HOKITIKA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 19, 11 May 1899, Page 5

HOKITIKA.

A correspondent, writing under date May 1, supplements our report of last week regarding the visit of his Lordship Bishop Grimes to Hokitika. He says : — The mission terminated on Sunday, April 30, when his Lordship Dr. Grimes administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to about U0 candidates, among whom were some converts. In the evening the Bishop delivered a farewell sermon, when the church was crowded. In the course of the discourse his Lordship referred to the great success of the mission, nearly the whole of the congregation having received the Sacraments during its continuance. He also thanked the congregation for their liberal response to his appeal for funds for the new cathedral at Christchurch, and concluded by giving the Pontifical Blessing DuriDg the week his Lordship dined with Mr. Joseph Mandl, the other guests present being Very Rev. Dean Martin, Rev. Fathers Goggan, the Right Hon. the Premier and Mrs. Seddon. Another correspondent sends us the following :—: — On Monday morning a thanksgiving Macs was offered by his Lordship, at which a large congregation assisted.

On Monday evening, after the May devotions, a concert was held in the large schoolroom at the convent, when many had to be turned away from the doors, standing room being at a premium. His Lordship, accompanied by Very Rev. Dean Martin and Rev. Fathers Goggan and Le Petit, was present. Mibs Stalia Murphy read an address of welcome from the children to his Lordship, in which they expressed their pleasure at his return to New Zealand, and his visit to the West Coast, and asked his acceptance of their

donation to the Cathedral Fund, regretting their inability through the slenderness of thoir purses to make the gift a hundredfold greater. A long and varied programme of vooal, instrumental, and dramatic items and a spirited debate by the boys, was then given, the performance reflecting great credit on the children and the Sisters. In a few words his Lordship thanked the children for the kind welcome accorded him, and congratulated them on the able manner in which they had performed their several parts, and concluded by asking and obtaining a holiday for the children. As a result of the concert, something like £10 was handed to the Bishop in aid of the Ca'hedral Fund, making for Hokitikaa total of between £300 arid £400. I am informed the mission at Ross, and more especially the one atßimu, weie equally bucccssf ul, and the contributions in aid of the building fund were of a like satisfactory nature. On Tue-day afternoon se\cral of the leading Catholics assembled at the railway station to bid farewell io his Lordship Dr. Grimes and Father Goggan, who left for Greymouth, accompanied by Very Rev Dean Martin, to open a short uiiafeion there.