GOLDEN WEDDING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23318, 11 April 1939, Page 2

GOLDEN WEDDING

HAWERA RESIDENTS REV. AND MRS. H. CURRAN SERVICE AMONG THE MAORIS {by telegraph—own correspondent] HAWERA, Monday The fiftieth anniversary of their wedding was celebrated fit Hawera today by the Rev. H. Curran and Mrs. Curran at a gathering of relatives and friends. They were married at Makino, Feilding, on April 10, 1889. Both Mr. and Mrs. Curran have devoted a great deal of their lives to the betterment of the European and Maori races. Mr. Curran has beem preaching for the past 56 years, having started as local preacher in the Feilding, Manawatu and Rangiiikei districts, at which time he was first associated with the Primitive Methodist Church.

When fully entered into his work Mr. Curran began association with the Main Trunk Railway district near Hunterville, and from there he started evangelistic work that was to take him from Stewart Island to 255 miles north of Auckland and to Australia. While working among the European communities he saw the need among the Maori race for medical missionary work and concentrated his energies in that direction. Mr. Curran has given 42 years of devoted service to tne Maoris both as a spiritual guide and medical missionary. At Hastings he was ten years working among the Maoris and was the first missionary stationed at Waikaremoana. He has been resident at Hawera for 19 years, N 17 of which were lived principally among the Maoris.