DARGAVILLE NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 48, 6 December 1923, Page 41

DARGAVILLE NOTES

(From our own correspondent.) • ■ Tlie parish of Dargaville and surrounding districts, which is under the care of the Mill Hill Fathers, has made considerable progress during the- past year. The grounds have been materially improved, a tennis court is in process of formation for the newly-established Catholic Tennis Club, and a splendid Hibernian' hall has been erected at a cost of £IBOO. The hall is 90ft x 31ft otfer all, and contains a dancing hall 65ft x 30ft), smoke-room (14ft x loft), two dressing-rooms (each 18ft x 10ft), reading-room (24ft x 15ft), and club room (30ft x 24ft). Forty thousand feet of timber and five tons of iron were used in the connotion of the hall, which is a very handsome building. It was designed and constructed by Mr. F. A. Jones. The club room, which is furnished with billard table and all accessories, is let by the Hibernians to the local Catholic Club. The dancing hall is let to the public' and is in good demand, possessing, as it does, the best dancing floor in the town. Hie Hibernians have a strong and energetic branch of 60 members, with a juvenile contingent of; 20 boys. Other flourishing societies are the Children of Mary and St. Michael s Catholic Club, whilst the Knights and Handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament are very much in evidence at the weekly Communions. A very successful bazaar was held on November 4, when the? sum of £312 vas taken, a net ‘profit of £291 being ultimately realised. A new church is spoken of as being the next big ’■venture and judging by the unanimity and spirit of goodwill manifested in the parish this should be an accomplished fact before long. The parish debt of £3OOO is being gradually extinguished, and the parishioners, ‘directed by the good priests under the .supervision of the Very Rev. Dean Van Dyk, and assisted., by the, devoted Sistets of St. Joseph, are doing - all they possibly can to advance the interests of Catholicity in the district. .’. ' A V : ; ;