The Rev. Robert Augustus Woodthorpe, M.A., Vicar of St. John's, and Chaplain to the Bishop of Christchurch, was born at Boston, Lincolnshire, England, and was primarily educated in a London grammar school. He graduated B.A. and M.A. in the University of Sydney, with first class honours in Logic, Mental, Moral, and Political Philosophy; was trained in the Moore Theological College, Sydney, where he won the highest distinctions and took the Hodgson Greek Testament Prize and the College Prize at the end of each term. Mr. Woodthorpe was ordained deacon in 1884 and priest in 1886 by the Most Rev. Dr Barry, Primate of Australia. He was curate of Christchurch, North Sydney, from 1886 to 1890, and from 1890 till 1892 was vice-warden and tutor of St. Paul's College in the University of Sydney. In the latter year he was invited by Bishop Julius to New Zealand, and was vicar of Kumara from 1892 till 1894, and from 1894 till 1897 chaplain of the Maori Mission. In February, 1897, Mr. Woodthorpe went to England and entered as a Research Student in the University of Oxford, where he pursued post-graduate studies under Mr. Edward Caird, Master of Balliol, and under Professors Stewart and Clark-Wilson. He afterwards studied in Germany, and at Harvard University, and Clark University, Worcester, Massachussets, United States of America. Mr. Woodthorpe returned to New Zealand at the close of 1898, and became chaplain to the Bishop and Vicar of Ashburton from 1899 till March, 1902, when he entered on his present cure. “The Rise, Progress and Present Prospects of the Christian Church,” “The Philosophical Basia of Economics,” “Moral and Social Evolution,” have been written and published by him, and he is now (May, 1902) preparing for publication the thesis for his Research Degree: “Modern Sociology in the Light of Philosophy.”