’Community Interests and Involvements.

It was also during the latter portion of his life that he displayed a keen interest in community affairs. He took an active part in the Temperance Movement and in the town Council elections of 1885. He wrote a number of letters to candidates to determine their position on the issue. He actively participated in the planting of trees along sidewalks and squares throughout

? Charlottetown.

In addition, he was a fairly frequent contributor of articles and letters to The Examiner. He made several practical suggestions on a number of topics that were being debated by the members of the public. Even so, he managed to stay aloof of political partisan disputes which arose from time to time. One matter which he took to heart and was instrumental in applying pressure on the Government to act on was in the area of appropriated purchase and partition of proprietary estates.104 He was very convincing in his arguments of the feasibility of the forced purchase of these proprietary estates by the Government and their subsequent partition among the tenant holders. He used the abolition of the seignioria] tenures of Lower Canada as a case in point reference for his proposal. Alter lengthy discussion the proposal was accepted

and carried, thus ending the long standing land question on Prince Edward Island.

The End of the Reverend G.W. Hodgson’s Ministry.

The final three to four years of Father Hodgson’s life were filled with recurring illness that was never satisfactorily diagnosed and identified. The illness eventually cut short his work and claimed his life in his forty-fourth year. Throughout his last years his illness was considered serious. After a particularly bad spell in early 1883 it was decided that he should go to England for some rest and to receive the most advanced medical diagnosis of his illness available. A farewell letter addressed to him and written on behalf of the congregation of St. Peter’s expressed clearly the high regard with which the Reverend G.W. Hodgson was held. It stated:

Remembering what you have been to us for the last thirteen years we cannot but feel deeply your absence even for a short time and for so good a cause.

And we wish that we could adequately express our gratitude for your loving care and faithful guidance; for the sympathy that has never failed us in our sorrow; for the patience that has borne with our failings; for the unselfish care

104. Large estates owned and rented out usually by landlords living out of the Province.

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