A GREAT LIFE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12456, 26 May 1926, Page 7

A GREAT LIFE

ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD COLONIST TO PRINCE OF CHURCH,, BIG WORKS ACCOMPLISHED HU Grace Archbishop Redwood, one of Wellington’s bestknown figures, returned to Wellington from Sydney in the Makura last night, and to-day he embarks for San Francisco to attend a great church congress which is to be held in the United States shortly. His Grace is recovering from his recent illness, and on this, the day of his departure on one more important mission, it is fitting that a survey of his wonderful career should be made. Arclibisliop Redwood was recognised the world over as a great Prince of Holy Church whose noble record of service stands among the highest of our time, and the memory of the great souls who have enriched the history of the church by thengreat example. Nor can we forget that he was among the pioneers who made New Zealand what she is to-day, watching the development of colonisation and identifying himself, with the ripe experience of one who has seen men and cities during his half century of work, with every good movement that long period has seen. Thus did he truly prove one of a company of emigrants “brought out” as he so well has put in his Reminiscences, “under the auspices of the New Zealand Company, whose noble purpose was to bring to New Zealand a selected lot of emigrants of all classes, to occupy the land just purchased from the Maoris, and there found a model colony.” In that foundation the young immigrant was destined to play a great ititiinni!ic3imiiimiiHiniiiiiiiii«iiiiiimiiiuimiimiiinmmiiiiiiK]ii

part. How splendidly he has played that part, it is the privilege and grateful pleasure of his people to acknowledge. The outlines of his career are drawn in His Grace’s Reminiscences, in a style of masterly simplicity, modest accuracy, and easy vigour, which make them as remarkable as they are interesting. To the historian who writes the history of the church in New Zealand theso Reminiscences will be invaluable, as the headings for great chapters packed with interesting detail. All who have enjoyed the reading of these have their minds stored with memories of most of the things so clearly set forth; most of them personal, a few obtained as to the earlier days from the elders who have passed away leaving fresh traditions behind them. Thus is the mass of their writer’s people familiar with the story of great things, recognising the accent of truth resounding in every line of the pious cheerful narrative of him who at his consecration was the youngest bishop of God’s Church, and to-day is the senior member of her hierarchy. BY FOOT AND CANOS As we read we see the cli'ild of three arriving after a toilsome journey on foot and by canoe, at the fifty-acre

section in the heart of the wilderness Nelson way. A tent is the family’s first shelter. A well is dug, a house built after incredible difficulties, a lino two-story building, the best in the district, long famous as such. There the child is sheltered in the best family life, religious and industrious. There he becomes familiar with the hardships and shifts of the early colonist life; remote, cultivating sturdy independence and rough acres; doing with might and main, and knowledge and skill brought from afgr, the work that lay under its hands. He is taught liis letters in this home of enterprise and method. He plays in the woods, swims in the streams, sees the arrival of cattle and horses, learns