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 Mt. St. Marys, Greenmeadows. Sun. 7th April ’68. Dear Mum & Dad, You seem to have been very busy with accidents along the main road. I’ve quite forgotten what it is like to be going along in a car – haven’t been in one for 8 weeks! The other day we travelled in a bus though, into Napier to the Anglican Cathedral, where we heard the N.Z. Organist, Gillian Weir. It was a very good concert but wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. Fr. Buckley hasn’t come here yet. He is coming for nine days at the beginning of May. Did I tell you that on the Feast of St. Joseph (March 19th) we received Communion under both forms? We get it occasionally here. I think that we will be getting it again on Easter Sunday. You are most welcome to come to Mass on Easter Sunday but it is at Midnight! – starting at about 11.30 p.m. I won’t be playing the organ but I will be playing on Holy Thursday. Fr. Mannix told us that once during the 7 years at least parents like to come, but it is good to wait for several years until the son is M.C. or has some job to do. Also, perhaps when it is not Midnight – the parents & boys cannot talk afterwards so it would only be a matter of waving. The Owens you met at Kilbirnie are apparently no relation of the Owens up here. Did I ever tell you that the Tongan Aspirant who couldn’t get a passport to enter N.Z. arrived about two weeks ago? Maka Tatafu. He is apparently the son of a Methodist Minister, but he (Maka) changed his religion and came here. He is 20. Although I haven’t weighed myself I think I must be getting fat! Already I have gone through 2 holes on my belt. This is not as bad as one Aspirant who can only get into one pair of pants! They reckon it’s the strict routine. The English Assignment has not come back yet – I am still waiting. I am getting quite good at book-binding. I have sewed and bound three books now – they are the good books with the good covers. Besides this I have put hard covers on about a dozen paper backs. They say (the Bk. Binders) that if you do a little illegal work on your own books you take more care and become more proficient, so that is what I have been doing in between time. You may remember that old nature study book of mine that was falling to pieces – “Native Animals of N.Z.” – that now has an excellent hard cover on it as have several other paper backs. The Society won’t go broke over them though – I would say that the book-binding cost about 2c. per book (including labour costs!) I gave my speech in club last Thursday – 7 minutes long on “The Influence of Computers, etc. in the Future”. I used what Tony had a craze for talking about not long ago. It went off quite well. We had a long Palm Sunday ceremony here this morning, with a procession. I hope the calves are still working out well. I heard today that Fr. Arbuckle has a book in the print called “Crisis and Development in the Pacific” or something like that. (It doesn’t sound the type of heading that was made to sell!) Apparently he has a fairly big audience overseas – two Christmas holidays ago (being a sociologist and anthropologist) he did research for some American firm. Last Christmas holidays he did research for Archbishop McKeefry on the Maori Missions, and then flew to Australia to lecture to another American firm there. He then went to New Guinea to do some more research, then returned home to teach. So we seem to be very lucky having him. I suppose the beans have grown very quickly in the glass house. Next time you see Leo ask him what he thinks of Frs. Larkin & Donnelly. They were here last year and the seniors are interested to hear from the point of view of the pupils. Well I think that that is all the news. See you next Sunday. Love from Bruce |
