A BISHOP FOR CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 216, 15 June 1877, Page 9

A BISHOP FOR CHRISTCHURCH.

To the Editor of the New Zealand Tablet.

Sib, — It gave me great pleasure to see your last week's issue record the pleasing fact that the New Zealand Tablet is a success even f as a monetary speculation, and that the Company were able at their last meeting to declare a handsome dividend to the shareholders. This is as it should be. The Tablet deserves all the support it receives, and more than it receives, from the Catholics of this colony. It is their one only exponent and representative, their one only unswerving and faithful expositor, the one only journal on whose pages they are neither maligned nor misrepresented to the outer world. The Tablet, when it commenced, had a great work before it. It had to combat the arguments and. the sophisms of Protestantism and Infidelity; it had to expose the fallacies of secularism, and to raise out of the mire and the mud of fanatical bigotry the character of the Irish race and the Catholic religion. All this and more it has done, and is doing weekly. It is obliged to be ever on the defensive, but bravely and well it defends itself. It is encompassed on all sides by those who have ever been hostile to its cause, and who would think it a good thing could they but accomplish its utter destruction ; but it has nobly maintained its position from the beginning, until now it is acknowledged on all sides to be the one only independent journal in Dunedin. I have often wondered that the Catholic clergy of the colony do not contribute as they might to its pages. With the whole world an open book before them, with the all-absorbing and interesting history of the interminable past lying on their shelves, or locked up in their bookcases, with all the events of ancient and modern times staring them in the face, what intellectual treats could they not occasionally give us, if they were so minded ! Yet with all this, the strange and unaccountable fact remains, that we are seldom or never instructed by their knowledge, guided by their advice, or enlightened by their erudition. It may be true that the Catholic priesthood of New Zealand have more important work to do than writing for the Tablet, they may deem it of more consequence to save souls than to feed curiosity, but when we look over the pages of the Catholic papers of other countries — notably those of England and America — we are struck by the vast amount of knowledge and information which the clergy of those places find time, and deem it not beneath them, to convey to the people through the columns of the press. I, for one, hold that it is the duty of every Catholic to support the Catholic paper ; the layman by his purse and the priest by his pen ; the one by his subscription and the other by his contribution. It must not, however, be thought that I am at all dictating to the priesthood in this matter. Far be such an intention from me, and if I have said aught that I should not have said, I here retract it unconditionally. I have been constrained, as it were, to give expression to these thoughts from a sincere desire to see the one Catholic paper of the colony — the one only representative journal we haye — well and ably supported. When I sat down to pen this letter I certainly did not intend to say one word of what I have yet written. My intention was simply to congratulate you on your financial success, and to tell you how the Catholic population of this city have increased and are increasing since the inauguration of the free immigration scheme. Our Church, that had been more than ample for the congregation about two year 3 ago, although it has since been considerably enlarged, is now fast becoming too small for their requirements. With a sitting accommodation for about 1,000 persons, many are now obliged to remain in the porch at last Mass and at Vespers. Seeing all this, and feeling the necessity that exists for having a resident bishop in Christchurch, the people here have got up a petition to Dr. Redwood, the Bishop of Wellington, to lay their case before the Holy Father, and to forward their cause at Borne for the purpose of obtaining, if possible, a bishop for this important and populous city. This they are now encouraged to, and they have no doubt but his Lordship will gladly undertake the task, since he has stated in a letter, an extract from which was read from, the pulpit on yesterday, that he had already moved in the matter, and that twelve months ago he had entered into negotiations with Borne about the division of his diocese, but that they considered the time inopportune. In these colonies population increases so rapidly that twelve months effects a wonderful change in a congregation. Moreover, the people here, km seeing that Christchurch is the seat of the Protestant Primate of New Zealand, that it is the very centre and stronghold of Protestantism in this colony, that the other denominations — and their name is legion — possess the powe^ that wealth invariably gives to bigotry, have come to the conclusion that the time has come when they ought to have a bishop of their own, who would minister to their wants, and give them a position, a status, and a dignity which they will never possess without him. It will be seen that their 3is no childish longing when they Bay that they have not had the Sacrament of Confirmation administered in the parish since ii was given by his Lordship Bishop Moran about four years ago. Bathkealensis. Christchurch, May 28, 1877.