PIONEERING DAYS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21938, 23 October 1934, Page 6

PIONEERING DAYS

CLERGYMAN AND HIS LOT MEMORIES OF " LOST TRIBE " FIRST MURCHISON SERVICE Memories of the days when, it was the common lot of the pioneer clergyj to have to ford and sometimes swim rivers on the West Coast of the South Island were recalled last week by Archdeacon A. S. Innes-Jones, retiring vicar of Roseneath, Wellington, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the ministry of the Church of England. Archdeacon Innes-Jones did pioneer work for Nelson diocese on the West Coast, c where he was for a time in charge of the Grey Valley, whose 13 centres called for much travelling in a day when that was confined to horseback. He was for three years vicar .of Reefton, and conducted the first service ever held at Hampden, now Murchison. How the Hampden service came about in an unusual way the archdeacon told a representative of the Dominion. An old man attended his service one Sunday morning, was very attentive for a while, and then, sighing and pulling a shilling out of his pocket, he placed it' on the book board on the pew 'in front of him and left the church, muttering, "Give this to the boss when the plate comes round. I can't stand this. I'm off." Visit to the "Lost Tribe" Later the man met Mr. Innes-Jones in the street- and suggested that the latter might. go to Hampden and hold a service for tho members of the "lost tribe," a small mining group near that' place. "Just send a notice along to Moonlight (tho hotel proprietor) and he will put it up in the bar an d the store, and we will have a good house for you," the man said. In due course Mr. lnnes-Jones did. as suggested, and the notice was placed in the bar. A bumper house greeted the vicai/ when he arrived to hold a service in the small Courthouse. The "lost tribe," to the number of about 40, had timed up for the service. Those were rough days and, passing through the bar after tho service to his room, tho vicar was pressed to "have one" ori all hands. He explained that, while he was not a teetotaller, he did not make a habit of drinking in bars, so all present offered cigars instead, and, with his' pockets bulging with them, he made his way to his room. "And they were fine cigars," he says. Arrival in New Zealand Archdeacon Innes-Jones was born in Derbyshire in 1859, a son of the Rev. P. lnnes-Jones. He was educated at Felstead School, in Essex, Pembroke College (University of Cambridge) and the Gloucester Theological College. He came out to Nelson, with the late Bishop Suter, in 1883, and in 1884 was ordained deacon and, three years later, priest, by the Bishop. He served in the Nelson diocese for five years and those were the'days of river fording and swimming. It was as locum tenens at Feilding that the archdeacon went to the "Wellington diocese, in 1889. He was vicar of Bulls and Foxton for three years, and was then appointed vicar of Feilding, where he served for 28 years. He was appointed Archdeacon of Rangitikei in 1915. Exchanging parishes with the Rev. F. H. Petrie, he went to, Roseneath in 1921, and has been there £ver since. Archdeacon lnnes-Jones has a great love of sport. -At Cambridge University he was captain of his college cricket eleven, and played in both the Soccer and Rugby teams. He also hunted with the Earl of Portsmouth's hounds in central Devon, and when at Bulls he wasanade an honorary member of the Rangitikei Hunt and rode to hounds whenever he could borrow a mount.