"BENEFICENT FIGURE"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22000, 5 January 1935, Page 11

"BENEFICENT FIGURE"

BISHOP LISTON'S TRIBUTE

EXAMPLE OF HIS LIFE

RELIGION AND COUNTRY

At the request of the Hkrai,d, Bishop Liston, Woman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, has written the following tribute to the late Archbishop Redwood : "All New Zealand to-day mourns the passing of a beneficent figure, who was at the same time a most picturesque personality. His Grace, Archbishop Redwood, apart from his position, as a leader in the Catholic Church, was a bulwark of the system of political and social welfare for which our country stands, its solidity, its orderly development. "We may well believe that Providence spared him far beyond the span of average life so that in his age he might show forth the full fruits of his labours for religion and country. Ho passed in peace, honoured and revered by all, blest by liis country's wishes. The sun has set, but its traces are still in the sky, painted in gold and rose. 'Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail . . . nothing but well and fair and what may quiet us in a death so noble. 1 Inspiration and Guide "Yet this man, a scholar, a traveller, a leader, so often a companion of the great, had the simple heart of a simple priest and found his best joys in the thoughts of the Christian education of the children of his diocese., the relief of some distress and the rescue of some waif. He clung to his religious devotions as the first and chief duty of each day—prayer was in the marrow of his bones —to simple acts of kindness to all, without division of creed or race, as the choicest gifts of hia mission on earth. With him religion was the greatest reality of life and ho found in it the inspiration, the guide and the support of his labours for men, "In the course of his long life, many, many thousands must havo felt directly the personal force of the archbishop and Catholic and non-Catholic, Jew and Gentile, high and low of many degrees, might seek to interpret their impression of him, each in his own way: but all who knew him shared in the one thought: Here was a man of God. That is his legacy to his fellow-country-men. The archbishop broke down many barriers that divide men and to-day they know no barriers in their reverent sharing in the rites with which his body will be laid to rest. Influence of Religion "Archbishop Redwood saw with his own eyes how wer have in New Zealand, with almost incredible industry in the course of a century, levelled the mountains and filled the valleys and made straight the ways and cultivated the land. With his insight into all that makes human life noble, he must have often thought that all this has been doife to, enable a free people to enter the infinitely more arduous task of rising to heights of intellectual and moral influence. 'Not in bread alone doth man 'live.' We should know no rest, he was deeply convinced, religion infuses through all our national life the charm* of reverence and gentleness, of modest and polite breeding, of culture, giving to each one of us the high dignity that-'belongs to virtue and wisdom."

OUTSTANDING FIGURE A BELOVED CITIZEN MOURNED THROUGHOUT LAND [BY TELEGRAPH FREBB ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON. Friday From an early hour this morning tributes and messages of sympathy have been received by Archbishop O'Shea. Among them is one from Bishop !?prott. Anglican Bishop of Wellington, and his wife, sending "respectful sympathy in the death of a great and venerable archbishop." Another message, from the Hon. J. A. Yotmg, states: "In the passing of Archbishop Redwood New Zealand loses a notable and beloved citizen and the Church in particular an outstanding prelate. His demise will be mourned by all sections of the community. To your Church and the relatives of the late archbishop I tender heartfelt sympathy in the great loss they have sustained."