WEST COAST NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, 24 April 1924, Page 27

WEST COAST NOTES

(From our own correspondent.) Father Whelan, C.SS.R., . has just concluded a most • successful mission in the parish of Hokitika. The attend-. ance at the devotions during the fortnight was admirable, and in keeping with the fine traditions of the WestCoasters. The golfing season was opened solemnly and liturgically , recently. People who believe that all the thrills of travel ended with the making of the tunnel to Otira have only to take the evening train to Hokitika from Greymouth to be sadly disillusioned. On the evening of the 15th of the current month this magnificent specimen of Massey efficiency took two and a half hours to do the twenty odd miles. But every half mile or so we were bumped unmercifully to the . no small danger of the passengers. Opposite me sat a gentleman who remarked, “I had two hours in a dentist’s chair to-day but it was better than this.” Westport looks its Jjest after the recent rains following on a fine summer. It has been a great surfing season on the vast beach there and the most progressive among the citizens have now their cribs in the lupins along the foreshore, Gatha, the celebrated Westport steeplechaser, is having a spell at present. No doubt the veteran will come back to win further honors in the show rings along the Coast during the . year. It is a pity that- wind trouble "stopped his training for the Liverpool Grand National. ■ Echoes of the visit of Dr. Mannix still linger over here.' Father Herbert, who was among those who accompanied his Grace to the Franz Josef, says the Archbishop enjoyed every moment of his visit to this district. Holy Week ceremonies at Greymouth were carried out with dignity and solemnity worthy of cathedral cities, Tho singing showed that the visit of the Sistine .Choir to the Coast had good results. Large congregations attended all the functions. The zealous and devoted curate, Father O’Regan, is having much trouble with his teeth, but-his friends would not think so from his preaching and from, the bright smile he wears over his sufferings. Father Madden Jias gone for a well-earned holiday. Church building and church renovating go on apace in the Ahaura parish. The general condition of the ecclesiastical institutions there is a credit to the zealous pastor whose sight has much improved. Helped by his reliable Ford, he makes nothing of preaching "as many as three eloquent and popular discourses in three different churches on a Sunday. ' ; • ••.•': v' Cape Foulwind, a suburb of Westport, is likely to become a fashionable 1 bathing place some day or other:. It has one of the loveliest little beaches in the : Dominion and a most accommodating train service. - u Father McCormack, of the diocese of Lismore, is spend- ± ing some time with his friends at Grahity. ‘ • ‘