Foxton

New Zealand Tablet, 30 March 1911, Page 593

Foxton

(From our travelling correspondent.) The Rev. Father Kelly, parish priest of Foxton, which includes Shannon, was agreeably surprised by the people of that part of the district last week, when they presented him with a horse and buggy as a mark of the esteem in which they hold him. Speaking of the presentation, the Levin Chronicle writes:—Father Kelly is of that type of the Irish Catholic clergy that once caused even the late Dr. Stuart (the once popular Presbyterian minister of Dunedin) to say ' They are a noble body of men.' The Rev. Doctor, who was himself a noble-minded man, could admire the self-sacrifice of the Irish clergy, who without exception sided with the poor and oppressed, and incidentally were kept in dire straits of poverty and often brought upon themselves persecution. There is no instance on record of one of these priests deserting his post; no financial or social reward could ever win them away from the side of their oppressed people. Father Kelly is such a type. There is no wonder that the Irish people show such veneration for their priests.