GREYMOUTH-YAMAGUCHI

Grey River Argus, 5 January 1940, Page 3

GREYMOUTH-YAMAGUCHI

Recollections of Visitor From Japan That the West Coast, and in particular this part of it, with its people, gives to the oversea visitor a lasting impression which is distinct from that of other parts of the Dominion, is illustrated iji a message of Christmas greetings just received in Greymouth from Japan. The Vicar-Apostolic of Hiroshima, Right Rev. Bishop J. Ross, S.J., who in 1938 made a sojourn here for a brief period, writes: •‘These days I have been writing Xmas letters to far-off friends. To-day it is your turn, for I certainly count you among my friends, irrespective of i what is going on in the world, over, which we have no control. The West Coast, and most of all Greymouth, will be a cherished memory for me until my dying day, and even, I hope, in a glorified sublimation throughout eternity. If you think fit, tell your people that I will specially remember them in these days before the crib where there are the deepest roots of all the loye so generously bestowed on me by' them. They cannot know how often in my lectures and talks, up and down New Zealand, I illustrated the meaning of the Yamaguchi (i.e., mountain-mouth) by the striking site of Greymouth in the gap in the mountain-chain caused by the river Grey. They gave at once a homely colouring to my discourses, specially at schools and such like, and linked up Greymouth with Yamaguchi in my own mind. But stranger bi' far than this merely external geographical link is the psychological, the emotional link that ties me to the people “on the other side of Arthur’s J ass, or rather, as seen from here, this side of Arthur’s Pass. God bless them! I love to think that the whole place is still pervaded by that indelinatile atmosphere of good understanding and hearty co-operation which made me feel so much at home in your midst. It still does me good to think of it and to recall their unaffected, homely, bright and cheerful ways. More than once when speaking to the Sisters here I 1 have instanced those of Greymouth as models in this regard. Hilarein datorem diligit Deus. And now let it be enough of chatting and conjuring up pleasant visions; they help me to ' keep you all in my prayers.” ■