Starving—ln Mind and Body

New Zealand Tablet, 30 March 1922, Page 10

Starving—ln Mind and Body

You who live in plenty, please read the following; Owing to the great necessity that the Mission’s are in, we are forced to appeal to our friends for help. There are over 350,000,000 people in India, Burma, and Ceylon and they are nearly all outside the fold of Christian civilisation. Vast numbers of poverty-stricken people appeal to us for help and education, and we are able to help only a small percentage, owing to our limited means. We therefore appeal to the people of this Dominionin the name of Christ do their best to assist us with their alms. You will share in thousands of Masses annually and our poor little angels then will make a novena for you four times a year before the feast of St. Joseph, the Sacred Heart, St. Francis Xavier, and the Immaculate Conception. If you send in your requests, they will be laid on the altar during the novena. 10/- to help feed an orphan; £lO for a native catechist; £1 to save a pagan child; £2O to educate a native priest; £2 to educate a native boy or girl; or build a little chapel or school. Please give what you can and mention this to your friends. Sincerely yours in Christ, Rev. Henry Westropp, S.J., Archbishop House, Wodehouse Road, Bombay, India. We wish to acknowledge a number of 5s and 10s postal notes for cards. Being unable to answer each-letter, please accept our grateful thanks. All subscriptions for above and any further particulars please send to — Bert Gallien, North-east Valley, Dunedin, Our N.Z. Organiser.

There are thirty-six of these windows, each of three lights, with traceried heads, and and above all is the steeply pitched roof with reinforced concrete principals and red pine panelling. The arch over the high altar is larger than the others, and over this is a beautiful window filled in with a glorious stained glass representing the Crucifixion, with the instruments of the Passion and two adoring angels in the smaller lights surrounding it. In the greater part of the church the windows are filled in with lightly tinted cathedral glass in lead cames, but the stained glass of the Lady Chapel is in Wellington and will be placed in position very shortly. The subjects represented in the larger lights are the “mysteries of the rosary” (15 subjects), St. Anne and St. Joachim, and in a small wheel window in the gable are six cherubims, while in the East window (nine lights) are represented the nine choirs of angels. In this chapel is a shrine containing the Holy Family Group, while in the opposite side of the church, in the chapel of St. Joseph, is a shrine containing the Pieta group. In St. Joseph’s Chapel there are two stained glass windows representing the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart respectively. There are several noticeable and novel features in the church; cork tiles are used in the main passages and in the sanctuary, and seem eminently suitable for their position, being noiseless to walk upon. The electric lighting of the sanctuary is not visible from the nave, the points being placed in the large hollow moulding, which runs up the arches. Each of the altars in the day-time is also lighted from a source not' visible from the church. The ventilation is effected by an opening, well protected from the weather, running along the whole ridge of the roof with sufficient inlets in the lower parts of the church to provide natural currents to carry off the vitiated air. The, four confessionals, two on each side of the nave, are well arranged, and are made to give the Father Confessor and the penitents more physical comfort than is usually the case.

The church was begun under the contract system, but owing to the builder’s being unable to fulfil his obligations, it was taken out of his hands soon after the foundations were in, and since then the work has been carried out by the Reverend Father Mahony, with the assistance of a competent foreman in each trade. In able hands, this has proved an excellent method of building. The materials used have been reinforced concrete for the walls, roof principals, and floors; heart of red pine for the timber, and best quality Welsh slates for the roof covering, the gutters and ridging being of copper.

The architects were Messrs. Clero (F.R.1.8.A.) and Williams (A.R.1.8.A.), both members the Concrete Institute of London; the foremen engaged were Messrs. Michael Maloney, Frank Sullivan, James Cullen, and W. D. Small. Mr. T. ,R. McLaughlan carried out the plumbing and Mr. E. F. Richardson the electrical work under contract. '

At the time of writing, the exterior is unfinished, and some of the ornamentation of the interior remains to be done. In our illustration, which is taken from the architects’ first perspective drawing, and which in the main gives an excellent idea of the finished building, the steps leading up to the building are not as they have been carried out and the louvres in the belfry openings are to be omitted. When the drawing was made an old building stood on the site and it was not possible to decide the best way of approaching the main entrance. The different niches shown on the drawing are to contain figures of saints, but with the exception of the one in the main gable, are unoccupied. The great centre one contains a beautiful marble figure of Our Lady, standing seven feet high. Nothing of an inferior character will be allowed ultimately in the church. The high altar will will be. of marble, specially designed by the architects, and is in course of construction. The present one, which is really very beautiful, is only temporary, and was built in its position by Messrs. Cullen and Small from the design of the architects. In conclusion, we must congratulate Father Mahony and his flock in the possession of a building which must attract attention from all parts of the globe. It is, we understand, the first Catholic church which has been built .■ reinforced concrete from a design made to fit the material., The Cathedral at Manilla and other designs

of which we have seen reproductions, have had the appearance of heavy masonry executed in concrete with great cavities and other material-saving devices. This cannot be said to be good art, for, to quote a great American teacher (Claude Bragdon), “an architect should think and work in terms of his time and place; also in terms of his materials.” In a country which is subject to earthquakes, and in which cement and river shingle is comparatively plentiful, it can, in truth be said that St. Mary’s fulfils the conditions set forth by the writer quoted.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

The total cost of the new St. Mary of the Angels’ as it now stands, furnished with new' seats, temporary altars, cork-tiling in the main aisle, and well-furnished sacristies amounts to £31,865 os 3d. To this must be added architect’s fees, amounting to £1475; making a total outlay of £33,340 5s 3d. Estimating the value of seats in the church and choir at £4OO, temporary altars at £IOO, furnishing of sacristies at £IOO, and cork-tiling for main aisle at £IOO, leaves £31,165 5s 3d as the total cost of the building. The amount collected from various sources amounts to £25,884 Is 6d; borrowed, £4650 at 5£ per cent, and £IOOO at 6 per cent, also £IBSO (no interest payable); total debt £7SOS.

It is to reduce this debt that the appeal is now being made to your generosity. The work cannot go on to completion unless the debt is kept within reasonable bonnes. The figures quoted for the actual building (£31,165) is a wonderful result, even in its unfinished state, considering the very high price of timber, cement which had to be imported, and highest wages.