Burke Manuscript

Burke Manuscript: Page 102

Transcript

The parsons in the fifties about Chch that is the more prominent ones, were Revd. J. Wilson, of Wilson’s Bridge, Opawa, a man said to be very learned; another was the Rev. Willocks, both big strong Church of England parsony men, and neither of them popular. The Revd. Dudley at Kaiapoi made himself more liked. The Rev. Dr Harper arrived in 1856, a fresh coloured, strong, set man. He brought a large family of boys & girls, some of them grown up men & women. The Bishop was no doubt a good man, and all the rest of it, but it is questionable if he ever turned a sinner from the evil of his ways.

One really fine Churchman was Archdeacon Mathiss, a robust, portly man, without an atom of stuckupedness or cant. A charitable good man. Took his beer and allowed others to do so. His religion was broad and charitable. He had something like a funeral, and of real mourners.

In the fifties, the Catholic Priest was a Frenchman, I think the Revd. Chataignier. He was a kindly man.

Even as in the later days, in the earlier, the sixties, there were humbugs trading upon simple credulity. One Powell, I think his name was, got people into his clutches and made them erect for him a building near the now police station, now sold after being a long time idle as a bag factory. He cleared.

There also were scandals. There used to be a story about one who used to kiss a fair young attendant at his “Church”, “I do love you and I would marry you, but how can I? Your mother was cook to my mother. I am so sorry.” The young lady told the old cook and it made things hum. That young lady became a very considerable heiress.