ELTHAM

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 1 June 1914, Page 8

ELTHAM

REOPENING OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH BY ARCHBISHOP

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

The Catholic Church, which has- recently been removed .from the old 6ite to the new site in Stanners street, and which has been considerably enlarged and improved, was reopened on Sunday by His Grace Archbishop O'Shea. There was a very large congregation, the church being filled. An address of welcome was presented to His Grace by Mr L. B. Grimstone on behalf of the parishioners, lha following is the full text:

To the Most Reverend ~> O'Shea, S.M., D.D.. Archbishop or Cortyna, Co-Adjutor Archbishop of Wellington. —May it please Your Grace—On behalf of the Catholics of the parish of Eltham, we desire to tender*to Your Grace a. most cordial welcome to the parish on the occasion of the reopening of our church in the enlarged condition and on the new site. We also take this opportunity of your initial official visit to us to convey to Your Grace our sincerest congratulations upon your elevation to the Archiepiscopate. and to trust that with God's holy will Your Grace may long live to occupy and adorn that exalted state. Knowing as we do that Your Grace has in your youthful days lived in the neighboring parish, we feel assured that Your Grace, still cherishes fond and kindly remembrances of the corner of your archdiocese, and that, apart from the link which so closely binds both prelate and parishioners*; together, your sympathetic interest with and in us still continues. Under the inspiring influence and zeal of our reverend pastor, Father Cahill, we are endeavoring to upbuild- and consolidate our church and school here,, and so in some degree add our contribution to I the greater honor and glory of God. I With all best wishes, we beo; to remain Your Grace's most dutiful children. On behalf of St. Joseph's congregation—B. L. Grimstone, J. McVeagh. The Rev. Father Cahill pave an account of the circumstances that had necessitated the change of site and the extensions and improvements to the buildings. His' predecessor, the Rev. Father Ainsworth, had made a very strong point of the unsuitability of the old site for the church and school, and when he (Father Cahill) came to Eltham he saw the position, but he realised that it was not an ensy matter to supfqrest a remedy. He, however, went to work, and fixed on I the present site and made arrangei ments for finance. They had a debt [of £475 on th;e old site fifteen months, ago. That had been wiped off by the bazaar. The new site had cost £1125, the shifting of the buildings and additions £1000.. arid an additional piece of land for a horse paddock £240; a total cost of £2400. Of this amount £1400 had been raised—£7oo for the old site and -£600 for a site, pjven. by the Sisters of v the Mission, and £100 by other contributions. They now had a debt of £1000 on this property, but he said—"Look what they had for it; I look at the very fine position they were in—the very best they could possibly get in the town." He paid [ a very high tribute to the Sisters of the Mission, who, he said, were to j build/a convent costing about £2400. i Archbishop O'Shea, in replying to the address of welcome, warmly thanked the parishioners, and said they were right in saying that, apart from the general interest' he took in his work throughout the Dominion, he had a special interests in visiting this parish, as it was at one time a part of the parish (Hawera) where he had lived. He was very pleased to see the signs of progress manifested in the parish, and it was a very great plea- , sure for him to come and perform tiie ceremony. On a former visit to the parish he had talked over the matter of the unsuitability of the old site with Father Ainsworth, who was strongly of opinion that they should make for a change. Father Cahill, who was an able administrator and a man. of great zeal, had come here, and had carried out this work. The financial position was very satisfactory. During the last 20 years they had had three movements of progress. There was the building of the first church, then the building of the second church and making the first church into a school, and now they saw their third movement. His Grace enjoined his hearers to support their priest in the excellent work he was doing. They had to have the equipment necessary to the work, and they had to realise that the material progress was not the most important; the spiritual progress was more important. While they worked in their own parish His Grace reminded them that their assistance was needed in their wider organisations. Referring to the movement in favor of Bible reading in . public schools, he said that they were strongly against.it. They would very soon have a section of the community urging for a referendum on this question, and it was for them to do all in their power to prevent it. Catholics had to remember that the schools belonged! to them just as much as the other members of the community. They contributed to the cost of education in public schools £150,000 per annum,' or a tax of £1 per head for every Catholic, and had to support their own schools. If the Bible in schools Droposal came into- forcel they would be stilt further taxed to pay the additional cost. They would do" their best to defeat the proposal. They did not object to religious instruction, but let them who wanted it pay for it. The^ : were not against a national system of education, they were in favor of it, but let it be a system where all sections of the community were treated alike. It was done in much older countries, and there was no reason why it could not be done here. Catholics were under many other disabilities which needed to be remedied, and they should stir themselves, as they had been, too quiet in the past.

His' Gracfr administered confirmation to about sixty candidates. A collection in aid of the building; fund was taken up, and amounted to over £160. .