LONG RECORD

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3280, 25 June 1943, Page 3

LONG RECORD

former valley vicar SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY ORDINATION TO PRIESTHOOD An important event in the clerical life of Archdeacon F. G. Evans, New Plymouth, and formerly of Thames and Te Aroha, was . celebrated on Sunday when he reaches the 60th. anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood, which took place on Trinity Sunday in 1883. It is a long record of important work for the church, which has made Archdeacon Evans one of the bestknown figures in the Anglican communion, a greatly-loved churchman and one of the most highly respected citizens of New Plymouth. Born at Chester, England, Archdeacon Evans is the son of the ReV. William Evans, minister of the City Road Church, Chester. He was educated at the Chester College School, the Holt Academy (Flintshire) and the Chester Middle Class Grammar School, in the days when discipline was rigorously strict and punishments apt to be severe. He came to New Zealand by invitation in 1879, and the following year entered St. John’s College. He was ordained deacon in 1881 and received an appointment as curate to Canon Bates, Devonport. Two years later he was ordained a priest and appointed vicar of the Nor the ote-cum-Takapuna parish. In 1884 he moved to the Thames parish and in 1889 was appointed to Te Aroha. Appointment to St. Mary’s Seven years later, in 1896, he left Te Aroha for New Plymouth. On the resignation of Archdeacon Govett in 1898 he was appointed vicar, and oc-

cupied that position until he resigned in 1911. This was followed by his appointment as Archdeacon of Taranaki in January, 1912. For 18 years he was the archdeacon of the province and upon his resignation in 1930 he was appointed Archdeacon emeritus. While vicar of St. Mary’s Archdeacon Evans took his Th.L. degree at the Australian College of Theology, in 1903. It was in that year, while Archdeacon Avans was at Sydney, that Archdeacon Govett died. Archdeacon Evans has always been interested in the Army, from 1885 to 1889 he was chaplain of the Thames Navals and Rifles and from 1892 io 1896 he was chaplain to the Te Aroha Rifles. In his first year at New Plymouth he was appointed chaplain to the Taranaki Rifles and, when the new system of military organisation was adopted he became chaplain to the Eleventh (Taranaki) Regiment, a position held up to 1917. Service For Soldiers During the Great War, from January, 1916, to February, 1917, he served as chaplain on the hospital ship Maheno, and in the other war years he was an untiring worker in the town for patriotic causes. His inter--est in the soldiers did not cease with the war, as for two years he was president of the New Plymouth branch of the Returned Soldiers’ Association, a body in which he has taken the keenest interest ever since. He was also president for many years of the Maori War Veterans’ Association and a vice-president of the Victoria League. The archdeacon was for a long ; period an enthusiastic Freemason and , was elected for three terms as Grand ( Chaplain of the New Zealand Constitution. He acted as chaplain to four successive Bishops in the Diocese of Auckland. He served for some years on the Central School Committee. Many impressive services were held during the archdeacon’s term at St.

Mary’s Church, including those at the death of Queen Victoria and King Edward VII. The most moving of all, he considers, was the thanksgiving service on the occasion of the relief of Mafeking. Archdeacon Evans was married in 1898 to Miss M. Govett, daughter of Archdeacon Govett, New Plymouth. Mrs Evans, who was always a great help to jier husband in his work, especially in the, backblocks of Taranaki, died on March 26 last within a few days of her 90th. birthday.