LAST HONOURS PAID

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 September 1938, Page 4

LAST HONOURS PAID

THE BURIAL OF ARCHBISHOP. JULIUS. AN IMPRESSIVE SERVICE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, September 3. “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.” This was the scriptural quotation which appeared on the cover of the order of service at Christchurch Cathedral this afternoon, and it aptly epitomised the life of Archbishop Julius, who was buried today. The service which preceded the funeral was a simple but deeply moving one. An hour before it was due to begin people were filing into the cathedral, which was packed before two o’clock. At the stroke of the hour the choir filed in from the right and the clergy and members of the cathedral chapter from the left. There was a big representation of the . clergy, and in the body of the cathedral were representatives of local bodies, including the mayor, Mr R. M. Macfarlane,, churches of other denominations, educational bodies, and, in fact, every phase of the city’s life both public and private. As the eight pall-bearers, four of whom were archbishop’s grandsons and the other four husbands of his grand-daughters, lifted the casket to their shoulders and passed through the surpliced ranks there was a deep silence in the cathedral. It was evident that those who had come to bid farewell to a dearly loved churchman and citizen felt a sense of personal loss. From the sisters of the community of the Sacred Name, which the archbishop himself established in Christchurch to girls of his cherished school of St Margaret’s, from the clergy who knew him so well to those of, other churches who venerated and liked him, all felt the solemnity of the occasion, and it was one of the most impressive services that the cathedral has ever known.

■ln the Square traffic had stopped as the casket was lifted to the hearse. There were no cars filled with flowers. The archbishop did not want them, and they were not necessary to express the city’s affection and sorrow. On the route to the Linwood Cemetery people were clustered at street corners to pay silent tribute as the cortege passed. On the sodden slopes at the cemetery some hundreds of people had assembled for the final service, which was conducted by Bishop West-Watson. There, after the simple burial service, members of the archbishop’s family dropped their personal wreaths in the grave. As the crowd slowly dispersed the sun broke through the clouds for the first time in a grey day.

The pall-bearers at the cathedral and the cemetery were Messrs John Elworthy, Edward Elworthy, Derrick Gould, Arthur Elworthy, J. Wilson, R. S. D. Harman, H. Thomson and the Rev. W. E. D. Davies. The chief mourners were the Very Rev Dean J. A. Julius and Mrs Julius, Mr and Mrs Arthur Elworthy, Mr and Mrs Percy Elworthy, the Ven Archdeacon A. Hanson and Mrs Hanson, and Miss Julius.