LAWRENCE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 8, 21 June 1873, Page 8

LAWRENCE.

(E>om our own Correspondent.)

the history of the life of the Saviour of the world, a book Christians should boast.

I may state that we are all very jealous here, and I am thinking our parish priest is bo too, that mention was made in the Tablet' «f almost' every Catholic educational establishment in the Colony, and nothing was said of ours afc Lawrence, which, we have reason to boast, i3j par excellence, the only one in New Zealand. It is built on a rock, is seventy-five feet long by forty-five in width j the roof is thirty feet high. There is a tower in front of the building in height thirty-five feet, furnished with a sonorous, well-toned bell, which sweetly invites the faithful three times a-day to sound forth through the " Angelus" the praises of God for the incarnation and death of his only Son. The building has two tiers of -windows, fovty-nine in all, well ventilated, and when necessary can be almost air-tight. The main roof is sup-r ported by twenty-two substantial pillars, fastened to the building by solid, well-fitted braces. The interiar is lined throughout with tongued and grooved Baltic, the floc»r of same an inch thick ; at one end of the building an Altar is constructed, which is screened off at school hours during the week. A large chromo-lithogruph. "The taking down from the Cross," and of artistic beauty, is suspended between the windows over the Altar ; and each of the corners is relieved by another chromo'lifchograph of the four Evangelists respectively in full-size frame, eight by three feet. The whole of the interior i» elegantly varnished and painted in tints and colors of chaste variety, not the least of which in excellence shines forth from the vaulted pillars— the Emerald green. The building is almost east and west * the back-yard is surrounded by an iron fence seven feet high, within whioh every necessary fitting is constructed. A large tank is fitted in the partition separating that portion reserved for the boya from that allocated to the girls, containing water from the roof, and with »' drinking fountain for eucb department. There' is a door in the centre* of the yard fence leading to the terraces on the southern aspect. The*e terraces are fenced with seven feet iron, atfd ivell cultivated* T»ey are to be planted with fruit trees 'this season. The grape vinesplanted there last season have grown splendidly. Tor the west is the recreation ground for the girls, tastefully laid out with flower trees 1 ami 'evergreens, surrounded by a hedge of sweet-briar, and a timber fence, the panels of which are surrounded by a perforated! top, representing the Shamrock, emblematic of the Trinity. It is said the grounds are so highly cultivated that they produce mushrooms of exquisiU flavor in -this ad'anced stage of winter. In front of the school is a square admirably strited few the recreation ground for the boys, having been pitched with stone and covered with fifteen inches of gravel. • The building and fittings have cost something over nine hundred pounds. The clearing, cuttings, filling, cultivating, gravelling, and planting, have been done by volunteers from the parish — in round* numbers, "47* men. Stay the blessing of faith and true Christian chnrity which animated them in this labor of love uver remain with them and their posterity. The school is superintended by" Mr Griffen for the- boys department, and Mrs Conway for the girls department. The average attendance of boys and girls at this season is eighty-five. Visitors can form an idea of the efficiency of the teachers and the progress of the taught by calling at the school at intervals of one, two,or three months.