FAREWELL TEA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2324, 27 February 1892, Page 2

FAREWELL TEA.

lu the Temuka Primitive Methodist Church last Thursday evening a farewell I tea was tendered to the Rev. W. 0. Wood, who has been appointed to the Wellington Circuit by the Conference. Mr Wood has been in charge of the Geraldine Circuit for the past twelve months, and during that time he has made many friends, not only among his own congregation, but among other* denominations, and his removal is in consequence greatly regretted by them. His popularity was evinced by the large attendance —considering that it is harvest time—at the meeting on Thursday night. The bountiful tea provided by the lady members of the congregation was arranged on two tables, which were presided over by Mesdames Fletcher and Bryan, and Misses Brogden and Robinson. The church was tastefully decorated with evergreens and flowers, and looked very pretty.

At the public meeting, which commenced at 8 o’clock, Mr A. Russell presided. He explained that it had been arranged that Mr W. Fletcher should take the chair, but as he had not arrived he had taken the chair as a stop-gap. Ashe was not a member of their Church he felt it right to explain that since MrWood’s appointment to the circuit he had been a welcome visitor at his (the speaker’s) homo, and he looked upon him as a personal friend. Ho was very sorry Mr Wood was leaving them. Looking back at the work he had done he thought

very few ministers had done so much at the same age. The itinerancy system in vogue in their Church necessitated his removal. There was a good deal to say for and against that system. When they had a good minister they did not want to lose him and they did not like it, but there were cases when they were glad to get rid of a minister, and then they approved of it. Mr Wood had done good work in connection with the temperance moye- , ment, and temperance people would be sorry he was going. He felt sure he was right in saying the people in the district extremely egretted his removal. The Rev. Mr Woollass, the newlyappointed minister to the circuit, said he was pleased to be present, but he could not say be was pleased at the occasion, because he felt sure that if they had had their way Mr Wood would have been with them much longer. The district would lose by Mr Wood’s removal. His temperance work was good, and the temperance party would miss him much. However, they did not wish to have a sorrowful meeting, and they must know that their loss would be another church’s gain. He was sure whenever Mr Wood came back he would be welcomed by all. They would constantly hear of his doings. He had been appointed to a position where much energy and push were needed, and ho (the speaker) was delighted with the progress the Church had made daring the past twelve months. Prior to that they seemed to have been in a state of stagnation for some time, and if they had progressed at all it had been backwards. (Laughter). He was sorry they were not yet in their new church, but he hoped their next anniversary would be held in it. (Applaus?). His idea of Church work was that to progress they must have as good churches and as good preachers as their neighbors. He considered Mr Wood had been working under difficulties and, he had done well. Some people thought churches were better in debt, but his idea was tha,t a church should be free from debt. He hoped in the future their progress would bo great in all directions. The speaker created some amusement by saying that some members of a congregation liked their ministers to get into the shafts of the church coach, and then get into the vehicle and let him pull them. He thought the minister should lead, adivise, and direct, but the congregation should do the pulling. _ He believed in praying and giving combined, and thought one was worthless without the other. He felt that the Ghurch had a great future before it. The Church should take the lead in all the social problems, and he was going to say in the political problems also, and then instead of Parliament being controlled by influences outside of the Christian Church it would be by powers from within the Church. Then they would get prohibition ; then they might hope to put a stop to drinking, legalised gambling, and a lot of things that were injurious to their young men and women. This would have to be accomplished by individual effort. After a few more remarks the speaker concluded amidst applause The Rev, W. 0. Woodward, of Timaru, expressed the pleasure he felt at being present. He had the pleasure of kdowing Mr Wood from boyhood. They went to Sunday School together as boys, were teachers in the same Sunday School, were local preachers together, and they went into the ministry together. It was only a few months since he had had to leave the sunny skies of Auckland, and he knew how hard such a parting as the present was. He was sorry Mr Wood was going, because he had done the best for prohibition—to suppress the liquor traffic. He felt sorry also because he was a personal friend, and he knew they would all miss him. At Wellington, however, he would have plenty of work to do for the Church. There would bework to do there for the temperance movement also, and he was sure they would all wish him a prosperous career, and God speed. The speaker then made some eloquent remarks in regard to the Church of the future, which he thought would be far wider reaching than at present. It was taking the lead in the social arena, and doubtless would do the with regard to politics, Holyoake, PRie ex-president of the Secularist Association of England, said that i' -,ae Church had taken the stand it was now taking 26 years ago the Secularist Association would not have been formed. The new Church would be wider in its aims, wider in its sphere, and broader in its creeds. Some seemed to think ministers were paid servants; of the Church, and because they gave a threepenny bit on a Sunday they considered they supported a man who should do their work. This was a great mistake, They all had a responsibility resting upon them to work, and should imitate the lowly Narazine and do their best for their fellow men. Whatever talents they had—one or ten — they should use them for the glory of God. He concluded by stating that although miles of sea and land might separate them from their brothers, they knew that they were, with him, working for the same God, and that God would bless them.

The Rev. W. C. Wood said he felt somewhat at a loss in framing his farewell remarks. When there was to be a fight he was all there. The history of his family showed that he had a drop of . Irish blood in his veins, and when there mwas any fighting to be done, he always r felt equal to it; but when it came to saying good-bye to those whom he had worked with for a year, and learnad to love, it was a different thing. When he looked around the church he felt touched

by the kindly spirit which the tasteful decorations on the walls evinced. He expressed his thanks to Mr Russell for taking the chair at such a short notice. He would also like to express his acknowledgements to the other denominations for many kindnesses received, and members of whom he was glad to see present. He thanked them for the way they had taken him into their homes and made him feel he was not a stranger. He also expressed his thanks to his brother ministers present that night. He assured

Mr Woollas he had come among a warm people, and although they might \ioi have in their church in Terauka what the world would call groat, they had that which was real gihatuess,—true religion. He asked fur Mr Woollas a hearty and kindly welcome. He then referred to the long and intimate acquaintance with Mr ■\Vpodwardj and his regret that they were

[to be again separated. He had now to j say good-bye to them and he was sorry Ihe was placed in such a position. Of all partings he thought that of a minister parting from his flock was the hardest. He had to leave all his friends and go to a strange place, where perhaps he had not a single personal friend, and little wonder that at times it made him feel very downcast. At Wellington he would often recall them and their little church, and think of the happy times he had spent with them. When he looked back on his year’s work, he felt he would be an egotist if he could say ho was satisfied. He felt his successes were few and his failures many. In the prominent part he took in the Prohibition movement he had made enemies, and he felt they had struck him heavily, but if the work had to be done again to-morrow he would do the same again, and he would try to make his voice heard further than before. He would remember his temperance friends in Teuruka and Geraldine with the greatest pleasure, and he looked upon them as noble-hearted people who were prepared to risk all for what they believed to be right. As he noticed a reporter present he felt he was speaking to a much larger audience than was contained within the four walls of the church he was speaking in, and he would say a few words on a subjecct on which he had been somewhat misrepresented in some quarters. He referred to his appearance on the football field. On looking through the file of the local paper he was astonished to find how many games he had been present at, and he decided, if occasion offered, to explain his reasons. He knew that some Christian people did not think with him on this subject. A Salvation Army officer had said at one time he thought something of the speaker, but when he found out he frequented the football field he conld not think much of him. Private persons had also taken him to task for allowing his clerical coat tails to flutter in the wind while running after a football and watching the game. He did not think by being there he was bringing discredit on his calling or on his Master. In his opinion a young fellow with health and strength, who cared not for cricket and football or other healthy games, and who could only read namby-pamby goody-goody literature, while his mother and sisters waited on him, was not worth a snap of the fingers. When he saw young men engaging in a healthy, moral game he felt it was his duty to encourage them. Some said they objected to football because of the language sometimes used by the players. During the whole time he had been on the football field he had only upon one or two occasions heard expressions that he could not repeat to them, and then those who used them at once apologised. Gentlemen had assured him they attended the meetings he was present ab with pleasure. He did not personally take the credit for this—he felt it was because a minister was present. Young men must have exercise and amusement, and if they did not have healthy and harmless exercise and amusement they might have worse —such as the billiard and card tables. He could not go to them, but he could go to the football fields. Ee mourned the fact that matches were often followed by dinners in hotels and that committeee meetings were generally held in those places, but ■this could be mended, and he would help to mend it. He wished that those good people who were always talking about the golden harps they were going to play, and the palm branches they wers going to wave, would think a little more of the well-being of the youth of the land, and do their best to assist them in helping them to do right. When he entered the football and cricket fields his desire was to assist in making them so that they should not be afraid to have their mothers, sisters and sweethearts going to them, and he hoped his hearers would encourage his successor to go on to the football fields and display his clerical garb there. At Wellington he hoped to be able to attend the cricket or football fields, and he would play, were it not for the impediments in the way. Let the Church show her ministers to be men, and they would command more respect and get large congregations of hearers. Mr Wood wound up a very lengthy and spirited address, which was frequently applauded, by wishing them success with the new Church. They had bought the section, and got an organ to put in the church. He would advise them only to speak the good they knew of one another, and then they would be truly one. He should always recollect them warmly, and hoped they would treat his successor as they had treated him. (Applause). Mr Fletcher in a short speech expressed his deep regret at Mr Wood’s departure, and his sense of the means by which his removal was brought about. He hoped Mr Wood would be even more successful in Wellington than he had been here. The chairman, on behalf of the temperance bodies, tendered to Mr Wood a hearty expression of thanks for the good and sterling work he had done for them.

Mr Barr supported it, and the audience testified their approval in the customary manner.

Mr Wood briefly returned thanks. During the evening refreshments were handed round, Mrs Woodley sang a solo, Misses Brogden and Woodley gave recitations, and the choir gave a number of selections very pleasingly. Mrs Epps presided at the harmonium, Hearty votes of thanks were passed to all who had contributed to the success of the meeting, and the proceedings terminated with the benediction and doxology.

I far from the scene of the'murder. He was i a weak condition, and was bleeding i pretty freely from a wound in the neck. The police at once removed him to the hospital, where the wounds, which are not* of a serious nature, were dressed, and He then confessed that in a fit of jealousy he had cut his wife’s throat and then tried to cut his own. He has been married for twenty-eight years, and had a family of thirteen, only six of whom are living. Latterly, owing to the intemperate habits of the husband, who is a butcher by trade, the wife has been working as a servant in one of the city resturants. This action on her part incensed her husband, and he tried to induce her to return and live with him, but she had been so often deceived by his promises to reform that she declined to do so. He then persuaded her to go for a walk with him on Friday night, and when they got to the Blackfriars Estate, which is a lonely place, he attacked her so suddenly that she had no time to make any resistance or call for help. McOrow stated that when he went out with his wife he had no intention to murder her, and that he had the butcher’s knife with which the deed was done with him simply because he intended to go to work at Mossman’s Bay early on Saturday morning. The police have not been able to test this assertion, but they think it more probable the murder was carefully planned and brutally executed. Areraarksble coincidence in connection with the afiair is that McGrow’s brother, who was also a butcher, was hanged in 1874 for having murdered a woman named Mrs Ward with whom he was lodging. As in the present case, jealousy was the motive, and the murderer attempted to commit suicide. Mrs McGrow is spoken of as a hard-working industrious woman, who had never given her husband any cause for the frequent outbusts of jealousy from which he suffered, and in one of which he killed her.

Coleman Burke, who in the sixties was one of Dunedin’s foremost merchants, died in the hospital yesterday. vs ‘ The Acting Governor. An extraordinary Gazette contains a proclamation of the assumption of the Government of New Zealand by Sir James Prendergast, the Chief Justice.