A NOBLE WOMAN.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, 19 June 1925, Page 6

A NOBLE WOMAN.

MOTHER MARY JOSEPH AUBERT (By H.P. in “Dominion”).

Tho Reverend Mother Mary Joseph Aubert, whoso entirely seir-eitaenig work among the Marois, the sick, and biiiiiinag iu tins country anting tut last sixty-live years, lias earned ner an everlasting place in the esteem of botli Maori ana. European races tnrougnout tua North island, will bo mntey years of age on Friday. Though bowea by tne passing of the years, tne Itev. Mother Aubert retains her mental iacuiuies in a remarkable degree., and is still the ruling spirit in the Home for Compassion at island Bay, tne Homo or Chrome Invalids (.men) in Buckle Street, and live crecho she established long before such tilings as day nurseries and Plunket Homes were dreamed of in Wellington. Indeed, it may be said of tlio itev. Mother that she lias been thei mother of many charities in thus land, and a source of angelic help to all those sore and afflicted wliereevor she has been. Her history is oneof extraordinary interest. Her family resided near Lyons, and one of the visitors in the middle of last century was tlio famous Bishop Pompallier, the first Roman Catholic Bishop in New Zealand. Bishop Pompallier originally came to New Zealand in 1835 —but made trips homo to France, on which occasions he never failed to visit the homo of tlio Auberts, to fascinate the ears of tho only daughter of tho house with his stories of beautiful Maoriland, away down under thei Southern Cross. This, and tho story ho told of his work among tho Maoris, must have laid a big hold on tho imagination of tho Rev Mother, for it was on a subsequent visit of tho Bishop that she, to tho great distress of the members of her family, irrevocably decided to return to New Zealand as a lay assistant to the work the Bishop had inaugurated among the Maoris. So when Bishop Pompallier returned once again to the Land of tho Long White Cloud, in a rough French wh,aler, there were three women passengers for tiio worn ahead, and one of them was tho Rev. Mother. They arrived iu Auckland on Now Year’s Day, 1862, and immediately it became their oiheo to assist the work of tho missionary fathers. The new arrivals stayed with the Sister-3 of Mercy in Auckland,' and busied themselves in work attendant upon an orphanage for native and hair-caste girls,, which later on liad to bo closed down through financial difficulties; still it gavo the Rev. Mother valuable experience, and a practical foundation lor her work in tne future, talio lelt Auckland in 1878, and transferred her labours to the Hawke’s Bay district (then fairly thickly populated with Maoris), operating from the mission house at Moanee. There she remained for many years, revered by tho natives near and far for her great practicalminded helpfulness wherever there was sickness or trouble. It was in Hawke’s Bay, that she prosecuted her botanical

researches among the native flora, as iho result of which, when at Wanganui she placed on the market medicaments of certain curative character which enjoyed a good sale for a long time From Hawke’s Bay tho Itov. Mother went in 1888 to Wanganui, and established lierself among the Maoris at Jerusalem, working among the incurables and infants, and finally establishing there homes for both. They were found to be too remote from skilled medical assistance, and had to bo closed down; but the schools remained, and are there to-day still doing good work. It was whilst on the Wanganui River that tho Older of the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion was established. There were only six sisters at first, but since then the Order, one that is highly respected by all for the wonder of its works in the pitiful bypaths of society, has grown in numbers and the spirit, implanted by the Reverend Mother, goes on. In 1899 the Rev. Mother came to Wellington, and with the aid of a few sisters commenced district nursing--another department of social work in which she was the pioneer—-and at the end of 1900 she established the Homo for Incurables in Buckle Street, under tho shadow of St Joseph's. A few years later she added to her worries a creche alongside the home in Buckle Street, and asked the sisters to attend to both,, and so was established in Wellington for the first time a place where working mothers could leave their babies for the day in the sure and certain belief that tlioy would be woll cared for Not satisfied with what shei was doing in Buckle Street, the Rev. > Mother established in 1908 her Home of Compassion on the green hills at Island Bay, where to-day a hundred malformed or disease-stricken shildrsn are well and unostentatiously cared, for by the good sisters. Now, after sixty-five years’ labour in God’s vineyard this remarkable woman will, on Friday, have reached the age of 90 years.