A LIFE OF SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 6, 2 October 1926, Page 9

A LIFE OF SERVICE

DEATH OF MOTHER MARY JOSEPH AUBERT

AT AGE OF 91 YEARS

Widespread regret will be felt at the announcement of the death of the Reverend Mother Mary Joseph Aubert, which occurred at the Home of Compassion at Island Bay yesterday. The deceased lady, whose entirely, self-effacing work among the Maoris, the sick, and suffering during the last sixty-five years, has earned her an everlasting place in the esteem of both Maori and European races throughout the North Island, was 91 years of age in June last. Though bowed by the passing of the years, the Rev. Mother Aubert still retained her mental faculties in a remarkable degree, and was the ruling spirit in the Home of Cotnpasion at Island Bay, the Home for Chronic Invalids (men) in Buckle Street, and the creche she establisehd long, before suclf things as day nurseries and Plunket Homes were dreamed of in Wellington. Indeed, it may be said of the Rev. Mother that she had been the mother of many charities in New Zealand, and a source of help to all those sore and afflicted wherever she has been.' Her history was one of extraordinary interest. She came of a noble familv, but preferred to keep that part of her life severely in the background, but there were moments whcii her mind reverted back to her

childhood days. On one of these rare occasions she related that her grandfather was a distinguished officer of the French Navy. She only remembered him in the days of his retirement, in which he was accompanied by an old seaman, his ever-faithful henchman, and she could remember as a child making this old seaman go down on all-fours to be her horse, and her grandfather gently chiding her for so using such an old man. Her family, resided near Lyons, and one of the visitors in the middle of last century was the famous Bishop Pompallier, the first Roman Catholic Bishop in NeW Zealand, indeed, the first of the faith to attempt the evangelisation of this country. Bishop Pompallier originally came to New Zealand in 1835—the year the Rev. Mother was lx>rn—but made trips home to France from time to time, on which occasions he never failed to-visit the home of the Auberts, to fascinate the ears of the only daughter of the house ; with his stories of beautiful New Zealand. This, and the story he told of his work among the Maoris, must have laid a big hold on the imagination of the Rev. Mother, for it was on a subsequent visit of the Bishop that she decided to return to New Zealand as a lay assistant to the work the Bishop had inaugurated among the Maoris. She simply had a “call,” and all the persuasions of her family were as nought compared with it. So when Bishop Pompallier returned once again to New Zealand, in a rough French whaler, there were three women passengers for the work ahead, and one of them was the Rev. Mother. They left Havre in August, 1861, and arrived in Auckland on NewYear’s Day, 1862, and immediately it became their office to assist the work of the missionary fathers, which they were quite leady and able to do, for on the voyage out the Bishop had been at pains to teach them the Maori language. Zeal to learn made them ordinarily proficient by. the time they reached Auckland.

The new arrivals stayed with the Sisters of Mercy already established in Auckland,' and’busied themselves in work attendant upon an orphanage for native aiid half-caste girls, which later on had to be closed down through financial difficulties; still, it gave the Rev. Mother valuable experience, and a practical foundation for her work in the future. She left Auckland in 1878, transferred her labours to the Hawke’s Bav district, operating from the mission house at Meanee. There she remained for many years, revered by the Natives near and' far for her great practical-minded helpfulness wherever there was sickness or trouble. It was whilst she was in Hawke’s Bay that the knowledge of her gracious spirit and self-sacrifice for others spread to Wellington an impression that was oulv strengthened by her visit to the capital. It was in Hawke’s Bay, too, that she prosecuted her botanical researches among the native flora, as the result of which, when at Wanganui, she placed on the market medicaments of certain curative character which enjoyed a good sale for a long time. From Hawke’s Bay the Rev. Mother went in 1888 to Wanganui, and established herself among the Maoris at Jerusalem, working among the incurables and infants, aitd finally establishing there homes for both, but they were found to be too remote from skilled medical assistance, and had to be closed, down; but the schools remained, and are there to-day still doing' good work. It was whilst on the Wanganui River that the Order of the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion was‘established under the hand of and with the blessing of His Grace Archbishop Redwood. There were only six sisters at first, but since then the Order, one that is highly respected by all for the bonder of its works in the pitiful by-paths of society, has grown in numbers, and the spirit, implanted bv the Reverend Mother, goes on. In 1899 the Rev. Mother came to Wellington, and with the aid of a few sisters commenced district nursing—another department of social work in which she was the pioneer—and at the end of 1900 she established the Home for Incurables in Buckle Street, under the shadow *of St. Joseph’s. A few years later she added to her worries a creche alongside the home in Buckle Street, and asked tbe sisters to attend to both, and so was established in Wellington for the first time a place where working mothers could leave their babies for the day in the sure and certain belief that they would be well , cared for. Not satisfied with what she was doing in Buckle Street, the. Rev. Mother, always with the love for afflicted and forsaken children established in 1908 her Home of Compassion on the greeu hills at Island Bay, where to-day a hundred malformed or disease-stricken children are well and unostentatiously cared for by the good sisters. Now. a#U«r sisriy-m years’ service in

God’s vineyard this remarkable woman has passed to the reward of her long and untiring labours in the cause humanity. . The Rev. Mother had been in a precarious state of health for the past five weeks but possessed such ten.arkable vitality and’rallied so often that the Sisters hoped against hope that het life would be spared longer. Ihe end, however, came at 3.15 yesterday afternoon, to the great grief of all who loved the saintly principal of the Home of Compassion. , The Reverend Mother Mary Joseph Aubert possessed such a host of frien s in Wellington, and, in fact, throughout the whole of the North Island, that it has been decided that the funeral, which will take place on Tuesday next, will commence from St. Mary’s of the Angels’ Church in Boulcott Street,. A. Requiem Mass will be celebrated at 9 a.in'., and the funeral will leave the church for Karori cemetery’ at 10 o’clock.