WORLD FAMOUS AUTHOR

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 77, 14 March 1935, Page 7

WORLD FAMOUS AUTHOR

Connor Coming to N.Z. An interesting personality, the Rev. Charles W. Gordon, D.D., better known as Ralph Connor, will arrive iu Auckland by the Aorangi on Sunday next. Born of Scottish ancestry in Glengarry County, Canada, hie father, the Rev. Donald Gordon, was a famous Free Church minister of disruption times. It was in his congregation that occurred the great Glengarry revival referred to in “The Man Horn Glengarry’’ and in ‘‘Torches Through the Buch.” Ralph Connor was educated in Toronto and in Edinburgh. He travelled over Europe on a bicycle with a group of Canadian students. He acted as a missionary in the Rocky Mountains from 1890 to 1893, and it was no doubt in that locality that he obtained a lot of the material for his famous books. For many years he was the pastor of St. Stephen’s Church, Winnipeg. He eerved the Presbyterian Church in Canada as convenor of various conference committees, notably Social Service and Evangelism, and he became Moderate! of the General Assembly in 1921. Wii' oraething of a reputation in the ■study - sociology and economics, Ralph Connor was invited by the Government of Canada to act as arbitrator during industrial strikes, lu this connection he had a wonderful i ecord, dealing with 117 cates and registering success in each instance, something unparalleled in the history of labour legislation m that Dominion. He went to the war as I chaplain of the 43rd Cameron High- | landers in 1915, and was chosen by the Imperial and Canadian Governments lor a special mission to the United States where he came into contact with President Wilson and other American statefcI men. During the period of his mission America entered the war on the side of the Allie*. Ralph Connor is known the world over for his books, the most notable being "Black Rock’’ and the “Sky Pilot.’’ In all, he has published something like twenty-one books, but the ones mentioned have attained a circulation of many millions in the English language, and have been translated into most foreign tongues. No books of the last half-century have attained the i circulation which these have. I The Rev. W. Gilmour, 8.A., of the : Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington, at whose invitation Ralph I Connor is coming to New Zealand, j states that he hopes that his friend will I lie able to spend some weeks in thic I country, and that, no doubt arrangei incuts will be made for him to preach in i some of our churches. —