NEW STARTFORTH VICAR. a CENTURY of TEA. ANNUAL 10.3Th INSTITUTION and INDUCTION at the TRIUMPH of BRITISH PIONEERS
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Avednesday 12 THE TEESDALE MERCURY. Wednesday, January 11th, 1939. THE NEW STARTFORTH VICAR. A CENTURY OF TEA. ANNUAL 10.3th INSTITUTION AND INDUCTION AT THE TRIUMPH OF BRITISH PIONEERS. PARISH CHURCH. I MPORTA NT Yesterday, a gold casket containing the THE RI The public i it km and the inducZtion choicest Empire, tea was presented to their of.. the Rev. Eric Victor Cave, M.A., late Majesties the King and Queen as a token so- J. Ingram curate at Scholes, iu the parish of Barwick- of the loyalty and devotion of the Empire „ w aiting at the in-Elmel, to the vicarage of Sta Worth vacant Tea Industry during the last Jon ye al•. u bscrihers i " by the death. of the• Rev. C. F. Richardson, This is part of the celebrations markiitg took place 00 Thursday evening in the centenary of what is now the best-known \\-ilhaur Hall. presence of a congregation which filled the ee beverage in the United Kingdom, so w parish church of Holy Trinity. The former known that it is difficult to realise that it cereniony was performed by tl is only 100 years since the industry w as. Holmes lli SIMI) Of Ripon ( the lit. Bev. Geoffrey C. L. Lunt, founded. D.D.), and the latter by the Archdeacon of • Few' stories are more romantic than (ittreaistirer), S. of time Empire Tea Industry. Adventurer, Itichnamd (the Ven., C. G. Thoraton. There ii::•1111111.111:::tSS.iH:(. E. tsHHat'lAet ilrea'eel. was a good attendance of local clergy, those from China brought tea to this country from the Rural Deanery of Richmond North the 16th century. Early in the 18th century tea was found growing wild in Assam in Slr Frank Y being the Rev. A. Campbell Fraser, Rector the • remote- unexploredfoothills of the i e of Rokeby-with-Brigtiall and Rural Demi ; Himalayas, where natives have drunk it The statement the Rev. C. Hilton Hutchinson, fleeter of from time immemorial. It took Govern. • the year began ment investigators over fonr months g, Wycliffe ; the Rev. H. E. Booth, Vicar of i:449 9s. 4(.1 man lie cool( find for the work of the brother, Mr Cave. He said Mr Cave had reach the wild tea, areas in Assam, but they Hutton Magna ; the Bev. J. W. Brent, Vicar were not discouraged.. Experimental r e,, treeeipts include parish. He the Bishop) knew that parti- made an auspicious beginning in a service of Laithkirk ; the Rev. H. Lovell Clarke, gardens were laid out and planted and on £10 10s. front lb Rector of Ilarwick-iii-Elmet ; and the Ilex. cular pains ai d care had been taken in the which had mowed them till. Mr Cave had January 10th, 1839, the first commercial con- Conunittee ; E-12. choice Of a He Was a stranger to come to a very small, out-of-the-•ay signment of tea produced xvithin the 13ritish N. C. Leece, curate of Romaldkirk ; the last- loan ; £3 35., f101 most of them. but not to hint (the Bishop), deanery—the smallest iu the diocese—and Empire was auctioned in London at Mincing mentioned ("cling as crozier hearer. The Lane. which is still the centre of the tea thet 41Lady 1.. s, 9d, Marna Rev. B. Selwyn-Smith• Vicar or Barnard and he was r o stranger to their iitocesan after Leeds he dare say lie would think they trade. from the Banks Castle, and the Rev. A. W. Sewart, formerly family. He would like thein to know •how were only very SI41;141 indeed. They were For the first planters the journey to the tea Rector of Brignall; were also among the immensely co indent atid happy lie was few i numbers, but quantity. was not areas, was nothing less than an , exploring. the•late MrS C. Personally at out that appointment. He always quality, and although there were expedition. They went first by boat on the surpliced clergy, while in the congregation, River Ganges a.nd then through jungle on The Chairman were the Rev. C. Snushall, Rector of Rom- would like ill their names and iu, his own only six. or eight of them, and they' were the backs of elephants. Practically nothing gt is ftahcet oi•r3. ue • aldkirk ; the Rev. Lloyd R. McDermid; St. to thank very warmly ad those .who had not all of the same way of thinking, they was then:known of the nature of that pan residue Qf the country or of the inhabitants. Nowa- Thomas's, York ;.Mr H. Bacon Smith, Leeds, been such goo9 friends ) to them at Start- were very united, and duriug the time that could be regarde forth in this ong iuterregnum, those who he had been \Kith them there had never been days, it is possible either to fly from Calcutta secretary of the Bishop of, Ripon's Centen- or travel by railway. It has been estimated balance was abou ary Fund ; Mrs Campbell Fraser, Mrs as sequestrai rs had borne the hu•deh any difficulty - or trouble. He was sure Mr that something like 70 per cent. of the On the propos Selwyn-Smith and her daughter, Mrs P. of responsibili y while the parish had been Cave would have a very fraternal welcome pioneers died within the first five or ten by Father 'gnu without it shenherd, the Rural Dean and file at their next meeting, when the Bishop of years of reaching Assam from disease or Morgan, Mrs Hilton Hutchinson, Mrs Sewart adopted. clergy menial who had helped them, and Knareshorough would he with them. He accident. There were man-eating tigers. and Miss Sewart, and many parishioners of head-Minting tribes,! floods, earthquakes. It Was decided Startforth and friends from other parishes. the lay readers not only in their own was grateful to his two colleagues the and tumor wars. Those who were fortunate The Chairman The institution was preceded by the sing- diocese, but those from across the %valer in sequestrators who had managed the affairs enough to escape these had then to contend those friends wl with either plague, cholera, malaria, or one ing Of the hymn, " The Church's One the neighbouring diocese ; lie- thanked there of the parish during the past few months: especially the all very much. He thanked the flock for the They were very. good workers, but very of the many other afflictions of/the tropics. Foundation," after which the new Vicar These districts, -which were described on committee, a hill way it e was presented to the Bishop by the Arch- a rl kept together through 'these modestand coy men. But words were not rough maps of a century ago as .a mixture 'body, who had deacon, who accepted the presentation and difficult times. On' the eve of the Epiphany everything. They had worked nobly, and of uninhabited jungle and Swamp, have Reeks, a former now. however. been transformed by British directed that the declarations and oaths be they opened it new chapter in the history lie had also to thank the people of the parish svlio had given of Start -forth. and went forward after that who had kept so well together . during the capital and enterprise into a land of neat made and subscribed and taken, according tea gardens with railways, roads. electric special letters of very lovely service full of resolve and. to law. First the new Vicar signified his vacancy. He assured Mr Cave that lie light, wireless. cinemas, and most of the :hose donors. assent to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion promise and prayer. confident that their would have a very loyal hand of workers to amenities of modern civilisation. Dr. Leishman In this' a•hio7ement the tea industry in and the Book of Common Prayer. The Lord Himsell lead them. It had been support lihn. In the Mute of the clergy of Medical Officer, st a solemn seiviee and they went forward the Rural Deanery of Richmond North and North aod South India has made a very declaration against Simony had been made 'considerable contribution to the strength, lie had received . privately before the ceremony began, but confident that the history of the parish in the people of Startforth and a good many and wealth of British Government in those requeSting treatili the days to came would be one of continual, the oath of allegiance to the King, his heirs friends frour across the water in the Bar- parts. From zero in 1839 the Empire Tea ehildren. under Iiv co-operation netween the Vicar alai the Industry` has developed until it Ow pro- and successors according to law, and the nard Castle area he offered the new Vicar men and boys eve people. a Very hearty welcome to the parish of duces over 800,000,000 lbs. of tea. annually. oath of canonical obedience to the Bishop dominating the tea marketS of the world. ured or relieved ; Were duly sworn to, and the IlishoP insti- He thought it appropriate that for his text Startfortit. with 1:120.1100,e00. of British. capital invested . and-16 remained he should chonse a passage from the second The Vicar, in a brief acknowledgment of in to over 2.000.ae tuted the incumbent to the cure of souls sit of the year. The lesson iu mattins that day, because their Britt,ish isInjgecetiS1.1ployment. the parish. Prayer followed, ma.1 1 1-1 st il t the welcome. humorously expressed the attendances at th service at Staitlorth was very much in the Years of experiments passed before sound kneeling the congregation sang the hymn, hope that by.