DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 37, 10 September 1903, Page 6

DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH

(From our own correspondent.) September 7, The Rev. Father Marnane returned to Christchurch on Saturday last in renewed health. His Lordship the Bishop ia to be entertained at a conversazione in the Alexandra Hall, Canterbury Hall buildings, on Tuesday evening, in honor of his return to t tiristchurch after several months' absence on the West Coast. There was Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in the Pro-Cathedral on Sunday from High Mass till Vespers. After the sermon, preached by his Lordship the Bishop, the«re was the customary procession, taken part in by the various Confraternities in the presence of a crowded congregation. With the sanction of the ecclesiastical authorities, members of the Pro-Cathedral Conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul intend organising a Sunday school at Woolston for the benefit of the Catholic children of that locality. It has been arranged that two ladies each Sunday afternoon will attend to the younger boys- and girls, and a Brother to the elder boys. This is probably a prelude to the opening of a church in the thickly populated suburb.

Mr. H. McSherry, of Ashburton, who is leaving the district to practise his profession in Pahiatua, was the recipient of a gold fountain pen and a brief bag from the members of the local Catholic Literary Society in appreciation of his many excellent qualities, and services rendered as an officer of that Society, conductor of the choir, and foremost part taken by him in all matters connected with the Church. Miss Bournique, who has for some years filled the position of church organist, was at the same time presented with several valuable articles of plate on the occasion of her approaching marriage. His Lordship the Bishop, who returned to the city last week, expresses himself as more than pleased at the getierosity of the people on the West Coast in connection with the Cathedral building fund. They contributed with remarkable liberality, and this too in face of

c fact that in regard to Greymouth subscriptions were being received to complete the fine church there, which is looked upon as the West Coast Cathedral. Although not experiencing the same discomforts and perils by land and sea as beset him two years previously, still by train, horse, and vehicle ne covered a great deal of ground, and visited all the important centres of the Coast. His Lordship publicly addressed the people over seventy times, spoke in eighteen churches and chapels, and visited the schools, convents, etc. As a result of his Lordship's efforts and those of the Very Rev. Dean Foley, who accompanied him, the system of weekly collections for the fund is firmly established. Although his appeals were everywhere generously responded to, it is most unlikely, humanly speaking, that many of the donors will ever see the Cathedral itself, this fact, however, did not evidently deter them from contributing generously. Among interesting souvenirs of the Bishop's visit were two pieces of rata and fern tree discovered by a miner in a tunnel 600 feet under a mountain. The wood, which is in a perfect state of preservation, must have been in the earth for centuries.