HISTORIC LANDMARK

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3262, 19 February 1931, Page 4

HISTORIC LANDMARK

CATHOLIC CHURCH AT HAIRINI. RECENTLY PULLED DOWN. One of the oldest buildings in this part of the Waikato, the Roman Catholic Church at Hairini, was recently pulled down. The building was erected fully threequarters of a century ago and was used regularly for divine service until quite recently. Part of the structure became unsafe, and as the church is not now required for its original purpose it was deemed advisable to pull it dotvn altogether. Reference to “ The Old Frontier ” (a very fine historical story of the Waipa Valley, by Mr James Cowan, F.R.G.S.) shows that in February 1852 “ the Roman Catholics had a very fine place of worship at Rangiaowhia (now Hairini) where regular worship was conducted.”

Again we quote: “ Rangiaowhia in those days (1858) was a beautiful place, with its comfortable thatched houses, shaded by groves of peach and apple trees, dotted along the crown of a gently sloping hill, among the fields of wheat, maize, potatoes, and kumera, and its flour mills in the valley. On the most commanding mound was the Roman Catholic Church in front of Hoani Papita’s home; a few hundred yards to the south was the English Church, locally greatly admired because of its large stained glass window sent out from England by Bishop Selwyn. The Maori congregations have vanished long ago, and the pre-war wharekarakia (churches) are used by the white settlers.” Dr Ferdinand von Hochstatter, the famous Austrian geologist, on his expedition through the North Island in 1859, and en route climbed Mt. Kakepuku, is quoted as saying: “The beautiful richly-culti-vated country about Rangiaowhia and Otawhao (now Te Awamutu) lay spread out before us like a map. I counted ten small lakes and ponds scattered about the plains. The church steeples of three places were seen rising from among orchards and fields. Verily I could hardly realise that I was in the interior of New Zealand.” Now the scene has vastly changed, comments Mr Cowan, but the picture-like spires of the English mission church at Te Awamutu, and the English and Roman Catholic churches at Rangiaowhia still rise above the tree-groves, heaven-pointing fingers that carry a suggestion of antiquity all too ,rare in man’s work in New Zealand. As the first British troops did not arrive in Te Awamutu until February 1864, in connection with the Maori War, it is easily seen that the building recently demolished was a link with the district’s earliest colonisation.