BISHOP WILLIAMS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2552, 13 July 1909, Page 4

BISHOP WILLIAMS.

VALEDICTORY SOCIAL

To-night, in His Majesty e theatre, the Right Reverend. W. B. Wilhanis, D.D., Bishop of Waiapu will b© tendered a valedictory social by the Parishioners of Holy Trinity the residents of Gisborne, the representatives of the Native race, and the Bishop s urany friends in the northern portion of the diocese. , , The Committee in charge of the social has made very complete arrangements to provide an enjoyable evening. The social Avill take the form of a conversazione, and a beautiruJly illuminated address will bo presented to' Bishop Williams at about 8.30 o’clock. Ino Maoris of the district will also be represented, and it is expected that the clergy Avill take the opportunity to express their respect for their retning friend. Mr E. N. Sidebottorn has arranged to supply a musical programme and refreshments will he served at about 0 o’clock. It is expected that Mr. John Jownley and other old residents of Poverty Bay wil speak of the Bishop’s cany woik in the Poverty Bay district, and recall the fact that in 1868 at a time when all women and children had to leave the district, and it Avould also have been permissible for civilians and the clergy to also leave, the Bishop, then Archdeacon, remained throughout the whole crisis at great personal risk considering the feelings of the Hau liaus in regard to the missionaries at that time,° for they .martyred several missionaries in other parts of the North Island during their reuellion. The retiring Bishop has had a life of extraordinary interest. Born eighty years in the Bay of Islands, he has helped and watched the progress of his country since the days of the first organised attempt at its colonisation. His father, AA'ho afterwards Bishop of Waiapu, Avas one of the very early missionaries Avho folloAved Marsden in the little settlement in the far north of New Zealand. William Leonard Williams Avas born on July 22, 1829, and a month later he was baptised with the four young children of .the chief TaiAvhanga, the first Maori children baptised in New Zealand. In January, 1840. the time when the first body of immigrants arrived and founded the city of Wellington, the Williams family removed to Poverty Bay. There was only one other white settler in the district, and the missionary and liis family experienced all the difficulties and perils that were associated Avith the life of the young colony. The present Bishop went in 1848 to England, and after taking his degree at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, he Avas ordained deacon in 1853. Soon aftenvards he returned to NeAV Zealand under the instructions of the Church Missionary Society, and joined his father in Poverty Bay. The life at the mission station was one of constant occupation, for the missionaries had a large field to work in. and temporal duties included the building of their houses and the growing and grinding of their Avheat. In 1859 Mr William’s father Avas consecrated Bishop of Waiapu. The Hauhau troubles in 1865 threatened the safety of the mission station, and it Avas broken up, the late Bishop moving to Napier and his son to Gisborne. He Avas here when the Poverty Bay massacre occurred, and shared with, other settlers the troubles of that trying time. In 1876 Bishop William Williams resigned, but his son refused, even at the unanimous request of the Synod, to succeed him. Tt Avas only in 1594, when the see Avas again vacant, that Archdeacon Williams consented to accept it, and he Avas consecrated at Napier on January 20, 1895.