Page:Letters from New Zealand (Harper).djvu/360

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Letters from New Zealand

that he has enlarged his horizon of experience, both of Church work and human nature. This is but analogous to the experience of all who leave the common round and daily task of work at home for sojourn in the Colonies. Life here may be out of the main stream of life in the old world. But it is not a stagnant backwater. It has all the characteristics of youth, enterprise, optimism, ready for new adventure. It has the special charm of pioneer work. At first Wilkin admitted to me that he would not easily settle down to these new conditions of work. But I am certain that, in the tumult and smoke of West Bromwich, he will often look back on his years in Timaru as time well spent. Nor will he readily forget his excursions to the Southern Alps, and his trout fishing with his friend, J. Turnbull, who taught him the gentle art.

I am,
Yours ever,
H. W. H.