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 Mt. St. Mary’s Greenmeadows. Sat. Night 29th April ’72. Dear Mum & Dad, I’m sorry that I never wrote last week. At the moment it’s teeming with rain. We’ve had so little rain it’s almost a relief. For a while we hoped we’d get snow instead, but nothing happened. In fact, the shortest day of the year was so hot & cloudless that I couldn’t wear a jersey. Tony O’Connor said it was because it was a leap year..! I had a very enjoyable weekend out at Camp. 7 of us went out with Fr. C. (the Bursar) Duggan on the Friday. Fr. Duggan enjoys cooking & he cooked us lovely puddings & sponges & scones! On the Saturday we went for a walk to a place called Peach Gulley. It used to be a Maori settlement. The cliffs have caves in them. Most of the caves have Maori bones in them & the entrances have been blasted so that people can’t get in! The caves we went to are very hard to get at & to find - & they haven’t got bones. The biggest one would go in for about 20 yards before coming to a big cavern.  At Camp we spent most of the nights talking around the fire, & then slept on mattresses on the floor in the Maloka (where the fire is, & where we cook & have our meals). So it was a very enjoyable weekend. We came back on the Monday morning. On Wednesday I sat a New Testament exam & managed quite well. Yesterday I had a 10 minute Liturgy Oral from Fr. Roach. I did quite well at that too, because I got Church music as my subject to speak on. I see in the paper where James Northcote-Bade has won a scholarship to get a Doctorate from Zurich University. I got a letter from him recently & he hopes to leave for Switzerland in September. Last week Fr. Cecil Knight S.M. of Blenheim died. He has been sick for a long time,& spent most of his years at St. Pat’s Town. At the moment, Fr. Alan Kennedy S.M. (Little Sisters, Hastings) is very low. He nearly died last week, but picked up a bit. Fr. Eustace has never come up here, (at least I haven’t met him here). But Fr. Cronin gave a Mission last year in the Meeanee Parish, & I met him there. Fr. Owen, another Capuchin, has been here twice this year (you met him swimming in our baths with his watch on). He has now taken over from Fr. Eustace as chaplain at Victoria University. Dad I hear you met Fr. Roach coming off the plane from Sydney! He was the one who took me for my Liturgy Oral exam, so he was quite nice to me! All the four deacons are now priests. Brian Quin was ordained in Auckland by Bishop Delargey. Bishop Delargey paid us a visit the other day, as did Bishop Rodgers, the ex-Bishop of Tonga. He is now acting-Bishop in the Cook Islands. I hope Leo spends some of his flying hours practising coming up to Hawkes Bay so that he can take me for a ride! Well, that’s all the news. We’ve an Old Testament exam on Wednesday, & finish with Dogma & Moral next Monday & Tuesday (week). Dogma & moral orals are Wednesday week. Love from Bruce |