The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1935. A DISTINGUISHED PRELATE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 86, 5 January 1935, Page 10

The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1935. A DISTINGUISHED PRELATE

In the death, of Redwood New Zealand is bereft of .an outstanding personality. The . esteem in which he was he.d by all classes of 1 the community irrespective of creed was marked at the celebration.of the diamond jubilee of his episcopate by a demonstration at the Town Hall in Wellington unique for its representative character. For a prelate of his advanced years his physique and mental energies were remarkable. It is but a little more than two years since he undertook the journey from New Zealand to Dublin to attend the Eucharistic Congress in that city, and quite iccently he attended the annual prize-giving at St. Patrick’s College. Silverstream. Such activities could only have been possible to a man endowed, as Archbishop Redwood was, with great strength of character and .determination. , • - ■ During his long episcopate the late archbishop saw many changes in New Zealand. He lived through the growth and development of the country from the stage of its colonial chrysalis to its full maturity as a sovereign member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. He experienced good times and bad, lean .years and fat years, ana ' studied the reactions of the people toward these varying changes in thenfortunes.- Two things he ndted in some interesting observations made on the occasion of his departure, for the : Eucharistic Congress at Dublin. 'The first was the need of leadership in a world of’change, and the second the insensate and hectic materialism of the age. Dikemany other profound thinkers of his time he saw that the. greatest need of the world was a revival of spiritual" faith upon which alone society can build successfully and securely. The essentials for the remaking of the world were -td-'him “the principles of Christianity based on truth, justice, and charity.” Within the-Roman Catholic world of which he was the distinguished apd able head, and to an appreciable extent in the general community, he exerted an influence for which could be claimed the quality of’real leadership, and the New Zealand community is the poorer foi< his leaving it.