Westport

New Zealand Tablet, 7 August 1913, Page 47

Westport

(From our own correspondent.) -3T. ■ ' „ ■ Jul 28. : >■ Public musical and elocutionary • competitions, under the auspices of St. Canice's Club, are to take place at the Victoria Theatre on October 16, 17,, and 18. Kev. Father McMenamin, of Petone, will judge the elocutionary section, and Mrs. A. A. Wilson, L.A.B. .(Westport), will adjudicate in the vocal and instrumental sections. The half-yearly meeting of St. Canice's branch of the H.A.C.B. Society was held in St. Canice's Clubrooms on Wednesday evening last, the president (Bro. F. Calnon) being in the chair. Bro. D. Dennehy, who has ably filled the office of secretary during the past four years, tendered his resignation, which was accepted with regret. The election of officers resulted as follows: President, Bro. F. O'Gorman; vice-president, Bro. F. J. Hansby • secretary, Bro. R. Annibal; treasurer, Bro. J. Lambert; warden, Bro. P. Hughes; guardian, Bro. M. Hennessey; sick visitors, Bros. P. Murphy and P. Niven; auditors, Bros. J. Radford and F. O'Gorman. Rev. Father Ormond was appointed to represent the branch at the half-yearly district meeting to be held in Auckland on August 28. Wanganui NEW CATHOLIC PRESBYTERY. (From an occasional correspondent.) The ceremony of the blessing and laying of the foundation stone of the new Catholic presbytery in Campbell street was performed by his Grace Archbishop Redwood on Sunday afternoon, July 27. After his Grace, who was attended by the parochial clergy, had blessed and laid the stone on which was an appropriate inscription in Latin, he delivered a very interesting . address. The new building, his Grace stated, was an evidence of further progress in Catholic life, and a wonderful evidence of the advance which had been made. The present occasion brought vividly to his mind the small beginnings of the Catholic Church in Wanganui. He remembered the first little presbytery, also the first portion of the presbytery built by the late Dean Kirk,, and the enlargement of the same, and paid a tribute to the late Dean Kirk for the wonders he had accomplished with the slender resources then at his command. His Grace brought before his hearers the recollection he had of the first church, comparing it to the wayside churches of Europe; and referred to an amusing incidentthe falling through the white pine flooring of the whole congregation one fine Sunday. His Grace proceeded to tell of the new church, erected by the late Dean, which was one of great beauty for

those days, of its enlargements, of the beginnings of the convent, and of the successive enlargements of the x same, and of the erection of the Marist Brothers’ School on the same ground, the whole being a striking illustration of the proverb, multum in parvo. He also dealt with the need upon growth .for leaving such cramped quarters, of the departure of the Brothers to their ; school in Wicksteed street, of the Sisters to their magnificent convent on St. JohnV-Hill, in the immediate future of the clergy to their new and commodious quarters, and later on, perhaps in a few years, of the congregation to a new church of stone and brick. His Grace concluded by congratulating the Very Rev. Dean Holley and the congregation on their enterprise,, and the architect on the beautiful design of the well-planned presbytery. ■ ‘ The Very Rev. Dean Holley, S.M., thanked his Grace for coming amongst them for the ceremony, dwelt on the pressing need that existed for a new and commodious residence for the clergy, and emphasised the many and useful purposes to the parish, which would be served by the new presbytery. . ; -' The architect is Mr John S. Swan, of Wellington, and the builders are Messrs. W. Husband and Son.