YOUNG NEW ZEALAND AT THE BAPTISMAL FONT.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 227, 17 January 1885, Page 3

YOUNG NEW ZEALAND AT THE BAPTISMAL FONT.

The fastness of our colonial youth is proverbial, but the following, for juvenile precocity, to make use of a colloquialism, bangs Banagher : — lt is well known that in this, as in many other colonies, the baptism of infanto is frequently delayed through unforeseen circumstances for a considerable period after birth ; in fact, sometimes the infant will be three or four years of age before being "brought up to receive the rites of the church. In the early days of the Colony a certain well-known and highly- respected Episcopalian minister had occasion to baptise a. child three years of age, and to restrain the struggles of the youthful candidate for baptismal honours, the clergyman had to hold him firmly with the left arm while he sprinkled the water from a small basin which stood on a table, the conventional stone font not having been erected. Now, whether the youngster objected to the basin as not being orthodox, or was one who rejected the idea of infant baptism and held to immersion as the only proper mode of administering the rite, my informant sayeth not, but suddenly, ceasing his struggles, he looked the minister straight in the face and said, very distinctly, '' Go to Bath ! " The astonishment of those pr<\si?iat can be better imagined than described, and the officiating clergyman still has a vivid recollection of the incident.