Wellington Catholic Education Board

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 49, 9 December 1925, Page 11

Wellington Catholic Education Board

In presenting the thirteenth annual report, the Board has much pleasure in announcing another successful year and, as a result, the sum of £638 18s 7d has been added to the accumulated fund, notwithstanding the extra liability of £260 per annum undertaken by the Board to meet the deficiencies in the school fees at Convent Schools.

REPORT AND STATEMENT OF A(XX)UNTS-1924-25.

prepared to rectify the omission. Already eight bequests have been made to the Fund ,- 5 by the wills of the late Messrs. W. E. Keefe, 1 J. P. Bourke, Patrick Lyne, Louis Tasman Reichel, Maurice O’Connor, Michael J. Morrison, the late Mrs, Mary Kennedy, the late ||| Miss Alice Bourke, and by a gentleman whose identity for the present is not to be dis- :i----dosed. Bmi Catholics are exhorted to assist the Fund by contributing an annual donation. Even, if it is only half-a-crown per year, send it?p along; every little helps. It is not the few M large gifts that count, but the multiplicity of small donations. This is the means whereby those who are not blessed with children, 4 or whose children are above the school age, 1 or those who are unmarried, can assist in 1 promoting God’s work, and their meritorious ||i acts will not go unrewarded. There are many calls upon the generosity of Catholics, but it is our bounden duty to >| support our Catholic Schools, and, conse- 'f’ quently, we should make the sacrifice without ! demur, remembering that we are assisting the greatest of causesthe training of the in-fl nocent and the young for the Kingdom off God. - • • r-TVg The efficiency of our schools in secular train- f ? ing is again highly commended in the re- f ports furnished by the Government Inspectors, the percentage of proficiency passes bemg above the average. The sound spiritual Si training which the children receive in no way f interferes with their material studies, but proves to be an aid rather than a hindrance.!! Through the efforts of the Very Rev. Father S Connolly and the Rev. Father Mahony, S.M., two very fine and up-to-date schools have been built in Kilbirnie and Aro Street reiSl spectively, involving an expenditure for land and buildings of approximately £20,000. These schools were solemnly blessed and M formally opened during the year by his Grace Archbishop Redwood, and are now being used f for the parishes of Kilbirnie and St. Mary’s. These are further instances of the sacrifice* which the Catholic community is making to W advance the great cause of Catholic educa- 1 turn.

The receipts totalled £2093 9s 9d, the principal items being the Sunday Penny Collections, £856; interest from investments, £591; donations, £220; St. Patrick's Night Concert, £137; annual art union, £127; annual school social, £l6l. The expenditure totalled £1454, the main items being payment to Marist Brothers towards deficiencies in school fees, £602; payment to the Sisters for the same purpose, £260; maintenance and repairs of school buildings, £174; interest on mortgages on school buildings, £313; Board "expenses, £lO4. • '

The Board records its gratitude to the following for donations, and trusts that their excellent example of generosity will be followed by many others:—Mr. and Mrs. M. Dennehy, Mr. Geo. Lambert, J.P., Mr. J. P. Corcoran, Miss C. Sullivan, Mr. A. B. Boake, and Mrs. A. Schmidt.

Through the generosity of the late Miss Alice Bourke, who died recently, the Board will receive the sum of £2OO from her estate. The Sunday Penny Collections are, of course, the main source of revenue for the Board, and the total this year, shows a noticeable improvement. Although this collection totals a large sum for the year, yet the amount is not what it should be, as ; t represents a weekly contribution by 4000 persons. This number is approximately only half of those who attend Mass on Sundays. The collection could, therefore, be doubled if all contributed, and the Board exhorts those who are not contributing this small sum to do so from now on. Children should also be encouraged to make this small sacrifice. The Accumulated Fund is well invested in freehold security, the sum invested now standing- at £9165, and earmng interest averaging £591 per annum. Of the total amount to the credit of the fund the sum of £4370 15s lid has been donated by the following:—Mrs. H. Sullivan and family, £500; the late Mr. Maurice O’Connor, £1000; the late Mr. J. P. Bourke, £250; the late Very Rev. Dean McKenna £10; the late Mrs. Mary Kennedy, £2000; the late Mr. Martin Kennedy, K.S.G., £100; the late Mr. Michael J. Morrison, £l3whilst the balance, £497 15s lid, is the ■aggregate of other smaller sums. In addition to this the late Mr. Louis Tasman Reichel bequeathed ,50 shares in the Reichel Automatic Fire Alarm, and Mr. J. J. L. Burke donated 50 shares in the New Zealand Tablet Company. The Board appeals to' those who can afford to do so to remember the Education Fund when preparing their wills. If this important matter has already been attended to, and the Fund has been omitted, please have a codicil

Our report would not be complete if wedid not express our gratitude and appreciation of the self-sacrificing work of the devoted - Sisters and Brothers who are responsible for the spiritual and secular training of our children. On behalf of the Catholics of Wellington we desire, therefore, to thank the 1 Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, and the Marist Brothers, for their 1 devoted work. . r ; ;;^H

Their grand and noble calling is carried on . unostentatiously, year in and year out, without the blare of" trumpets or the plaudits of the world. All they desire is to serve ' God, through the children placed under their v$ control, for their own personal sanctification '.' •- and to fit both themselves and the tender < young souls entrusted to them for a better and more lasting world. ' Our gratitude to our splendid teachers-7 should therefore assume a practical form, and

we should not allow their work to be hamvO; pered by financial worries. They have sacrirV ficed their lives. Is it too much for us to u- ' sacrifice a small sum each year to assist them ? ■ What ■is our small monetary sacrifice com-; pared, with theirs? - JI I n conclusion, the Board-relies on the continued support of Catholics to build up the Education Fund, in order to' enable the , Board to accumulate sufficient capital, the interest from which will provide free educa-

tion in Catholic Primary Schools for Catholic children for all time;-; > ;V-: The Board also wishes to thank those ladies and gentlemen who have generously worked for and supported the various functions organised for the Fund. / * Thomas O’Shea, S.M., - Coadjutor-Archbishop of Wellington, Chairman, J. J. L. Burke, Vice-Chairman. B. Doherty, Hon. Treasurer. P. D. Hoskins, Hon. Secretary.