42 THE REV. J. G. WOOD. 



and both my father and his vicar were invited to take 

 part. The preacher at the service was the Eight 

 Reverend Bishop H. L. Jenner, who had lately been 

 consecrated to the See of Dunedin, but had not yet 

 left England for his diocese. With him my father at 

 once struck up a friendship, which afterwards ripened 

 into intimacy ; and Archdeacon Smith was so delighted 

 with both the service and the sermon that he then and 

 there resolved that a Dedication Festival should without 

 delay be held in his own church at Erith, and that the 

 Bishop, if possible, should again be the preacher. The 

 Bishop, on being asked, at once consented, and in the 

 following August the festival was duly held. 



The music upon this occasion seems to have been 

 unusually good, and the Bishop himself was very much 

 surprised to learn that the very existence of the choir, 

 as well as its excellence, was due to my father's labours. 

 He was himself at that time the Precentor of the 

 Canterbury Diocesan Choral Union, which held annual 

 festivals always on the Tuesday following Trinity 

 Sunday in the magnificent cathedral of the arch- 

 diocese ; and to this he made a passing reference when 

 speaking at the luncheon which followed the Dedication 

 Festival. There was one subject, he said, upon which 

 he the Bishop would like to say a few words. 

 He had ever regarded as a pet child the Canterbury 

 Diocesan Choral Union, and in order to promote its 

 success he had, with his colleague, always endeavoured 

 to extend its workings throughout the county. He 

 had even proposed to himself visiting every district, 



