THE TARANAKI DISTRICT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 26, 29 June 1899, Page 24

THE TARANAKI DISTRICT.

(From our New Plymouth Correspondent.) Within the last ten years the settlement of the Taranaki dintrict has increased steadily. Blocks of land which thirty years ago were covered with bush, and held by the Maoris underarms are m\£ occupied by settlers. When the present Government came in«§ power they facilitated the settlement of the land, and now for miksailai.d the bu.sh has been cleared and comfortable homestead* are to be found in all directions. With the increase of population large numbed of Catholics have come to settle in the district and owing to the exertions of the Very Rev. Dean M'Kenna, who visits them often, they have not been cut off from the consoling influence of the Catholic Church. Thirty years ago the provincial district of Taranaki was one parish ; the wants of the Catholics between Patea to the south and Mokau to the north being supplied by one priest. After a time the district was divided, and two parishes created— New Plymouth (which included Stratford on one side of the mountain and Okato on the other), and Hawera to the south (which took in Opunaki to the north and Waverley to the south). The paribh of Patea was next created, taking in Waverley, and now hie Grace the Archbishop has, owing to the increase in the Catholic population in Taranaki considered it necessary to create three new parishes— Eltham, by cutting off a portion of the Hawera district ; and Stratford, by taking a part of the New Plymouth parish. The third parish is partly a Maori Missionary station, taking in the European settlements of Opunaki to the south and Okato, Tataraimako, Rahotu. Pungarehu, and Oakura to the north. The Catholics are scattered over the districts named, but muster in large numbers when Mass is held in any of the churches, people riding for miles to attend at the Holy Sacrifice. They have very fair churches at Opunaki and Okato ; and at the latter place the missionary priests have a presbytery where they reside. In the New Plymouth parish (which includes Inglewood, Waitari, and all the settlements as far as the Awakino Country to the north), which is really in the Auckland diocese, the Very Rev. Dean M-Kemia has charge, and he has very heavy work, for when he ia not in his buggy, he is on horseback looking out stray Catholics, whose isolation has rendered them, perhaps, careless in the discharge of their religious duties. When he has collected, in one of those isolated districts, a sufficient number he celebrates Mass there, and by his sermons stirs up in them the religious enthusiasm of their youth. He looks after the children and instructs the parents how to teach them the elements of their faith. He advises all his people to subscribe to the Tablet that they may get information of what ia going on in the Catholic world ; also to the Australian Messenger of tin S.irrt'tl Jftur*, which he advises all— especially the women — to read. The Very Rev. Dean M'Kenna has a very happy knack of making friends. He is kind-hearted and generous to a fault. He ia beloved by tm people, and respected and esteemed by everyone in place.