DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND

New Zealand Tablet, 20 March 1919, Page 21

DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND

(From our own correspondent.) March 14. His Lordship the Bishop, the Bight Rev. Dr. Cleary, has this week established something in the nature of a unique record, by making an episcopal visitation to the coastal portion of his diocese by aeroplane. On Tuesday morning last his Lordship left Auckland in a seaplane from the Kohimarama Flying School, piloted by Mr. Vivian C. Walsh, one of the directors of the. school. The machine commenced its journey at 7.33 a.m., the weather conditions being ideal for flying, the day being clear, with almost a dead calm. Cape Colville was passed, at 8.12 a.m. and 25 minutes later a safe landing was made at Kuaotunu. Kuaotunu is some 65 miles distant from Auckland by air, and the journey would have been accomplished in shorter time had not some 15 minutes been spent en route in recovering a floating article which had dropped overboard. The arrival of the seaplane at Kuaotunu with the Bishop as passenger created great interest among the inhabitants. After a visit to some of his flock the Bishop left in the afternoon for Mercury Bay. Practically the whole population, including the school children assembled on the foreshore to see him. depart. The seaplane arrived safely at- Mercury Bay, accomplishing the 18-mile journey in exactly 20 minutes. The school children and apparently most of the adult population lined the waterfront as the machine came up the harbor, and the children in particular crowded closely in and about the seaplane as she "taxied" in to shallow water. Later in the afternoon the Bishop left for Tairua, arriving there after a rapid .flight of 19 minutes from Mercury Bay, a distance of 20 miles. As word had previously been sent from Mercury Bay everyone turned out to meet and greet the Bishop. At Tairua the Bishop was met by Father Dignan, of Thames. From Tairua the Bishop will proceed to Coromandel by seaplane, and will then continue his tour by motor car. The machine in which Bishop Cleary is making the trip is one of the latest hydro-aeroplanes, with a maximum speed of 75 miles and a cruising speed of 70 miles_.an hour, and a range of 200 miles without, alighting. The Bishop says his experience so far leaves him more than ever convinced of the value of the seaplane as an aid to his work in visiting remote waterside districts, especially where the roads are mere ribbons of mud, with which, on motor trips, he feels himself less physically fit to contend than formerly. On Tuesday evening last Father Brennan delivered an interesting discourse to the members of the men'i confraternity of the Holy Family at St. Patrick's Cathedral, on the subject of "Superstition." Superstition arose, he said, through excess of faith and defect of faith. He fully illustrated the meaning of this, and gave examples of both. At the examination in the theory of music held in Auckland on February 22 by the examiner of the Associated Board of Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music, pupils of Miss Kearin (Onehuuga), were successful in the following subjects, and numbers:—Rudiments of Music, —three; Grammar of Music, 111. —one; Grammar of Music, ll.seven; Grammar of Music, I.six. Three of the pupils obtained the maximum number of marks in their respective grades. - '