OBITUARY.

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 April 1918, Page 2

OBITUARY.

, 'A pCHDEACON GRACE, BLEN- ;!• . HEIM. TK© Venerable Archdeacon Thomas Samuel Grace, who underwent a aevere operation last week for kidney trouble, never rallied, and died at, Blenheim last night. The Archdeacon f had always been a strong, robust man and. a. most successful Church worker. A He was the second son of the Rev. Thomas Samuel Grace, Maori Missionary, and w«s born at sea. during the voyage of his parents to New Zealand in 1850. He was partly edu gated at the Church of England Grammar School, Auckland. In Iso.l lie entered the Nelson Theological I College, and afterwards went to England, where he was ordained by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 18Lj. During the following*year he returned to. New Zealand, and entered the Theological College as- a chaplain and, tutor. In 1881 hi passed on. to the Maori Mission under the Chureh Missionary Society, and' was stationed at Putiki, Wanganui, where he remained until 18b0, when he was appointed Vicar of Blenheim. He was appointed Archdeacon of Marlborough in 1890 and Canon of the Nelson Cathedral last year. He ranks as Chaplain Colonel in the New Zealand Forces, and has taken great interest in the military camps ‘‘i throughout the Nelson diocese. As a parish priest he was an indefatigiWe a.ndi untiring worker and was beloved, by all his "parishioners. His church was noted for the large amounts >f money raised for Home and Foreign Missions, The Maori race will into 'J. a, good friend and champion in the , late Archdeacon, He had been brought up from infancy with the Maoris, and could think and ffoea.'c in ..Maori equally as well as in Engiis.h. 'Tire Archdeacon was Diocesan Missioner to the Maoris in the Nelson diocese, .and the dearest wish of hi* ■ heart was, to spend the remainder of his life—after Ids retirement from parish work—amongst Ins beloved Maoris. He leaves behind him a widow and large family of five sor.s and four daughters to mourn his loss. Several of his sons are at the front.