THE PADRE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 144, 11 February 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE PADRE.

A correspondent writ ng to the Londin ''Spectator - ' says:—May 1 trespass upon your space with a few quotation-, front a letter written by my godson at the front to his parents? — We have a chaplain who come-; up into tile front 1 no every day. no matter how dangerous and numb tilings may b•: in fact, he always make- for the -icst dangerous place-on principle. One day. during a particularly hot bombardment, Instead of leaving the trenches, "the padre." as lit 1 : s called, -'.role up ami down the line cheering and In Ip'ng. Wherev. r the bombardiii ut was strongest that place became hi- objective, and it was nntVcd that it she In ui 1 off a> soon as lie reached the lo^.ltty. Daily he cmaes down the line, giving aw.'.y sweets and cigarettes with a (heeling word. He san elderly num. and when wo ask liim why he comes into danger as lie does, when there is no tall, be jells us thai be has im u fe. his family i* grown un, and -o he feels be can be better spared than many. Tiiev sa\ be is a I.e-d- parson, but that he has been in tin- Colonies, lb- i- always g'ad to give Communion to N'one iiif'tirmi'-ts. All the nien wor-hip h in. I shall by to find nut h : s n. but ut present hj" is 'Mho padre" the am-pio-t. finest gentleman I have ever met. and he has stood tile tc-t. . . There is another man who has influence out here. He is a priot attached to an Irish regiment. H. insists upon charging every tune w-t'i the men. and no one dare protest He „ abs-ilutelv the idol of the regiment.