NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 896, 24 September 1910, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

Speaking at Napier recently the Rev J. C. Fitzgerald, of the Anglican Mission said : “The man who reads the divorce accounts in papers, or who reads ‘penny horribles,’ or scans indeceuc pictures, is aptly compared to a rat in a sewer. He is always breathing vitiated air,” He added : “The world has said a good deal about the missioners that has come to our ears ; but it does not really matter very much what they say. After all, the world does not know, They say a man is a bad lot, and particularly so if he goes to church.”

An excellent illustration of the very secondary place which is being given by the missioners to ritual matters is provided by a private letter which has been received in Wellington. Referring to the services conducted by the Rev. J. C. Fitzgerald at All Saints, Auckland, the writer states: —“I went last Sunday to hear Mr Fitzgerald. He is a splendid speaker, and has a very fine voice. He is deadly in earnest. He must be very Low Church indeed, for I have never seen an Anglican clergyman conduct a service like he does.” As a matter of fact, Mr Fitzgerald is a pronounced High Churchman, and belongs to the Community of the Resurrection, the members of which are sometimes referred to as the ‘‘ Mirfield Monks.”

A most unusual sight was witnessed on the road to Carterton one day last week. Two St. Matthew’s Club boys, who were making a cycle journey with the object of witnessing a football match, chanced to overtake two cripples, who were laboriously working their passage by means of invalids’ chairs on wheels. Determined to do the cripples a good turn, the lads cut some flax from the roadside, and with it connected the chairs to their bicycles, that they might take the seriously handicapped travellers in tow. With the exception of a capsize now and again on the part of the cripple whose chair was rather difficult to steer, the experiment was a success, and they reached Carterton in due course, much to the delight of the invalids, who were thus saved much arduous toil. One of the unfortunate fellows had come all the way from Napier by road, propelling the chair with his hands.—Masterton Times.