THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Tablet, 20 August 1908, Page 10

THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND

MEMOIRS OF fHE jEARtY: |)A^S ! * ? :'_.. . ;..-■/" • ."... . (Contributed.).' .7"*'^'' , -, .'. : ..\V : •- ■■• 'EARLY IRISH Cbt^NlST^ !'". mmm the stronghoH of IriA ~?i • • Waitemata w *s even then

cOmmunTty in ' Ne\y Zealand— nearly • four hundred were Irish i Catholics. When' the German Lutheran missionary, Wohlers, 'I arrived at Ruapuke (Foveaux " Straits) in 184.4, "he 'was" : wefcbmed ' and entertained by an Irish Catholic who iived; therewith' his • Maori wife. ' --.>-'•- . . , „._.- , „ ' The whaling station at Akaroa, afterwards histdricaliy iia-^ teresting as the scene "of . the forestalling 6f the. French, had' already attracted 'a few Irishmen. '' Phillip' ' Ryan was' one of those who -greeted the hoisting of ftfe British flag by Captain Stanley. He had been cast away on the Society Islands,' and reached Otakou in the schooner Return in "1838. Gerald' Fitz- " gerald was one of- the crew sent out by Captain -Bruce to. search for. the Kaka off Banks Peninsula, and .John Watson, anothe"Irishman, . succeeded- Mr. Robinson* as magistrate at Akaroa Long before this the name of O'Kain, the Irish. naturalist, had been given to one of the Peninsula bays by Captain' Hamilton' who happened to be reading O'Kain's book as he sailed past, t 1 The settlement at Wai.temata was ..not organised originally at the other end of the world,, but had grown' in- "a haphazard manner, drawing its population almost entirely from the adjacentcentre of New- South .Wales. and from- the-. whaling and trading ships, that frequented these-waters. - It was under these circurh-' stances that the Irish preponderance was established at Auckland without- premeditation.- Otago for, Scots -and' Canterbury for Enghsh were so designed- from-, the outset ]. but it Was merftchance that, made--. Auckland a-colohy of Irish.' ' . • •-» •- Writing of the goldfields rush, -Mr.'-Scholefreld ik?&— - - - 'In its whole flood, course ofUenty years it, swept awhy thousands, of Irish, and Irish-names and institutions mark- lift path from beginning to end. Kingston and Queenstbwfi on Lake Wakat.pu are Irish landmarks: The goldfields of Otago and the West. Coast-are to-day repositories^f the veterans of the New. Iniquity,?, grizzled,- gay, .hard-hitting men, afwhofn 1 the P ,ou S quiet-going. Scots glanced narrowly and" with protests Yet ' f S a fjf s ' the y were- men -of great -virtue and -sterling •. qualities. fhe majority of • them ended their pilgrimage here^ broke up the swag and entered the councils -of the pioneers They imparted an invaluable- leaven of liberalism 'to* 'the insular colonial mind. Assisted Immigration^ m«J TT ff h X mU 7 ch , the T . rish had done before the Genera! Govern--STdd^r th in - 18 /° embarkea upon a s y stematic sca^ or ciMzens. Then agam' lreland. was more persistently neglects than under the separate schemes of the Provincial" Governments. The Enghsh province of^Canterbury, under its assisted scheme, in the early sixties ynported Irish in the proportion of one-third At this.penod-pnor to the gold rush-Otago had only ,11 per aecL T " S h ' T XK S °" thland ab ° Ut 7 P c - cent • The provinces desired Insh but before an Irish agency could be started on proper ■ -hne* the Condition of the country had so improved and from rmST nS m ?™ eriCa had S ° '-^""W that "emigration yeaTs oMhlTf ? 3t a'IOWa ' IOW ' In the fi "t «■«* an Tri h >VJ°^ " Ot a SiOgle Ship WaS Sent direct TrzlTt PNP N 4 7 Zea ' and) and6nly IIOb ° Ut °' f 7000 immiX IriS • f/ Irißh - Ota^° knew -oiethlng of the. Irish as-«6ttlers, : and secured" the majority of them, a circumstance which, evoked a loud protest 'from other'Trovlce They were unanimously dissatisfied .with the working of the Sere JflT ■ T u^^ tOOm «* doubt **** lon in lS r n? tO f . their f tradition^ PF^ system of emigra-S-J*; £ t^w^SS^wha^ 1 i.- '-•'...,- T1 ?«; Icisli ( in Public Lifg." I,'r .- ' \*n*l U S " e "** sary ' '""nJ^fact that" .native-born New Ze'a-' "

sentative bodies •in "ihc first year of their existence was as foilows :—: — " - ~ • . - " - ■'" Total ' Irish * ' Members. -Members,. Hawke's Bay. 1858' ... 10"" *i ' " ■ Taranaki - 1853 . ..^ 'jo V Auckland " t 1853 - .... - 26, -12 , - Wellington " 1853 -..'. 19 . — Nelson 1853.. ... ■ 2 Marlborough * - iB6O ..-: *" ■10 " - y • ■ • W.estland' '• " IS6B '.V.' • 8. • 2 Canterbury 1853 ... -'17' " 3 , Otago "*• " 1853' '..;*: 11 -1 , ■Southland ' 1861 ..,""" iV -

- - .--.''. Totals. ,-. .'.. . • .... ;,f" 4 3'- , 2 r , the only surviving member of the first -Auckland Provincial Council- is Mr. James T. Boylan. Writing recently tome in relation .to these memoirs, ~a muchresteemed eleri^cal friend, states : 'Mr J. T.- Boylan- is the - sole- survivor of -the first, church com-mittee-in Auckland mr- 1848, and,- though about 90 years' of age, he has all his faculties^ unimpaired.' , By the Deborah, ,wTiich" ' came do\vn,» from .Wellington to Otakou in 1844, there arrived Mr. ■ H. -Tucker," .« -surveyor, in the interests of settlement. This 1 - gentfe'mari's- mission, after various unpromising episodes,- "resulted in the "purchase of- the Otago Block from the Natives the year "following. ' Meantime a few brave pioneers had already'.beQn -drawn by fair prospects laid before them Jo risk .the, .voyage from .Scotland to a distant and .unknown 4an.d. .In .1846, these, lonely colonists were surprised by the arrival o£ a party of ;fiu«%ybrs. t Tto" Wgtn woSSfeonbehalf.pf the Qtago Assgciatipn., 'Th^setttement^hich^was ; subsequently. founded, with fiuaedin. as (he capital, was^ under the a 7 P T!? f lhG F^vChurch- of ..Scotland. «nd,^h^t r4nlv -intended for Scottish P.r.esbyterianß, none were^c%a% ex^ed" -wiTh the exception of , Catholics, for who^' applre^^therSvas no room. When, however, the rich goWfields wW^discolred in iß6r, there was a rush from all parts. <of Austral and^some Catholics found their way thither, and increased pi-oportionatelv with the mcrease of - population. The truth of the hackneyed phrase, time works -wonders,' and a remarkable' • Icvelling-up ' of conditions were demonstrated .on th© occasion of Otago Win March, 1898) celebrating its Jubilee. -<Xivi s ;' ,cSmmentiri% in the Otago Daily Times on the curious fact that of all -me denominations in the" land, not one save the Catholic Church was represented 'in the.Jubiloe profession, .in honor of Otago's colonisation. 'The only serious defec t (he wrote) observable in the trmmphant procession that celebrated this, greatness .was ' the absence of the Presbyterian . Synod. . .Xji& Synod's place, i- '- seems to me, was in front ptthe " old "identities." "There -they should have marchedf as' proprietors of '.the;, whole.. show y. tho ' R'ght Rev. Moderator In go^njandbandsl'ar/therr'headr'- Instead of that, we- had, the;'Catriolic .in . Sta*v eccleMastically attended! : .S^lV, SlameV'tp.. him.! .Otago, after' all, >s a free country, and^r.' Verdon has as much, right to "be in the procession as anybody feise.' . . " " T : . (To. be continued.) ■ '