DEATH OF BISHOP GRIMES

New Zealand Tablet, 18 March 1915, Page 36

DEATH OF BISHOP GRIMES

(From our Christchurch correspondent.) A wave of sadness and deep sorrow spread over the city on Monday when shortly after noon a cable mes- , sage was received at the episcopal residence from the / Very Rev. Chancellor Price, Adm., conveying the mournful intelligence that our universally and sincerely beloved, and zealous Bishop had passed to his eternal reward, the immediate cause of death being an operation for appendicitis from which he never rallied. On receipt of the sad news the great bell of the Cathedral was heard in muffled tones, the bell of the Anglican Cathedral tolling also in a spirit of sympathy with a bereaved people. The Catholic schools were immediately closed • all the children were assembled in the Cathedral, and united prayers were offered surely never more fervent— the repose of the soul of the dear departed one on whose familiar form and features they were never more to look upon in this life. The signs of the public grief were witnessed in the city, where flags were hoisted half-mast high. AN APPRECIATION. In the course of a leading article on the death of Bishop Grimes the Christchurch I’rexs said: Dr . Grimes .was a learned, courteous, and kindly man, and an administrator of quite unusual ability. It was, indeed, the vigorous exercise of his administrative and constructive talents that condemned him to the ill-health which was his portion for long before his death. The fine Cathedral in Barbadccs street cost him years of labor and effort, and it will remain as a notable monument to his memory. It is not within our province to discuss the zeal with which Dr. Grimes labored for his Church, and the debt which the Catholic community of Canterbury and Westland owe to him. But there is another side of his life and activity which has been the property, and the admiration, of non-Catholics as well as of his co-religionists. lie was a public man as well as a Roman Catholic Bishop, and he gave his services so freely to public causes that he was for years rightly esteemed a valuable citizen. This is hardly so much a testimony to the pleasant and rational spirit of the New Zealand people as to the character of Dr. Grimes himself. His duty, he conceived, did not stop at the boundaries of the Catholic Church ; so far as he was able, he believed—and he gave abundant practical evidence of his belief — it was his duty to take his part®in the life of the city in which he was placed. The Canterbury public, in mourning his death, is therefore not only feeling a natural regret at the removal of the revered head of one of the religious communities, but is lamenting the removal of one of its most distinguished and helpful citizens. The dead Bishop’s memory will live not only in the great work he did for his Church, but in the regard in which he was held by the whole population of the district in which he lived and labored for a generation. No authoritative information has reached us as to the arrangements for the obsequies of the late Bishop Grimes. The Christchurch correspondent of the Otago Dal/ fI Time* states that it is expected the remains of the late prelate will arrive in Christchurch on Wednesday, 24th inst., and that they will lie in state at the Cathedral that daw. On Thursday, 25th inst., there will be a Solemn Requiem Mass at the Cathedral.