North’s Part In Roman Catholic Centenary

Northern Advocate, 8 January 1938, Page 5

North’s Part In Roman Catholic Centenary

ptANS FOR THE NEW ZEALAND CATHOLIC CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS WERE OUTLINED TO A “NORTHERN ADVOCATE" REPRESENTATIVE BY DR. L. BUXTON, ORGANISER AND CHAIRMAN OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, THIS MORNING.

In company with the chairman of the Transport Committee, Mr J. M. Simson. and the general secretary. Mr W. J. Kemble. Dr. Buxton arrived by car last night and addressed a meeting of the local Centenary Committee, convened under the chairmanship of Rev. M. J. Murphy, S.M.

Problems in connection with transport to Auckland and the North were fully discussed. The Auckland visitors proceeded on to Totara Point today and will return late tomorrow to meet the Whangarei committee for a second time.

The local committee is busy in checking up hotel accommodation throughout the North and is also arranging for hospitality to be extended to 330 members of the native race, who will travel to Totara Point from Auckland in special buses on March 7. halting at Whangarei, probably at Kensington Park, for lunch.

Appeal to Imagination. The celebrations at Totara Point, where the first recorded Mass in New Zealand was celebrated on January 13, 1838, have appealed to the imagination of the Roman Catholic people of New Zealand, and the Auckland Centenary Office is being inundated with inquiries about travel arrangements and accommodation.

The accommodation problem has, to some extent, been solved by the arrangement for a special train to leave Auckland at 9.45 p.m. on Tuesday, March 8, arriving at Kaikohe at 5.30 o’clock the following morning, and cn which sleeping cars will be available. It is expected that several hundred people will travel on this train, which will leave Kaikohe on the return to Auckland at 10.45 o’clock on Wednesday night. Passengers on the train will be transported to Rawene by the fleet of buses, which will have transported the Maoris. Dr. Buxton asks that residents of the North watch for more detailed information regarding the best routes to be followed in reaching Totava Point.

Ferry Service. At Rawene there will be two trading vessels, one belonging to the N.S.S.Coy. and the other to Frankham’s Ltd., which will be available for ferrying people to Totara Point. The Papal representative, His Excellency Archbishop Panico, D.D.. will stay overnight at Rangiahua, and there will board a specially prepared laupch with an official party. In this manner he will proceed down the river to Totara Point, recalling in a vivid way the arrival of Bishop Pompallier 100 years ago. Father Hazelzett, of the St. Joseph Missionary Society at Rawene, is making the necessary arrangements at Hokianga, and with him is serving an enthusiastic Maori and pakeha committee.

The memorial plinth to commemorate the offering of the first Mass at Totara Point has been designed by Mr George Tole, architect of Auckland, and is being erected by Mr A. Grinter, of that city.

Carrying very fine graven bronze panels, it will be completed within a few days. The monument will be blessed by His Excellency, the Apostolic Delegate, after the offering of the commemorative Mass.

Visit to Russell

A visit will be paid to Pompallicr House. Russell, by the Apostolic Delegate. probably after the celebrations at Totara Point, and it is assured that the historical site, where the first Bishop resided, will be the object of a pilgrimage on the pari of hundreds who will bo visiting the North during centenary week. As regards the celebrations in general. they are creating widespread interest not only throughout New Zealand but also overseas, Dr. Buxton stales. About 30 Archbishops and Bishops will journey from Australia and the Pacific Islands.

The Archbishop of Tuam will represent the Cardinal, bishops, priests and people of Ireland, Archbishop Murray, of St. Paul, Minnesota. Bishop Kelley, of Oklahoma, and probably Bishop O’Leary will represent the United States, while it is likely that a French Bishop will be sent to represent tire Cardinal-Archbishop of Lyons, Whence the first missionaries came to New Zealand.

The preparations for the celebrations in Auckland are now being finalised. The vast staging and baldichino at Western Springs Stadium is rapidly taking shape and will be an inspiring structure, standing about 50 feet high. Upon it will take place ihe great outdoor Masses of thanksgiving, and on the Saturday night it will be the stage for the presentation of the great pageant play, “Credo,” in which 1000 people will participate.

Overseas Orators. It is anticipated that the stadium will be thronged to witness this spectacle of modern youth. The eminent overseas orators, the Rev. Arthur Ryan, D.D.. D.P.H.. M.A., Professor of Philosophy in Queen's University, Belfast, and Father Owen Dudley, the author-soldier priest, of London, will speak in the Auckland Town Hall on the nights of Wednesday and Friday in the centenary week, and their addresses on world affairs and problems are being keenly anticipated. Dr. Buxton expressed his appreciation of the wonderful co-operation that has been offered him by all sections of the community in Auckland, and he fools that the citizens generally arc as keenly anxious as the Roman Catholic body to make the celebrations worthy of the great occasion.

Ho hoped that many people from Northland would be found in the city, assisting in the various functions, and pointed out that provision for those who could not make a long stay, had been made in the running of a special excursion train from ITikurangi to Auckland on Sunday, March (»,