THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 21, 28 May 1908, Page 12

THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND

MEMOIRS OF THE EARLY DAYS

(Contributed.) WELLINGTON.

(Continued.)

In 1850, Bishop Viard erected a residence. in Wellington, wherein the Fathers and Brothers also dwelt, and a convent for the Sisters intended to have charge of the girls' school. After waiting for many years, it was not until 1861 that he succeeded in obtaining from the Superior of the Convent of Mercy at Auckland three Sisters to found a community in Wellington. These arrived on June 14 of the same year. Writing to the mother house in the following month, they stated— 'Our little convent is in an elevated position at a short distance from the base of high hills, which form a kind of amphitheatre, extending to the harbor which forms a front view. Attached to it is a Providence for the Native girls, which was built by the Government, who allowed £10 for the support of each Native girl instructed in it. The town principally extends alone the beach.' ° The convent, which was also to serve as a temporary school for girls, was formally opened and blessed on September 8, 1850. It was attended by children of all denominations, many of whom became converts to the faith. On the same day the good prelate had the consolation of blessing the first stone of the Wellington Cathedral. In a circular, issued by his Grace Archbishop Redwood on the destruction of this historic and beautifully designed edifice, appeared the following :— ' On the 28th of November, 1898, that venerable old landmark, that conspicuous and gracetul edifice crowning Golder's Hill, Wellington, St. Mary's Cathedral, was accidentally set on fire by a workman engaged in painting the tower, and totally destroyed, with its fine organ and splendid marble altar, each worth £600. It would be impossible to adequately convey in words the feelings of amazement, of sorrow, of regret, we might say, of bereavement, which overwhelmed the thousands of devoted Catholics, while they saw the fierce and cruel flames devour an edifice which clung to their hearts by the holiest and most touching associations, or while they afterwards contemplated with tearful eyes the charred and unsightly ruins of their beautiful and beloved Cathedral. The citizens of every class and denomination in Wellington keenly shared the grief of Catholics, and gave repeated and emphatic expression of their deep sympathy. But the chief mourners « of course, were the older members of the congregation— persons who, fiom their earliest childhood, had been associated most affectionately, in all that was impressive, holy, and religious, with that venerated pile where the very knowledge, substance, and framework of tneir religious convictions had been formed, fostered and cherished. There they had been baptised, there confirmed, there admitted to First' Communion, there married. They remembered the time when they were conducted again and again to the sacred structure trotting alongside their parents' knees, and now, when their hair was whitened with years, when they looked back to a lifetime, and they saw that dear Cathedral gone, and gone for ever, could any outsider fully realise the keenness of their sorrow, the depth of their regret, and the anguish of their bereavement ? Great honor, no doubt, and unqualified praise are uue to all those who were associated with the erection of- St. Mary's. How many good and worthy men and women, how many saintly pastors, such as Father Petit-Jean and Bishop Viard, had their noble share in

the undertaking ! How Dr. Viard, the first Bishop of Wellington, had set his heart on it while he lived, and now he deserved and obtained that his revered ashes should rest in it after his death ! He spoke and wrote about it with pride, as well he might, for, in nis time, it was a really great achievement. It was an historic building. , Begun in iB6O, it was to a certain degree completed for use iv 1851, and in that year blessed by Bishop Viard. Later on, in 1865, it was enlarged and again blessed most solemnly by Dr Viard in 1866, and for upwards of thirty-three years stood much in the same condition as when it was destroyed—at least in regard to externals. Internally it had been completed by the present incumbent of the bee, Archbishop, then Bishop, Redwood. Over £1200 were spent in its interior decorations and general improvements, irrespective of the altar and organ, which respectively cost £600 more. And for about forty years it was decidedly the finest Catholic Cathedral in all New Zealand. But despite its beautiful style of architecture and graceful elegance, it had become, by the progress of the city, too small for present, not to speak of future requirements, .and, compared with cathedrals which had meantime risen in other parts of the Colony, it naturally appeared dwarfed, diminutive, and altogether behind the times. Nevertheless, so hallowed were its .memories and associations, that one was afraid to touch it or hint at its removal. Yet, either it had to be removed, or another Cathedral had to be built somewhere else ; and it was a very difficult and delicate question to know how to appeal to the Catholics of New Zealand and the Catholics of Wellington in regard to a new Cathedral. That was the position. Suddenly, in that mysterious and inscrutable manner peculiarly its own, Divine Providence stepped in, and, by an accident, that inadequate building disappeared, and, facing the position, it became our duty, as it will be our enduring honor, privilege, and glory, to erect a new Cathedral, up-to-date, and thoroughly in keeping with the requirements of the metropolis of New Zealand.' (To be continued.)