63 YEARS AGO

Hokitika Guardian, 3 February 1931, Page 1

63 YEARS AGO

A GOVERNOR VISITS HOKITIKA. AND ATTENDS ALL SAINTS CHURCH. The following excerpt taken Iroin “LeL teirs from New Zealand”, written by the late Archdeacon Harper, the first Vicar of All Saints Church, Hokitika, dated Feln-nary oily 1808, will prove of special interest in view of the attendance of His Excellency the Governor-General at AJI Saints service on Sunday last: Now for a Sunday’s work. A lovely day, such as Westland revels in, when the rainfall has ceased, free Irom wind and dust, soil as tile sol test day in Devonshire, and without ifie sudden changes so prevalent in other parts of New Zealand. After the Early Service, at break last I heard voices just outside the open window of my sittingroom, beneath which I had fenced in a tiny garden plot; the rest of the Church site- being a mass of fallen timber; in this plot were some primroses ill bloom, which I had brought from England. “Look here, .lack, seems like being at home again, don’t it, seeing these flowers ?” 1 caught a glimpse of two miners who had left their “claims’’ for a Sunday in Hokitika. Then came Sunday Morning School, specially valuable to mo, as I am always elsewhere in the afternoons. Service in All Saints at IT A.m. ; good choir, lady sopranos, and men and boys in training. To your eyes All Saints would seem an ecclesiastical'barn, with its rough open roof, unlined wooden walls, and no chancel. But it is spacious and well-cared for. ami well attended,. AYe use Hymns Ancient and Moderii. which I have introduced in place of a New Zealand Hymnal, compiled some years ago, hut difficult- to obtain. Tall pines overshadow the cast 1 end of the church; the attendance is good, and includes to-day Sir George Grey, Governor of New Zealand, and his suite. He is making his first official visit to the Goldfields, meeting , everywhere an enthusiastic reception, j After lunch, being due at Kaiiierj for | the afternoon service, I crossed the j river, and walked up the opposite bank | some three miles, recrossing it to St- j Andrew's Church. Service over, the. Governor asked me how I was going j back, and said he would like to come j with me in my boat. Hall in doubt j as to the boat’s capacity for so many. I I determined to risk it. the Governor, his aide-de-camp, his private secretary, j and Judge Grcsson, finding room in the sheets. We rowed down the brimful river at a' great rate, intending to keep mid-stream, hut nearing a sandy island, were drawn by a strong current into a channel which ran in a dangerous curve under the river-hank, and, though the boatman did his host with the how oar, down it we went. A huge pine-tree had fallen from the j bank, its stem lying athwart the stream, a few inches under water, ami l T knew that lately a boat had been capsized, with fatal results. Knowing that our only chance lay in taking the I obstacle stem on, I quickened the we struck it laM’lv, balanced I for a second or two. dipped nearly over, first on one side, then on the oilier, and slid safely into deep watei. Had we capsized in such a torrent, icy cold, swimming would have been a poor chance. Fortunately, all sat quite still. “Well,” said Sir George, “I’ve had many a narrow shave in Alrican rivers, hut never quite so close a thing as that.”