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 Mt. St. Mary’s, Greenmeadows. 23/5/71. Dear Mum & Dad, As you know, I forgot to write last week. The time seems to be going that fast. It is only a week before revision begins for the exams. During the May holidays many priests have been calling in & staying. Some of them were Frs. Frank Durning, B. Ryan, Delaney, McDonald, Head, Arbuckle, Mills & Gordon. Fr. Ryan was here preaching the Brothers’ Retreat which was held last week. So we had Brothers from all over the country staying too. One of them from Auckland even has a moustache. 8 students went down to Massey last week to do their course, only this time they stayed at Massey itself instead of “Highden”. The main reason for this was because our van had broken down & they couldn’t get transport every day between Massey & Highden. Last Friday week we had a Conge. It rained all day, so about 2 o’clock we came home. Last Sunday I went down to the Hall at Greenmeadows to play the organ for 10.30 Mass. The hymn singing is alright – it gets there. There is no choir, but it is led by one of the Deacons from the Mount. Fr. Arbuckle has returned to New Zealand from New Guinea until the end of our Provincial Chapter in the August holidays. Meantime he is doing a survey on S.M. in N.Z. Maka Tatafu & Dave Latu have swopped teaching places at Tonga. Maka was teaching at St. John’s College on the main island of Tongatapu, whereas Dave was teaching at Chanel College on the isolated island of Vava’u. I think Dave found it a bit much because he hadn’t been to Tonga for 6 years, & in Vava’u there was nothing to read. Mail only came occasionally & the only magazines the Rector got (Fr. Bourke from England) were in French. Actually the swap is quite a good one because Dave comes from Tongatapu and Maka’s parents live in Vava’u. They were a bit scared about sending Maka to Vava’u at the beginning of the year because they didn’t know what his parents would do – Maka being a convert & his father a Methodist Minister. But it seemed they came over to Tongatapu when Maka was there & hung around until Maka went to see them. They were all very pleased Maka said! Next Sunday, Pentecost, is a Visiting day. Is it Bear’s 21st on the 31st of May? Well, that’s about all the news. Breakfast is in a minute. I will catch the morning’s mail. Normally I catch Monday morning’s mail, so you will probably get this on Monday instead of Tuesday. Love from Bruce |