A PIONEER PRIEST

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 31 March 1930, Page 6

A PIONEER PRIEST

FATHER GARIN in connection with tin? Diamond Jubilee of St. .Joseph's Cathol'c I'lunch at Wakeliekl the following information should prove interesting :• I The pioneer priest whose personality fills the pages of the early Catholic history of Nelson was Father Antoiuc Marie Garin. Father Oaiiii was horn. 1810, at St. Rambert-en-Bugey, diocese of Belley, France. He was ordained priest, 1834, laboured in his diocese till he joined the young Society oT Mary, and was professed, 1840. ' Within a month of profession he sailed for New Zealand. He reached Kororareka (Russell); 15th June, 1841, was Provincial of the Marist mission, 1842, was at Kaipara, 1843, Russell again, 1345, ,Howick, Panmuro and Otahuliu, 1848-50. In 1850 he came to Wellington with Bishop Viard and was appointed to the charge of Nelson. In company with Br. Claude Mario Bertram! he began his long apostolatc, 9th May, 1850. It wag to close nearly 40 years later. 14th April, 1889. Prior to Father Garin's arrival, the Catholics of Nelson were visited occasionally by Father O'Reily, of Wellington. 1n*1844 Bishop Pompallier accompanied him on his first visit and said the first Mass in Nelson. Father O'Reily came again in 1846 when the New Zealand Company gave the Catholics a site for a church. In 1847 he opened the little Catholic chapel. Father Garin describes his coming thus: "I was the first priest who came to reside in. this small locality; Bishop Viard sent me hero in 1850. T found a little church which the'Catholics had erected for £43 for divine service when they were visited by Father O'Roilv." His first task was "to secure land in Manuka street (part of the present site), and to transfer there, as presbytery, a store purchased from the* company. Then the small chapel was removed from the original site behind the gaol to Manuka street, property. A welcome addition to the mission staff was Father Moreau, who arrived July, 1851. Now a school was opened. In addition to primary instruction, classes in French. Latin and Mathematics were organised. This school work was truly a remarkable achievement for the tiny Catholic mission. It developed rapidly. The schools wore frequented by Catholics and nonCatholics alike, for Father Garin was Nelson's pioneer in liberal education. The editor, "Nelson Examiner," 1852, expresses surprise that the "poor and. unendowed Church of Rome, weak in numbers," should he able to maintain such a school. In another place he says : "Our onlv teacher' of more than the most ordinary branches of education is a Catholic priest" (May Bth, 1852). The explanation was the zeal, the, personality and versatile genius of the pioneer priest, and the ' loval assistance of Father Moreau and Br. Claude Marie.