Monsignor Mackay in Fiji

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 36, 3 September 1903, Page 6

Monsignor Mackay in Fiji

In a private letter written to a friend in Dunedin the Right Rev. Mgr. Mackay gives an account of his visit to Fiji on his homeward trip :— ' We arrived at Suva on Sunday afternoon (he writes) and I called upon Bishop Vidal, by whom I was very kindly received. On Monday we visited Rewa, which is about 15 miles up the river. We proceeded there by one of the many channels of the river which has been deepened by the blasting of the rocks which obstructed the navigation. This work had been carried out by the boys of the mission, who took away the stones for the building of the new church. Owing to the clearance effected all the steam launches can now go by this channel, which is a short cut to the Mission Station. Quite close to the landing stage at Rewa we saw the famed lime-kilns, which are really holes dug in the ground, about 2ft deep, in which timber and coral procured from the reefs are burnt, the whole making a first-class lime which is being used in the building of the new church— a really fine structure, of which Father Rougier is architect, clerk of works, and general overseer. It was in one of these " limekilns ' that the alleged Bible-burning took place. When the people of Namosi, with their chief, became Catholics the natives brought their books to the Catholic school, where they were received by one of the French Sisters, who did not count them. The Wesleyan authorities alleged that the number of books of all sorts distributed among this tribe was 238, and apparently on this they based their allegations as to the number destroyed. The Sister picked out the dirty and torn books, placed them in a kerosene tin, and empties the contents on the burning coral. Bishop Vidal, as soon as he had heard of what had been done, sent for all the copies preserved, which numbered from 180 to 200, the balance destroyed being from 30 to 50, all of which were altogether unfit for use. So you can understand what a mountain was made out of a molehill.'