FATHER TENISON-WOODS, MISSIONARY AND SCIENTIST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 14, 25 July 1884, Page 22

FATHER TENISON-WOODS, MISSIONARY AND SCIENTIST.

(Sydney Freemaris Journal.) Although the Bey. J. B. Tenison- Woods started from Australia on a scientific mission, it must not be thought for a moment that even in travels and journeys in strange places so zealous a priest ceased to perform the sacred duties of his office. Travelling from place to place in Java in. the manner so graphically described in his delightful Bketches published in the Sydney Press, Father Woods, whenever an opportunity presented itself, worked in the service of his Master. We learn from a private letter that Father Woods preached and sung High Mass at the Church of the Assumption, Pinang, on Easter Sunday. In the evening he preached to the Catholic soldiers at Pulo Titus, where the garrison has cantonments. On the 23rd he, in the absence of the Bishop at Tonquin, was deputed by the Vicar-General to bless and open the Church of the Sacred Heart at Klian Pon, near Thaiping, in the State of Perak. Oa that occasion seven missionary priests of the peninsula assisted at the ceremony, which is a rare number to see assembled, as they are all so widely scattered in these regions. The Church at Klian Pon has been erected under incredible difficulties by the French missionary Father Mazery, and is meant to accommodate about 700 Chinese Christians, the most of whom are converts to the f-iifh. There is no missionary work of any kind done in the Malay Peninsula except by the Catholics. The Protestant clergy are few in number and their ministrations are almost confined to the European residents, while the Chinese and Hindoo Catholics in the Straits settlements now form a large element in. the community. Father Tenison- Woods was about to start on another exploring expedition in company with Father Scorteohini. Both these naturalists are aided by the Government in every way to thoroughly investigate the geology, botany, and natural history of the little-known states of Perak, Patant, and Pahang, and no doubt great scientific results may be anticipated. Both gentlemen were in excellent health and proposed remaining in Perak until November. Father Scortechini, writing from Thaiping, Perak. Straits Settlement, says :— (l Ido not think I shall be able to return to Queensland before the full time for my holidays is over, as I have an immense amount of work before me, and I am busy from early morning till night. Within a few months I shall have an expedition to explore the interior ; that will be the great event of my trip. The Government have plenty of elephants, and I shall avail myself of them. To get anything, I have only to express my desire of having it and it is got. Father Woods has been ill with jungle fever, but is now convalescent."