- [Press 7 Apr 1919] OBITUARY - THE REV. H. E. EAST. The Rev. Herbert Edward East, Vicar of Leithfield, whose death occurred on Saturday, had served longer in the Chfistchurch diocese than any other clergyman holding a living in the diocese. Born at Oxford, England, in March, 1849, he came to New Zoaland with his mother and brothers in the early sixties. He subsequently took up work as a compositor in the employ of the Lyttelton Times Company, at the same time reading for Holy Orders. Ho was ordained deacon by the late Bishop Harper in 1872, matriculated in 1873, and was ordained priest in 1875. In that year, having been for three years curate of Governor's Bay, he was appointed curate of Addington and Halswell, and held that living until Easter, 1892. During that period notable improvements were made in both parts of the parish, the churches being enlarged, and the building of a find lych gate at Halswell being a notable event. In 1892, just twenty-seven years ago, Mr East became vicar of Leithfield, the parish including Balcairn, Sefton, Ashley, Loburn, and North Loburn, and even extending to the White Rock and Mount _ Thomas stations, where monthly services were hold. The vicar's Sunday duty on certain days meant a drive of about thirty miles, during which three or four rivers had to be crossed. In recent years the distances were curtailed to some extent, but until illness compelled him to rest, a few weeks ago, he held regular services in five churches. Three of these were built while Mr East was in the parish, one taking the place of an older building, and two being built in townships where services had previously been held in schoolrooms. The vicar's keen interest in every part of his parish encouraged the people, with the result that the appointments and furnishings of the various churches were brought to a point of excellence rarely attained in country parishes. A broad churchman, Mr East was in thorough sympathy with the people among whom he .ministered, and the feeling expressed by many of them to-day is that they have lost a dear friend. Speaking a few weeks ago concerning Mr East's illness, one of his oldest parishioners said simply: His unselfish devotion as our minister won our respect, but we have learned to love him as our friend.
Perhaps the life of this country vicar may be epitomised by the quotation of a letter which a parishioner,with most kindly thought, wrote to him a few days before his death:— Dear Mr East, —Do please permit me to thank you very much indeed for the substantial benefits which I have long felt I have been deriving from my close contact with your most lovable personality. Your influence has left many impressions upon my character, and I am grateful to you for those impressions. They have reference largely to general outlook upon life and manners. You have set before me and all who know you a splendid example of cultured and noble manhood. You have also typified, in, perhaps, its most lovable shape, the broad, tolerant, and genial spirit of Anglicanism. I consider that my intercourse with you has been a unique advantage and benefit to my life.-.
Apart from his parish work, Mr East was always active in many ways. So far as the Church was concerned, he did good work for a number of years as editor of the Church News, in which he made great improvements. Undertaking the editorship at a time when the -Church News was a small publication. -with a circulation of a few hundred copies, he transformed its style and appearance, and made it really the magazine of the diocese. For the past twenty-three years he had been clerical secretary of the Christchurch Diocesan Synod, and for almost as long a period secretary of the Northern Archdeaconry Clerical Conference. He fulfilled the duties of these offices with the same zeal and devotion that marked all his work, and his interest in the life of the district in which he lived was equally keen. For the past ten years he had been chairman of the Kowai Cemetery Board, and. during the greater part of that period he also held office as chairman of the Leithfield School Committee. Throughout the war period, and until his death, he was president of the Leithfield Patriotic and Red Cross Association; indeed, it was seldom that any movement for the public good was undertaken in the district without his help.
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