Canterbury's First Catholic Missionaries

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 14, 8 April 1909, Page 542

Canterbury's First Catholic Missionaries

~T\fn^? l \r he ? urr ? nt 11 ) iss «c the New Brighton Monthly Magazine (an Anglican Church organ from Canterbury) appears in an enlarged form, settles down into the easy dignity of a religious journal. -that has achieved as well as deserved, success, and looks at the future with the confident eye with which the eagle is said to ga"e at the" sun We compliment the New Brighton Mcfgazine on the fcroadminded and fraternal charity with which one o ita contributors reiers to the early Catholic missionaries in Canterbury, in the course of an interesting and wellwritten article on the early days of the Churches in that province <It must not be supposed/ says the writer o tie article, 'that clergy of the, Church of England were the '.iirst to minister to > the -spiritual wants of the scattered settlers in the Middle. lsland of New Zealand.- Long" before • they arrived, two priests of the Roman Catholic Church traversed - the then dreary plains, visiting the whaling settlers," and anud toil, hardship, and frSquent risk j lite, pursued their missionary work almost without, reward except such as they received in the shape of the friendship kind offices, and grateful blessings of those to whom they imnwtered. A stretch of country, roughly speaking of five hundred miles in length and two hundred mile! in width, intersected by many dangerous rivers, divided by almost impassable mountain ranges whose eternally snowcapped peaks beautiful to the eye, must have suggested death in fearful forms to the intrepid missionaries was the scene of the faithful works of the Rev. Fathers £ and Chataigner On the bare plains" of Canterbury, wft its _Huru!iui,-_ Rakaia, Ashburton, and Rangitata rive's which even years afterwards, when settlement had" -progressed, were noted as the graves of hundreds of our settlers across the dividing ranges of the Southern Alps; through the bleak and mountainous regions of Otaao winch were almost unexplored till the excitement of the gold diggings caused hardy diggers to force their way in spito of bush, mountain torrent, or rugged rock- m tho recesses of the West Coast of the Island, 8 where evennowtne heavily and closely-timbered country is so difficult to penetrate that gcld-miners even shirk any part that does not yield thorn a certainty of £G a week profit; these twoJwJ Ti' J el T d k \ hj . Catholi <= Protestant. Church of England or Presbyterian, gentle or simple. In those early days they asked no questions as to a man or a woman s creed before rendering the help that was needed or Riving the kind word of encouragement to tha sorply troubled.' We lif b our hat to the writer of that generous and well-men oed tribute tq the pioneer priests of Canterbury.