Death of Bishop of Waiapu

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 68, 13 December 1937, Page 8

Death of Bishop of Waiapu

Jmemorial ser.vice ftddress at Napier by Bishop Bennett AN INSPffilNG MAN "The hand of affliction is very Eeavy on many of our he'arts totoiglit. The hand of death is alfways a monitor -vvhich solemnises our thoughts and hearts, but when the great totara tree in the forest Of Tane has fallen, then the vibrations are felt far and wide, and all the people within their range know that the great tree is gone. , . In these words the Bishop of Aotearoa, the Rt. Rev. F. A. Bennett, opened his address in St. John's Church, Napier, last evening at the special service in memOry of the late Bishop Herbert IWilliams. Choosing as his text the hope-giving eecond verse of the 14th chapter of St. John, ' 'In my father 's house are many mansions. . . . I go to prepare a place for you," Bishop Bennett isaid that, though the mortal remains of the late Bishop of Waiapu had been laid to lest^ he had left much that would help and inspire those who earried on after him. As a representative of the Maori people, the speaker knew the value of Bishop Williams 's work among the Maori perhaps better than anyone else present. They had worked together for 20 or more years, before they were biishops, and his personal feelings now jrent very deep. liinks With the Past. A linlc with early Ghurch history in New Zealand was established by the fact that the late Bishop Williams had been born just after the first Synod of the Church of England in New Zealand, and his grandfather was the first Bishop of Waiapu, making his home at .Waerenga-a-Hika, near Gisborne, where the first Synod -was conducted entirely ho. the Maori language. The family moved to Napier when Herbert Williams was yet a ehild, and while Bishop Selwyn held' office as the first Bishop of New Zealand. In his lifetime, Bishop Williams had seen wonderful changes tiking place around him.

A man of great intellectual as well as spiritual jjower, he had grown up -with the leading Maori people of the East Coast, and had joeularly been referred to in Maori as 1 ' the Troubler, ' ' because his analytical mind never allowed him to be satisfied with a superficial answer to a qnestion, but spurred Mm on to get xight to the root of whatever it was he wished to know. That was why his dictionary was so wonderful. It was not likely that there would ever be a dictionary of the Maori language to supersede it, because the author had beea in touch direct with living authorities on, the old classical Maoii. "For many years, every candidate for the Maori ministry passed through Ms hands," Bishop Bennett continued. "He was a great teacher, and those who knew him best held him in the highest estimation. All the men he trained have tstood firmly to the ideals ho taught them; not one has gone back, and all have earried on the work with true evangelical fervour." Bishop Williams had not confined his Christianity to any one sect. He had been of the whole church, and so great had been his influence that it had gone out to other denominations. This fact had been shown by the representative attendance at the funeral. A Man of Courage. Bishop Williams 's fair-mindedness and humility were remarked upon by the speaker who said that even those .who had not been able to see eye to eye with him had always respected him as a man of honest judgment and one who was not afraid of .his convictions. .When they had been travelling and .working together, he had always been Jstruck with Bishop Williams 's humility, and had found him always ready with spiritual and moraJ support. "He was a, man whose shoes I was not worthy to blacken_ let alono unloose, ' ' Bishop Bennett said. There was a wonderful lesson to be lcarned from the plain casket in which the late Bishop had been buried^and from the simplicity of the ceremonies right through. Was not that the example which should be set by great people, but that so seldom was set? There had been a note of triumph all the way through the burial and the service which preceded it. "It is not the mortal remains we must think of," Bishop Bennett concluded. "It is the spirit. Such a life cannot be ended by the grave. We thall be inspired for many years to fome by the soul of our brother aa.d j

our father whom we lament to-night. H'e has gone to his Father, and it is not for us to lament the loss of those whom God has called to higher service. While God is with us, all must be well." All three services in St. John's yesterday were in memory of Bishop Williams. Canon Neild was the preacher as matin.s. A special memorial service was held by the vicar, the Rev. S. R. Gardiner, M.A., at St. Augustine's last evening, and special services wery also conducted by ihe Rev. W. S, G. Cameron, vicar of St. Andrews Port Ahuriri.