THE LATE ARCHBISHOP POLDING.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 299, 9 April 1877, Page 4

THE LATE ARCHBISHOP POLDING.

QFtom Sytteey uomispoTulerwo ot eh<? Doily Tim« 9.) Tn# Colony has suffered an irremarabte low in the death of the Roman Catholic AteMasnop Folding, which took place- on th« l€t% irnst* If© was bona tn Liverpool in 1794, and was consequently to his 83rd year. From the age- of 13 he was educated lor the priesthood v at IT he was: admitted to- the order of Rencdtctines, and towards the close of I8X"> amwi in Sydney, with the title of Vicar Apostotie of New Holland.. tie visited Rome in 1840 V 184&, 1854, and 186 ft, and was on tea way in 1860 1 to attend the Ecumenical Council when he was taken ill in Bombay, and compelled to- return to the colony ■witnotrt accomplishing his object. In 1841 Pope Gregory XVI." raised him to the then newty-created Archkpiscopat See of Sydney, and the present Pope made him a Connt of the Hoty Roman Empire, and Bishop Assistant at the Papal throne. Dwelling for upwards of 4© years in the midst of diversified faiths and religions opinions, he feept aloof from party politics and reKgions discords to the last, and succeeded in passing through a long and useful Kfe without provoking an angry thought or making a single enemy. A brave, kindly gentleman, he maintained the affection and respect of ail creeds and classes from *>ne end of the colony to the other. His death occurring on the day preceding St. Patrick's Bay, the Hibernian Society decided that the usual manifestations of festivity on the Saint's day shottld be dispensed with ; and I can say that it was the first ITfch March I have ever witnessed without some indication of Hibernian cheer. The Cloverument ctosed all the public offices, and the whole day was given up to the solemn ceremonies of the interment. A procession, vehicular and pedestrian,, in which were judges. legislators, professions, and trades followed the hearse to tfv« cemetery in a stream extending three mites, and between twenty and thirty thousand people gathered to do the old friend of the colony a fitting reverence.