KUMARA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 245, 11 January 1878, Page 9

KUMARA.

(From our onn Corrczponpcnt^ wwnr* « December 29th, 1877. w biting from Kumara a correspondent is favourably circumstanced lor recording events which may occur either at Greymouth or Hokitita, indeed he is centrally situated for almost any part of the West Coast. With y i >ur permission, therefore, Mr. Editor, I shall endeavour to give you a monthly summary of the West Coast 'news, considering myself to be "your own," and dating from this latest reclaimed spot in the wild bush. Our history i 8i 8 now an uneventful one, and my letters will I fear, prove but of little interest to ypur readers, but they shall be as far as I can make them a plain unvarnished tale. ' ' jft fiiis season the subject which especially claims precedence in the thoughts ot your renders must be that which perhaps we are at most times too apt to place in the back ground, I mean, of course, religion— as far as I am concerned the local history of 'the 'progress of the 1 'Church, me West Coast, as is well known, numbers amongst its denizen's a large proportion of adherents of the Old Faith, who have made their presence here visible by the establishment of parishes, and the erecH on . °* Cheches- Of these the most recently established parish is tnafl or liumara, where a commodious church was opened a few months ago by his Lordship the Bishop of Wellington. At that timefst. Patrick s Day, the church was a mere skeleton, I believe even the windows had not been placed in it; but unfinished as it was, it elicited warm praise from his Lordship's lips, when he remembered that the spot whereon it stood, had but a few weeks previously been a portion of the' primeval forest. Since' that auspicious day, St Patrick's has gradually been improvedf under the'eare of 'the indefatigable committee, until it has become a parish .church of which .they need not be ashamed, with its pulpit, its sanctuary nicely decorated, its communion rail, and its harmonium and little.choir. Better than all this even, the committee have.erected.a presbytery,' and thus secured' the residence of a clergyman in the district ; and in addition have engaged a schoolmaster and carried on a school., To do all this, has Tequired the outlay of much money, and the 'district; though a 'gold naming one, is poor. Undaunted by difficulties, they lave even incurred considerable liabilities for '/the 1 good cause. To liquidate these liabilities they are now holding a bazaar in the Public Hall, the success of which has been , so considerable as, to lessen materially the load of debt which was oppressing them.' I wouid 'willingly send you tue names of all.the good ladies who have taken an active part in the baraar.but their names would make a list almost as long as 'that of Homer s ships and 1 feel sure that the ladies have no desire that their merits should be trumpeted forth in ttie'columns of the Tablet. As the bazaar is at present going on, I am unable to send you the net result Whilst on; lihis 'subject I ought to mention 1 tha£ the commi^ee have been largely indebted to the kindness of Mends at Hokitika'and tn-eyniouth for contributions of money and goods for the stalls, fn „ S+? 7 £ U ™ a ! rea £ 7 been formed of Mr. Crofts' intention n rl t f ifin 1?— Clmrles Clarke ' 8 lectureon Oliver Cromwell. Mr. (,roits fulfilled his intention, and represented the regicide in his true colours at the same time administering to the rev. lecturer a smart cassation for his ,wppre,mo vert. The lecture is, I believe, to be reSiTm ® T % month > Hokitika, Ross, and elsewhere, arid it will'be colon Crofts can see his way to follow Mr Clark throughout the In the matter of general news my letter must be very barren. Our municipality w hardly yet in working order ; in the Borough Council there is only one Catholic, Mr. Hannan. The new public school will be opened immediately after the Christmas holidays. It is a fine commodious building, containing every appliance requisite. S'S ™£ be « gymnasium, and there is a pretty dwelling! or the head-master. Our efforts^ maintain a .Catholic school, in thlface of a Government establishment so heavily endowed seem hopeless, and nothing but indomitable, pluck can continue the struggle for any toi >ro<? Du S° an ' and tne children continue to make satisfacf \\ h *M Perl i a PS dW A l . t t?° lon S on Kumara, but I will now briefly refer to other places. At Hokitikaj.the Rev. Father Martin has had some difficulty in obtaining a subsidyfor his.school, St. Mary's, from the central Board of Education. Indeed the Board went so far as to refuse to grant any aid, but subsequently rescinded their • previous resolutions and granted, I think, £100. This I much fear will be the last subsidy that he can expect, as. the new Education Act, which comes into force immediately, will not allow such -discretionary powers to Boards. We are promised a visit to the' Coast by Sir George Grrey the Premier. Should he fulfil his intention, as I have vefy little doubt he will, he should be interviewed on this matter of Catholic schools and the unfairness and injustice of a secular system should .be everywhere brought before him. The West Coast has hitherto enjoyed a system in which there 'was some' approach to justice, and there are many here who could explain.ro Sir^ (Jeofge .how hard it is for US' to be compelled to support a 1 -system which^e -Church so decidely condemns. The "head teacher of St. Mary's boys' school, Mr M. Camck, was presented, on the 21st inst., with a valuable gold locket and an address, tokens from his pupils of their esteem and regard.

■«. n ath : ~ er ~ has been durin S the PaßtP aBt w eek a bazaar for the Catholic school, St. Patrick's. Like that of Kumara it has been very successful. The ladies who presided at the stalls were Mesdames Kennedy, O Bnen, Griffen, Sheedy and Quinn. They were assisted by numerous young ladies who would not aspire to the responsible K?M ?? a n lderS> At the leaking up of the school, the teacher, Mr. J. 0. Ahearn, was presented by his pupils with beautifully bound copies of Byron's and of Hood's works. Mr. Ahearn, tfter •occupying his post for four years and a half, during which time the attendance at the school has doubled itself twice, has abandoned the profession for another equally arduous and equally responsible. He joins the Fourth Estate, being about to edit a newspaper in Victoria His successor comes from Westport I think, and brings with him a nigh reputation. At the present moment I cannot call to mind this last mentioned gentleman's name. The Eev. Father Ecuyer celebrated midnight mass at Christmas. The mmsic performed by the

choir was, I am told, very appropriate and well sung. Both the Hokitika and the Greymiuth choirs are fortiunate in possessing members with excellent voices and cultivated taste. I omitted to mention m its proper "place that at Hokitika also there was midnight mass. Our good priest, Father McCaughey, celebrated mass on Christmas day at three places, sepaiate from each other by many miles. The last mass was at Kumara.

During the holidays'the Coast has had plenty of amusement. At Hokitika and Reefton horse races, at Greymouth a regatta, and at Kuniara 1 three' days' sports. Unfortunately the weather, though very fine on Boxing day was capricious, and" on the following day there were torrents of rain, which rendered the continuation of out-door amusen'ents'impossible. The various sports have since been carried through, but not with such zest as they would have been had the weather not broken. The frequent heavy rain here renders the crossing of our numerous rivers very dangerous at times, and indeed not seldom- impossible. Hence we are continually agitating for bridges over the Hokitika and Teremakau. The former is to be begun at once, and the latter we are told has been provided for in the Government estimates. The last flood we had gave us a forcible reminder of the necessity for prompt action, by carrying away the punt which, has not yet been replaced. In the meantime our Greymouth mail is. carried by the tramway, which now runs a carriage each way three times a day and is a great convenience. By this arrangement we get our Greymouth letters a couple of hours sooner than we did previously. K.