Manaia

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 30, 23 July 1903, Page 5

Manaia

(From an occasional correspondent.)

Manaia is not large enough to make a little mark on the ordinary map of New Zealand, nor has it hitherto been considered of sufficient importance to secure a mention, honorable or otherwise, in the p-ages of the ' Tablet,' but the Catholics of the l'ttle hamlet think that the opening of a Catholic school in the district is an event that deserves to be chronicle?!. The little establishment is the latest addition to the convent schools of the Colony, and, it is young, very young. Its achievements are nil, but its possibilities are boundless. Youthji wherever we find it, has a beauty and charm all its own. Is it a young child, a young race, a young institution ! Jt becomes at once an object of interest. How interesting and inspiring are the barbaric heroes of Homer ! But not surely on account of their barbarism ? No, but because we, who now look back upon the day when Greece was the home of refinement, where the philosophers of all schools loved to meet, and where Pericles and his followers created those masterpieces which became the inspiration and despair of the artists of every succeeding age, are impelled by a laudable curiosity to look further back and discover the beginnings of such a civilisation, and love the uncultured youth of that immortal land for the budding promise which it gave. And so it is with the young race of our own young land. They live amongst us yet, who saw New Zealand a waste and a wilderness ; but the gallant men, who became for us pioneers of civilisation, were even in those early days filled with high hope, for they saw the heavenly promise in her youth — a promise since so richly fulfilled that its history seems more like a magic fable than a narrative of common fact. The historians of a thousand years to come will find more delight in going back to her first origin than in recording the most magnificent triumphs we will have achieved.

This is the secret of the love which the Catholics of Manaia bear their little school— a love so full and exuberant that it must needs flow over pages of the • Tablet.' • What has your school to recommend it ? ' said I to those who waited upon me a few days ago with a request that its birth should be chronicled in the ' Tablet.' ' What has it to recommend it ; rather what has it not ! ' cried they. ' Has it not youth to recommehd it, has it not the untold joy of youth, the promises the illusions and aspirations of youth, and if all this is not enough, why not recount the sacrifices and pains of those who brought it forth.'

And so I have to inform you that on the invitation of the people of the district the Sisters of St. Joseph have lately opened a school in this liltlo village about nine miles distant from Hawera There are six Sisters, an average attendance of 70 children, and the school building has been declared by Mr Milne, the school inspector, to be the most perfect little building under the Wanganui Education Board. This is very satisfactory, but more pleasing still is the fact that while it lasts the school will be a monument of the many sacrifices made by those who have given tangible proof of their conviction that Christian discipline is necessary for the preservation of the Christian life. The few Catholics of the district contributed a sum of over £200 towards the little convent, which cost about £550. They then set about raising funds by means of a bazaar for a school. This bazaar was opened by Mr. Major, M.H.R., who spoke of the great work everywhere done by the Sisterhoods of the Catholic Church. Troops of young ladies left their school year by year, well equipped in mental qualifications, with the accompl'shments that enable them to grace their position in life, and what was at once their highest praise and most ardent desire, models of modesty, of virtue, and of every womanly grace.

The ' Waimate Witness ' says that the collection of goods offered at the bazaar was undoubtedly the best seen at any function of a like nature held in Taranaki. It gives the following list of stallholders and their assistants :— Hawera stall • Misses Power and Haughey, with their assistants, Misses Connell (4), B. Carroll, Sutton, Ryan, and Condon. This stall realised £120. Manaia stall (No. 1): Mrs. Ryan and Mrs. Hughes, with assistants, Mrs. Johnson, Misses Carroll, Ryan, Hughes, Johnson, and McNamara ; receipts, £101 Us lOd. Manaia stall (No. 2) : Mrs. McCarthy and Mrs. McVicar, with assistants, Misses Mouri (3), Slattery, Sutton, Ryan, Luyens, Carroll, and Kelly ; receipts, £77 4s Bd. Manaia stall (No. 3) : Mrs. Franklin and Mrs. McCarthy; receipts, £76 19s 7d. The produce stall realised £17 7s Bd, and the door, £50 Bs, making the gross receipts £443 11s 9d, with a net balance of £400.

At the conclusion the parish priest thanked all who had labored to make the bazaar such a magnificent success. He was particularly grateful to the non-Catholics

Sri S ? nJSJt f7f 7 + em t i he y wt >uld at least help materitrZJ ? & 7u ng lo*I 0 *. 11 ; PcP c took their generosity as & proof of their land feeling towards the Sisters, whose only earthly ambition was to make their home a centre of light and attraction to the people of the Waimate Plains As the close of the bazaar marked the fifth year of his administration of the parish, he took occasion to announce that in that period the Catholics of Manaia had contributed towards church, school, and convent buildings a sum of £736 17s 9d, leavine a balance yet remaining of £198 15s lid. Within the samo period the whole parish had contributed towards deb* and buildings not less than £3500. A movement is on foot to build a new presbytery at Hawera. * * Miss Connell and Miss Espagne, who changed their residences with their names, the former some montha ago, the latter some weeks, and whose husbands made their submission to the Church before marriage, have been replaced in St Joseph's Choir by the Misses Daisy and Conny Rei lly Miss Reilly, who is one of the most distinguished of the many distinguished singers turned out by the Wellington Convert, has already more than two score of pupils. She takes the lead in musical circles here, and has a good second in her young sister. They are both a very great acquisition to the choir. which under the conductorship of Mr. Higham, continues to pursue a worthy course.