CATHOLIC CHURCH OPENED

Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1926, Page 9

CATHOLIC CHURCH OPENED

CEREMONY AT OTAHUHU. (By Wire—Special to News.) Auckland,’Last Night. Archbishop Redwood opened the new Roman Catholic Church at Otahuhu this morning. More than one unusual circumstance marked the opening of St. Joseph’s and St. Joachim’s Chureh at Otahuhu, a brick edifice of Gothic design, built to replace the wooden building that served the needs of the Roman Catholic community for a long period of years. A link with the origin of the parish, which began in the early ’fifties when the main part of its congregation consisted of Imperial troops and their families was established by the presence of Archbishop Redwood, who was a pupil of the first parish priest, Father Garin, one of the first Marist missionaries.

The early history of the parish, one of the oldest of the Chureh in New Zealand, is closely associated with the Maori wars. The first church was merely a whare, but the influx of troops during the Waikato wars necessitated a more permanent structure. A kauri building was erected, and this, with the addition of transepts, was the one that was dismantled only a few months ago. The rapid growth of the district, which was the immediate cause of the erection of the new church, has been reflected in the building programmes of other religious communities. A new Anglican Church is proposed, and the authorities of the Baptist Chureh recently purchased a site in Avenue Road.