THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 22, 4 June 1908, Page 11

THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND

MEMOIRS OF THE EARLY DAYS « (Contributed.) WELLINGTON. (Continued.) Bishop Viard opened the boys' school on May 1, 1851, which was for some time conducted by the Fathei's themselves. In the same year, to complete the principal Catholic station of the city, Sir George Grey, who was then Governor of the Colony, granted an acre of land and built the Providence of St. Joseph' for the Maori and half-caste girls, who received in it a sound religious and English education. This institution was blessed and opened by Bishop Viard in September, 1851. Dr. Viard, who heretofore was Diocesan Administrator (with episcopal authority), was, on July 13,1860, appointed Bishop of the new diocese of Wellington. He did not spare himself in any way, but performed the everyday duties of an ordinary priest. He visited the sick and afflicted, and even taught the children catechism" in the schools. St. Mary's Cathedral stood on the summit of a hill which overlooks Thprndon,. and commanded a line and extensive view'- of the town 1 and harbor. Bishop Viard blessed and dedicated thY sacred edifice with great solemnity, attended by. a largeconcourse of people on December 7, 1866. This,. event gave great joy to the good prelate and his people, who were justly proud of their fine church. Timber was used in its construction, owing to the , frequency during these years of severe earthquakes. In May, 1868, the Bishop resolved to visit Europe, to procure assistance for his diocese, and also to perform the prescribed visit 'ad limina.' On this resolution becoming known, a large and influential meeting was held of the leading citizens of Wellington, patholic and Protestant. It" was attended by the Premier 1 .and Provincial Superintendent, to wish him ' God' spjfeed vand to express. sincere appreciation of his kindness and,-' many sterling virtue^. - He departed on June ;8, accom-., pani'ed by the Rev. Father Tresallet. Whilst in .R'ome^ Bishop Viard attended the . Vatican' "Council," and during his ' visit contracted , an" ' illness ~ ; to-' which he ultimately • succumbed. ' Returning to" Wellington, which -he • reached-""' on , May • 19, 1871, he was most heartily welcomed.. He. resumejd his pastoral duties, but his health perceptibly- failed, and on June 2, 1872, this saintly and greatly revered prelate passed away, amid the fervent prayers of his grief-stricken flock.' • - In its issue on the day of Bishop Viard's death the 1 Wellington Independent ' had the following eulogium on the deceased prelate :-£ c If a stranger had "visited 'the' city of Wellington ' as soon as the death of the first

Catholic Bishop became known, he would "have thought, by the general deep sorrow that hung over the people, that every family had lost one of its members. Bishop Viard came out to New Zealand and labored among the heathen here and in . Oceanica at a time when the missionary literally carried his life in ' his hands. In those early times he endured great hard--ships, and it is thought that they assisted in sowing the seed of that disease, to which he has now succumbed. For the last twenty- two years 'he has been at the head of the Catholic diocese of Wellington, and during that lengthened period his large-hearted charity, urbanity, and genuine kindness have won the hearts of all with whom he has been brought into contact, and we are sure we are safe in afli ruling that he neveis made a single enemy. As to his own flock, they feel his loss as orphans. By his death the poor have lost a true friend, the afflicted a sympathetic consoler, the weak and erring a gentle monitor, the orphans a tender father, the community at ~ large one of its brightest ornaments and examples, a true gentleman and Christian.' The remains of the deceased prelate were laid in state in the Cathedral for several days, and were * visited by a large number of all denominations. The Right Rev. Dr. Moran, Bishop of Dunedin, came to Wellington to preside over the obsequies of the deceased prelate, and delivered a very eloquent and touching panegyric. The remains were afterwards placed in a vault prepared for them in front of the altar of the Blessed Virgin in the Cathedral. During the vacancy of the See, Bishop Moran, at .the request of Propaganda, acted as Administrator of the diocese, and for the greater part of fifteen months" made an episcopal visitation throughout every district of its vast territory. Bishop Viard's successor, Right Rev. Dr. Redwood, received his Brief of appointment dated February 8, 1874. He was consecrated Bishop on the following Feast of St. Patrick in the Church of St. Anne, Spitalfields, London, by Archbishop (later Cardinal) Manning, assisted by the Bishops of Birmingham and Southwark. He arrived in Wellington on November 26, 1874, and ' was welcomed with great enthusiasm by the clergy and laity. Some of the Early Settlers. From Mr. F. W. Petre, Dunedin, I have received the following particulars with regard to some of the English Catholic families, whose members had to do with the colonisation of the Wellington province, such as Sir Charles Clifford, Sir Frederick Weld, Hon. Henry Petre, etc. All these representative men (writes Mr. Petre) were originally induced to join the colonisation scheme by my grandfather, Lord Petre, of Thorndon. This very strong Catholic infusion in the early settlement of Wellington was produced through my father's intimate connection with Mr. Gibbon Wakefield, when with him on the staff of Lord Durham in 1838, during his term of office as GovernorGeneral of Canada. Mr. Wakefield was the moving spirit in the early efiorts to start the New Zealand Company, and it was through my father's connection with him that my grandfather joined the New Zealand Council, and helped to form the Company. An interesting fact in this connection was the difference of opinion which came about between Lord Petre and Captain Cargill over the proposal to form a , Presbyterian settlement in Otago. His Lordship held that the settlement should be called a Scotch settlement, as by the proposed title sectarian differences would be brought undesirably forward in the new colony. Captain Cargijl, however, won the day, much to the vexation of my grandfather. Out of this little incident sprang a great chance for Catholic settlement, for very shortly after the founding of the Otago settlement my grandfather was offered the Canterbury province for a Catholic colony. This he offered to the Archbishop of Dublin at a time when many thousands of Irish Catholics were going to America, but the Archbishop considered that the means could not be collected for so great an undertaking, and the offer of the Company was given back to them, and taken up by the Church of England. My father, the Hon. Henry Petre, paid his first visit to New Zealand in ' 1840, and then determined to join in the settlement of Wellington. The result of his experiences at that time are contained in a book on New Zealand published by him in 1842. After my father was married in 1542 he started with my mother for Wellington in the ' Thomas Sparks,' a ship he had chartered for the voyage and filled up with colonists, the most of whom settled at the Hutt. On that" occasion he 'brought out with him a few Catholic settlers, and as his chaplain the late Father O'Reily, who added to the number by several conversions which he made on the voyage. There also came out with , my father and mother on that occasion a Mr. and Mrs.

Ditchen and their daughter, and - 1 think, if my memory is not at fault, that Miss Ditchen married in after years' a Canterbury settler named -Wilson. My mother was very young, only sixteen, at the time she married and came out to New ' Zealand, and she always spoke " of Mrs. Ditchen as one- who gave her much assistance and help in the early days of colonisation. Father O'Reily was the first Catholic priest to settle in Wellington, and he left a record behind him of a long life of devoted work for both the ' spiritual and temporal good of all. A man in a million," of the utmost unselfishness and devotion -to duty, it is i. mp J° ssil)le to measur e the enormous amount of ~ good that he did for the cause of religion in the early days of the Wellington settlement. In- Auckland,' Canterbury, and' Otago, the Catholic Church had to struggle for existence and gain its present position in these centres without any extraneous assistance, but in Wellington,! am happy to say; it owed a breat deal to the efforts of both my grandfather and my father. The Hill street properties and that of both the Lower and Upper Hutt were given by them to the Church. I * •£ also that th . c P crsOlia l influence of the little band of English Catholics, ,whose names I have mentioned, and -others— all men of education and refinement— had a great effect in softening the very strong prejudice which existed in those days against Catholics generally. When you consider the manner in which Father O Reily was always received, with friendship and respect by all members of the community, it was not onl 7 a recognition of his many sterling qualities, but it showed a distinct movement from the general opinion of those days when people had not quite got over the spirit of the anti-Catholic Penal statutes, which forty years before were in full force. The whole of my family left New Zealand in 1865, .liist after the great earthquake, and I returned to the Colony in 1872. - : (To be Continued.)