MISSION DAYS RECALLED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22352, 25 February 1936, Page 12

MISSION DAYS RECALLED

CEREMONY AT WANQANUI SITE OF NEW MAORI CHURCH [by teleghafh—owx correspondent] WANGANUI, Monday An event of historical interest took place at Putiki, a suburb of Wanganui, on Saturday, when the Rt. Rev. F. A. Bennett, Bishop of Aotoaroa, laid the foundation-stone of a new Maori church, to be erected on a site which recalls the earlier mission days in Wanganui. This will be the fourth church to bo erectod in this locality, made famous because of the fact that it was here, about 1840, that the first church to be erectod on the west coast of the North Island was built. That church was constructed by the Rev. John Mason with bricks which he had made with his own hands, and the church remained for three years before being reduced to ruin by a severe earthquake. Mr. Mason took up his residence at Putiki on January 20, 1840, and he and his wife lived in a small clay hut. Mr. Mason, however, was drowned while fording the Turnkina River on January 5, 1843. He was succeeded in that year by the Rev. Richard Taylor, several of whose descendants are now living in Wanganui.