DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH

New Zealand Tablet, 2 September 1909, Page 13

DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH

(From our own correspondent.) August 30. The clock in the tower of St. Joseph's Church at Temuka has just been thoroughly overhauled and put in good working order. The cost, about £20, has been subscribed by the parishioners and the residents generally, as it serves as the town clock for Temuka. Information has been received by the Sisters of Nazareth of the death, at the Mother House, Hammersmith, London, of Mother Mary of the Holy Cross, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years, fifty-nine of which were spent in the Order of the Sisters of Nazareth. — R.I.P. The Rev. Father O' Sullivan, of the African Missions, who has several times visited the Dominion in the interests of his Order, intends at 'an early date (I understand) revisiting New Zealand, giving a series of illustrated lectures incidental to the arduous and hazardous labors in which the missionaries are engaged. An illustrated lecture on the 'Niagara Falls,' given on last Friday evening by the Rev. Father. Hoare, S.M., for the benefit of the funds of St. Mary's Altar Society, Christchurch North, attracted an audience which crowded St. Mary's Schoolroom, Manchester street. Preceding the lecture a well-arranged programme of vocal, and instrumental music was very capably rendered. A gentleman touring the districts north of Auckland, writing to a friend in Christchurch from Mangonui, gives an interesting account of his observations in the vicinity. ' I spent the day (he states) with the Maoris of Wanna-, hana, a place near here, where they are all -.Catholics. I met Fathers Bruning and Zangere several times while st Whangaroa, and promised that if possible I -would be at Waimahana on the Feast of the Assumption, which they told me was always a great day with the Maoris in the North. (The Maori Missions were at the very beginning placed under the invocation of Our Lady of .the Assumption by Bishop Pompallier, hence the devotion of the succeeding generations "of the Maoris to this great festival of the Church.) As there was no way by which I could get there unless by hiring a launch and going, by water* I arranged with a man here, who has an oil launch, to take me there °v Sunday. I was up early, and we reached

Sl™?* W f °™ lockj ? nd landed on tlie beac * with the aid hiJh £5 £ ¥\T bb £ yS ' Who P ulled our small toat up *itL wfe* £% Z , an e?' e *° ok us «P to a Maori habianJ t'™*^4 Tif h v d b r eak /ast after- which the Father and I went to the church, .where Mass was just beginning All the people take part in the service, and sing of intone those parts which are usually sung by choirs, but do o in their own language, and the effect is very good. A large number of -them received Holy Communion, and several lad .come down on horseback from the' North Tlape PrffiJTf 0 * a f ° Ut 12 ° T le %'l A beast was kil^ on tho Friday before for a supply of beef, and on the same night the largest catch of fish they ever made, filling a trSlv' heaped up, was procured. As a natural consequence, there was great feasting going on. Baskets full of kumeras were cooked in what is" known as a " kapa Maori," 'and these were very much better -and sweefer- than those I have eaten cooked in the ordinary way. .1 spent the v whole day with them -until .it was time to leave in the- evening, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Waimahana ~is just a flat area of country surrounded by sloping hills, excepting that part which opens on to the beach. It is very fertile^ and will grow almost anything, whilst the surrounding hills all clay land, gave profitable employment to Maori and Austrian gumdiggers in the old days. The climate here is very mild, and many of _ the peach trees in the gardens" were covered with blossom. The missionary -is the universal arbiter, sincerest friend, and wisest counsellor, -possessing qualities recognised as being in the bes.t possible interestsspiritual and. temporal — of .those among whom-and for whom he is wearing out his life. Hence the priest's- word is law and well, all things considered, it is so.'