WAR DAYS RECALLED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22117, 24 May 1935, Page 12

WAR DAYS RECALLED

BISHOP'S ANECDOTES APPRECIATION BY ROTARIANS At their luncheon on Tuesday Christclnirch Rotarians laughed heartily at the anecdotes of the Bishop of Nelson, the.Right Rev. \V. G. Hilliard, who spoke to them on the wider application of their ideals of service and fellowship. A lucid and commanding speaker, the bishop illustrated some of his points in the early part of his address with stories. The fun started when Canon Stephen Parr, in introducing the bishop, said that ho supposed that the job had been given to him b'ecause he was chairman of the International Relations Committee and the bishop had recently arrived from Australia. He did .not know of much that Australia had done in international relations, but he recalled that during the war jt was said that the best way to capture Berlin would"be to give the Australians two weeks' leave, three weeks' pay, and place Berlin out of bounds. The bishop was not slow in making another joke at the expense of his own countrymen. "I heard quite recently that it was a fact that a party of 10 Australians had passed through Dunedin and nothing was missing," he said. Then he told a war story. A Canadian was reading a newspaper published for the benefit of the troops, and ho said to another Canadian: "I see the Australians were in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve." His comrade replied: "I'll bet the shepherds watched their flocks that night." "Australians do have a wonderful language-Hit least, so I am told," said the bishop a little later. "It reminds me of a lady who was visiting the Tower of London and wanted to see all the sights, including a sanguinary part of that historic place. So she approached an attendant and said, using the correct name of the part she wanted to see: 'Please show me where the Bloody Tower is.' 'Madam,' replied the attendant, 'it is indeed a groat privilege. During the war 1 had the privilege of showing many of your gallant countrymen the sights of this place, but this is the first time I have had the honour of meeting a lady from Australia.' " Later, the bishop was talking of ministers of religion and he said that one old parishioner wanted to know where the parson was. "He has gone to synod," said a friend. "What is that?" asked the parishioner. "Oh, that is where the parsons go and swap sermons," he was told. "Well," was his comment, "our parson always gets the worst of it." In the closing remarks of his address Bishop Hilliard exhorted his audience to go about things cheerfully. "When you are up to the neck in hot water be like, the kettle and sing," he said. "And when you get down in the mouth, remember Jonah. He got out of it all right."