, ‘if he has no story- to tell, the brief outline of his seventy years’ history will at any rate serve to recall numbers of incidents of interest and importance. Further, this is the only record of Mr Ronaldson that is likely to get into print, for he has not kept a diary or even a scrapbook, and what is here set down was given entirely from memory.—Ed. E.S.