Te Puke.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 9, 1 March 1916, Page 124

Te Puke.

Vicar: Rev. J. Hobbs. During the year ending last June only two funerals were recorded ; since then 1 we have already had nine of our friends laid m the grave. The last, and one specially ; touching, was that of a boy of fifteen, Philip Bishoprick, the son of our lay reader who was at his work m the Post Office on Tuesday, carried away with infantile paralysis on Friday, and laid m the grave on Sunday afternoon. The sudden shock warned parents forcibly that the epidemic might at any moment' take their own healthy boys. The fact that the bereaved had only the "last week bidden " farewell " to two other sons leaving for Trentham, swelled- the public sympathy, but especially the sorrow of those who for so many years have had the care of our children m School, who have unselfishly idpntified themselves wholeheartedly with every interest of our township, who so often ungrudgingly shared another's burden, has brought' out many thankful memories, and been m some way rewarded by the genuine and widespread desire to bear with them m the small way possible their heavy Cross. ' • The following is an extract from a letter received by the Rev. J. Hobbs from- Mr Percy Steed who was supplied by friends with funds 'to> study at S. Augustine's Theological College —'>' After serious thought I have decided to enlist, and so obtained permission to enter early for the first part of the Durham L. Th. instead of m March. I. had only eight days' notice but I passed, though I did not make a brilliant pass. I have the First .Aid and Home Nursing Certificates, the Medallion of S. John's Ambulance Brigade, and took th© Medicine Prize with top marks, thus equipped I have joined the R.A.M.C. and hope to be of use m tVe Military Hospitals. I should like my friends who have helped me so much to know that I haive handed the balance of the money provided (£SO) to the sub-warden to invest till my return, or m Ihe event of my bein^- killed or unable to return to> college to be use'l m such way as they desire, thoagh T should like it to remain till one of my little nephews is old pnodali to be trained for the work m New Zealand, wbich I ]ooked, forward to. In

the meantime I do not consider that my course is altogether interrupted, I look upon my term of service m the army atS part of my tiraini.it?. for the ministry, but if I am j.nried m a soldier's grave, my ihoatjhts — my heart will always be m Now Zealand among those who have been so kind to me."