DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND

New Zealand Tablet, 11 December 1913, Page 36

DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND

(By telegraph, from our own correspondent.)

December 8. Rev. Father Edge, of the Sacred Heart parish, has left on holiday, and Rev. Father O'Doherty, of the Cathedral, is temporarily filling his place . <- Rev. Father Peters, of Maitland, who returned on Saturday morning from his southern tour, expressed his pleasure and surprise at the great fertility of New Zealand, and especially of the Canterbury Plains..

Rev. Father Forde returned on Saturday afternoon from the south, where he enjoyed very much a well-earned holiday. He speaks in glowing terms of the kind and hospitable treatment which he received during his travels.

The _ city is now assuming its normal condition. The special police were disbanded this morning. Numbers of strikers cannot obtain re-instatement in their former employment, and consequently acute hardship is manifesting itself in many quarters.

Very Rev. Father O’Connell, S.M., during the past week conducted a retreat for the Little Sisters of the Poor. On Sunday he spent a busy day. He addressed those in retreat several times, attended a reception at ot. Mary's Convent, and was at the Cathedral in the evening.

There was Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at the Cathedral yesterday from the last Mass until after Vespers. His Lordship the Bishop presided at Vespers, and the Very Rev. Father O’Connell, S.M., preached an appropriate sermon from the text, ‘ Show me a valiant woman.’ He showed, after an interesting incursion into worldly matters, that the valiant woman did not exist, and then held up our Blessed Lady as a valiant woman, and eloquently traced her innumerable perfections and attributes, and exhorted every woman to model her life on her, who termed herself, ‘I am the Immaculate Conception.’ At the conclusion of the sermon there was a procession and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The altar was handsomely decorated by the Sisters of Mercy and lay assistants.

A VISITATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES. His Lordship the Bishop returned to Auckland last week, after having spent seventeen days visiting by motor in the Waikato and King Country. He laid the corner stone of the fine new brick church in the rising town of Ngaruawahia, as already described in your columns, took part with his Grace the Archbishop of Wellington in the celebration of the first anniversary of the new church and deanery at Hamilton, and visited the State Consumptive Sanatorium, seven miles outside of Cambridge. He also visited Te Awamutu and the newly-formed native mission established at Puniu, a few miles from Kihi Kihi, and now in charge of Rev. Father Kreymborg, and administered the Sacrament of Confirmation at Huntly, Ngaruawahia, Kawhia, and Raglan. The heavy and almost continuous rains rendered almost impassable tho wild mountainous tracks, called 'roads,' to Kawhia and Raglan. On this visit his Lordship was, as usual, his own driver and mechanic. On the 38 mile trip from Te Awamutu to Kawhia ho was accompanied by Fathers Lynch and Kreymborg. On the last twelve miles of the mountainous road they had to dig the motor out a few times, and once to assist in bridging a broken culvert; but, despite delays from these causes, they reached Kawhia more than an hour in advance of their appointed time. The visitors spent the remainder of the day (November 27) in visiting the few Catholics in and about the township, in the midst of an almost incessant downpour of heavy rain. On the following day his Lordship administered the Sacrament of _ Confirmation in the Public Hall to a number of children and adults, and, in the course of his occasional address, expressed the hope that steps would soon be taken towards the erection of a church in the township. Despite the inclemency of the weather, a number of the scattered Catholic settlers and their children came

from considerable distances over the wild mud tracks that are designated ! roads ’ in that region, one family having risen at four o’clock, and travelled fourteen miles by land and water. The children took greatly to his Lordship, and are looking forward to his promised return visit, which will, I understand, be made, if possible, „ before the close of the summer season; Settlement is greatly retarded and hampered around this fine harbor by the execrable and dangerous nature of the precipitous mountain roads, which, owing to the heavy downpour on the day of the Bishop’s departure, were even worse than on the forward journey, the motor being in one place buried up to the axles. At Pirongia, Father Kreymborg left the party to return to his mission, and the Bishop and Father Lynch reached the hospitable home of Mr. and Mrs. Moroney, of Karama, in full daylight the same evening, after a fairly rapid, though rough and dangerous, trip over the ranges from Oparau, where the so-called ‘road’ begins at the Kawhia end. The next day, November 29, they set out for Raglan, accompanied by Mr. Moroney. The new road to Raglan being quite impassable, the Bishop headed his motor at the deep and slippery mud of the old road. About a chain and a half of deep quagmire had to be treated with broken timber and titri in order to afford a passage for the car. Apart from this, despite the steep and slippery surface of greasy yellow clay, there were no further delays on the road, and Raglan was reached during the early afternoon. In the evening a public reception was accorded to his Lordship. There was a large gathering, composed chiefly of non-Gath-olics. The chairman of the Town Board, Mr. Pelham, presided. After a varied and interesting programme of music, song, and monologue, speeches of welcome were delivered by the chairman, by Mr. Hill (who is the oldest surviving pioneer of the district), by Mr. Jeffreys on behalf of the Catholic settlers, and by Rev. Father Lynch. His Lordship replied in a happy and characteristic speech, which was greeted with frequent applause. Refreshments were handed around by a committee of ladies. On Sunday, November 30, the pretty little Catholic church was crowded, and at the close of an appropriate discourse the Bishop administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to a number of children and adults, some of whom had come a distance of eighteen miles over the ‘ roads ’ of that roadless region. During his stay at Raglan his Lordship was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. O’Sullivan, whose delightful hospitality to him and his travelling companions and others was the subject of many a high encomium.

His _ Lordship was greatly struck by the possibilities of the regions around the fin© harbors of Raglan and Kawhia, where, as he said, every prospect pleases, and only roads are vile. c lt seems to me,’ he added, ‘ a bad example of class legislation that such vast sums of unreproductive money should be expended upon such luxuries as big railways, post offices, and Parliament Buildings in Dunedin, Wellington, and Auckland, while another section of the taxpaying public, the settlers in the Raglan, Kawhia, Rangiriri, Whakatane, and other districts, are still, after fifty years, deprived of such primary necessaries of civilisation as passable communications. These so-called roads are a disgrace to the Dominion, and a standing reproach to successive administrations. At the time of his Lordship s departure from Raglan, a heavy downpour of rain had rendered the mountain mud tracks even deeper and more treacherous than before. On the steep hills chains were torn off the wheels, ropes, fern, and titri had to be frequently resorted to, as well as the ever-ready spades, and it was only after nightfall that the party, covered with sticky yellow mud, reached the comfort and genial hospitality of the Moroney homestead at Karamu. His Lordship’s trip of a hundred miles from there to Auckland on the following day was speedily made, despite the evil fame of the greasy clay hills of Rangiriri.