St. PATRICK'S, TAUPO

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 1, 16 January 1952, Page 2

St. PATRICK'S, TAUPO

NEW CATHOLIC PARISH OPENED On Sunday, January 6, 1952, Very Rev. Dean M. Alink, Supervisor of the Catholic ;Maori Mission in the Auckland diocese, officiially opened the newly established parish of Taupo. Hitherto Taupo has been part of the Tokaanu parish and administered by the resident priest of Waihuipa, Tokaanu. Dean Alink traced the origin of the Tokaanu parish and announced that Taupo had now been made a separate parish with Father J. de Bree as the first resident priest. The MiJl-Hill Fathers have been knowm in this district for many years. The first resident Mill-Hill Father on the Maori Mission was the late Father J. Smiers, with his headauarters in Waihipa, Tokaanu established in 1889. 'Prior to that year, the Maori district had been visited by the French priests. The elder residents of Taupo Hill remember the days of the late Father Adsian Langerwerf, who assumed his duties in Waihipa, Tokaanu, in 1903. When he died on April 7, 1935, he was succeeded by the late Father G. van Beek, who died in Holland whilst on leave on May 3, 1951. The late Father A. Langerwerf, lies buried next to the Maori Church in the pa of Waihi, Tokaanu, enshrined in the memories of the Ngati-tuwharetoa tribe. They still talk about him as if he died but a few weeks ago. An excellent Maori scholar, he was devoted to the Maori people all his. life, providing for their material as well as their spiritual needs. He erected a butter factory in the pa of Waihi because he wanted to keep the Maori's on their own landsj. Later on the butter factory was converted into a saw mill to provide for the growing needs in the timber industry. Today an electric plant, the remains of the old saw mill, provides electric light for the Maori residents in Waihi. A convent school, built in Tokaanu, was transferred to the pa of Waihi round about 1901. To-day a ibeautiful hostel, built by the late Father G. van Beek, to provide board lor Maori children living scattered in the district stands as a permanent memorial on the summit of the hill in the pa to help alive the minds of the Maoris the devotedness of the early priests and Sisiters of St. Joseph to the Maori race. The area of the new parish of Taupo comprises, Taupo, Waitahanui, Oruanui, Mokai, Maroa and part of the Rotorua parish.