MISSIONABT WORK IN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 26, 27 June 1901, Page 4

MISSION ABT WORK IN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand was the next field ohosen for the Marist zeal, and here a rich harvest repaid the missionary toil. Very many Maori tools were sent to Paradise, and if the missionary work among that brave race was too soon, alas I brought to a close, it ii not at the door of the Catholic missionaries the blame is to be laid, but at the door of those who maligned and persecuted them. Looking to New Zealand, it must be manifest to everyone that a grand future is in ■tore for the Catholic Church. Other spiritual workers have come to give a helping band to prepare for the glorious result, but it must for ever ba recorded to the merit of the Marist missionaries that they laid deep and broad and solid the foundations on which the stately edificss of religion in New Zealand have been raise . What shall I say of the other island groups ihat have been •vangelised f If Samoa and Tonga, Fiji and New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands and New Zealand, have been added to the Catholic fold, the natives of those groups owe to the Marist missionaries the blessings of religion which they enjoy. In carrying on the work of evangelisation of those untutored savage races, how many dangers had to be overcome I When some French naval officers accompanied the messengers to announce to Father Battailon that he was raised to the Episcopate, with charge of the island groups of Central Oceania, they could not refrain from remarking at the sight of the extreme poverty of that grand veteran missionary, with tattered garments, and without shoes or head-gear, and destitute of everything that this world could cling to, and humble as the humblest of his flock, he had truly sacrificed all for Christ ; he retained ouly the piety and zeal and dignity of the true apoatle. What has been related of one iv the history of all the missionary band.