MANAIA.

New Zealand Tablet, 3 August 1911, Page 1455

MANAIA.

. A feature of Monday’s - meeting was the brilliant speech of Father Bergin, the youthful pastor, of Manaia. How proud his people are of him ! .■ During .the progress; of his fine speech the face of his predecessor in -the Manaia parish was a study in wonder and delight. The Waimate Witness gives a; full and appreciative' report of the meeting, publishing the speeches of Mr. A. H. Christie (chairman of the Town Board), who occupied the chair, Mr. D. M. Scott, Mr. John Hunt (ex-Mayor), Mr; Stevenson, and the Rev. Mr. Stent (Anglican). Mr. Redmond, (the Witness continued) could not say how much they valued the literary . speech and the fine sentiments of Mr. Stent. He was the best type of an Englishman, and he was the kind of man who helped to keep the Empire going in the over-seas Dominion. At the conclusion of; the public meeting, a banquet was held in the supper room of the Town Hall, at which about one hundred people attended. There was a very fine programme, and some excellent speeches were delivered; indeed, the delegates, were generally considered to have been heard to better purpose in this kind of unrehearsed speaking than they were in the early part of the evening. Amongst the speeches at the supper that of Father Power was, as usual, transcendent and stood out above everything else. He was the poet-orator, and his name at once .elicited most enthusiastic applause. He was touched beyond expression by the reception he had received from his old parishioners, and he made no secret of the fact that he was proud , that , their old mutual love, which nothing in the past was able to diminish, was unaffected by absence. The outburst of applause which" had greeted him that 1 night was hitherto unexampled in his life, and was, he said, a magnificent testimony of the sterling worth of the fine men of the plains, for whom he held such a warm corner in his heart. At the conclusion of a splendid oration; mingled with most amusing anecdotes, there were cries of ‘ Bravo, Dungarvan,’ and Mr. Redmond said, in some after remarks that Waterford had in Father Power ah orator who maintained the finest traditions of the city from which the greatest of. all Irish orators had come, Thomas Francis Meagher. Rev. Father Bergin delivered a fine oration; Mr, D. J. Hughes also delivered a racy and clever speech, and Messrs. Brown (Okaiawa), P. Hammonds, and A, Franklin also gave addresses, and Mr. Byrne, of the IT aimate if ness, spoke learnedly and eloquently on Speeches were also delivered by Rev. Father Duffy and Rev. Father Eccleton (St. Patrick’s College). The toast of the ‘ Press ’ was responded to by Mr. Byrne of the Witness, and Mr. Williams of the Star, this, concluding a function which will be long remembered by the people of Manaia. J