THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND MEMOIRS OF THE EARLY DAYS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 18, 7 May 1908, Page 11

THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND MEMOIRS OF THE EARLY DAYS

(Contributed.)

WELLINGTON. ' The first colonising expedition, promoted by CaDtain Edward OHbbon. Wakeneld, Chairman of the > New zta land £and Company, landed at Port Nicholson from the snap lory, 400 tons, under command of Colonel Wil- ' l\? m i* W o akel^ ld> -, brot f er of th « founder, on September +?' } i <t hG f te of tbe Projected town and large tracos of the adjacent country were acqluired from the Natives by the Company, at what must be considered very* advantageous terms, although only after greatly protfacted negotiations. The ship ' Cuba ' next put in an appearance, conveying a staff of surveyors under JiS* oo X + Sml i n - UAU A township was laid oS or planned on , the Petcaie Beach, and named Britannia, and here the " first settlers landed. A change of locality for a perma-" nent town was after a few months decided upon, the SSSLS? 11 * 5 ™ c P^ SCnt Site and allerati °n of name t 0 Wellington. The time seems not far distant, however when greater Wellington will have so far extended that the historic spot marking the beginning of things Z ll e t a^ S °A ed ihe risin S At y- Tne settlement was established under what seemed favorable conditions, ami on January 22, 1840, just a week before the f E S V n Ca <P taln Hobson at the. Bay of Islands ,(as first Governor), the emigrant ship < Aurora ' arrived at Post Nicholson with the first shipment of regular British colonists. w.rtJ^S 5 f iS ' dialy> Bishop Pompallier thus descnbies the first occasion upon which the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass w a s offered up in this newly-founded settlement :— Accompanied by Father Pesant who was now able to speak a little of the Maori language, I set sail from. Akaroa for Port, Nicholson. We arrived there dn Christmas Eve, 1840. There is a rising t o w n of about 3500 Europeans, among whom are some hun- . dreds of Irish Catholics, who greatly desired to receive the succors of religion at the hands of a legitimately consecrated minister. There were also at Port Nicholson and in Its neighborhood several populous tribes of Natives. The day after my .arrival -I celebrated Holy Mass i n a House which the Catholic magistrate lent me for the purpose. All the Catholics, and a large number of Protestants assisted thereat. I gave them all an instruction in English. Several Natives also came to witness the ceremonies of the Mother Church, of which they knew more by the falsehoods they had heard against her than by the truths— that characterise her legitimacy and her divinity. As the missionary who accompanied me was not sufficiently well versed in either English or Maori, I exercised alone the sacred ministry in, my pastoral v visits, in ' which I applied myself to making known the true Church and the principal truths of salvation, and held out the hoipe of soon being, able to send them a resident Catholic priest. We remained ten days at Port Nicholson. There I heard the confessions of the whites belonging to the faith, conferred Baptis>m on their children, blessed the marriages that had not been celebrated by a Catholic priest, and also gave Confirmation to a certain number of persons whom I had prepared. All the whites belonging to the faitjh showed much eagerness and zeal In profiting by the aids of salvation. I gathered them together at the end of my visit in a large room, and they opened a subscription for the erection of a church. The representative of the English Society was present ; he save also a handsome subscription and made a gift of a piece of land for the establishment of the Catholic mission.. . All tne 3est Proites^tant society in the town showed great civility and kindness to the Catholic Bishop. After (having left at Port Nicholson a pious and well-informed white catechist in the person of Dr. Fitzgerald, I set sail again, for Akaroa,- -which was reached after a rapid • and pleasant voyage, t Mentioning this first visit of the Bishop to Wellington, Mr. E, J. Wakefield, in his bfook, c Adventure in New Zealand,' says : Monsignor . Pompallier, the Catholic Bishop of New Zealand, had visited Wellington during my absence, on his return , from' the French settlement at Akaroa, to Ms headqftiarters at the Bay of Islands. The gentlemen of the clulb and others who had enjoyed his acquaintance, spoke ■highly of his- urbane manners and his philanthropic ; views witib! regard to the Natives. " A merry Christmas V and a " Happy New Year " had been celebrated . in' old English: style. ..' Fat bullocks h a d been slaughtered and dressed with evergreens, and the new- year salu-'

offla™^ rlng!ins of bells ' mti & oft cannon, and hoisting About two- years after this visit of the Bistno the 4i x'- ,?• ° IReftl y arrived- at WelM&ton, and devoted himself with great zeaL to the spiritual care of the scattered faithful of the district. There was, sta- • ££ Oharles Clifford, ia a speech made in London J^^iu 8 * yet no P ri ©st" stationed there when he landed there in 1842. The Catholics were very numerous, and they agreed to assemble at my house on buodays and holidays in order to, as much as possible, sanctify ttoose days. , It is evident, however, that towards the end of tin© same year, or at* the beginning of the year following, Father O'Reily arrived on the scene. The earliest authentic record connected with Father O'Reilly that most zealous missionary, who saw the Empire City rise from very small proportions to a large and important town, is contained in a letter written by Hlmi ,to the ' Australasian Chronicle,' of Sydney in the month of April, 1843, which is republished in the History of the Catholic Church in Australasia ' •— ' I came here' (Wellington), Father O'Reily writes, ' in the ship with the Hon.. Mr. Petre on the opplication of the Most Rev. Dr. Murray,. Cajtholc Archbishop of, DuT#'n, to tatoe charge of what Catholics might be here. I was; delighted to find some of my poor countrymen here from Erin's most distant shores, and it cheered me to • let th,em see, if I could do nothing else, -the solicitude of the Church in their regard. They are, in truth, dike the Jews, scattered everywhere ;. but not lik|e that historical nation, to parcel out in fragments, broken and disconnected, the gem of truth, but to ofier it whole and without flaw in the vast bosom. of the Catholic Church. The poor people have no chapel here as yet, nor have they means of providing one. Up to the present we have been saying Mass in a room adjoining a public house ; we are lately removed to an oki store on. the beach. Might I ask it as a favor of you to announce your willingness to receive the subscriptions of any of our good niei"hbors of Sydney who might without injury to their local charities 1 confer a mite on- us. Having given the temperance pledge *to some thousands of my dear countrymen in Ireland, it may be that lam known to some stray member of the flock in Sydney.' The letter is dated from Wellington, Port Nicholson, April 2, 1843. Father O'Reily was a Capuchin and a member of the same religious Order as the famous Father Mathew, and was oneoi his first and most energetic fellow-laborers in the cause of temperance in 'Kilkenny, Dublin, and. elsewhere. , "

(To be Continued.) >