Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/67

 NEW ZEALAND

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NEW ZEALAND

(Australia), but on 3 May, 1841, was proclaimed a separate colony. A series of native wars, arising chiefly from endless disputes about land, began in 1843 and ended in 1869, since which time unbroken peace has prevailed. A measure of self-government was granted in 1852, and full responsible government in 1856. The provincial governments created by the Constitution Act were abolished in 1S76, and one supreme central government established. The Gov- ernment consists of a governor, appointed by the crown, and two houses of Parliament — the legislative council, or upper chamber, with members nominated by the governor for life (except those nominated subsequently to September 17, 1891, after which date all appointments are for seven years only), and the house of representatives with members elected tri- ennially on an adult suffrage. The first Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives (1853-60), the late Sir Charles Clifford, was a Catholic, and his son, Sir George CUfford, one of New Zealand's promi- nent public men, though born in the dominion was educated at Stonyhurst College, and has shown his fidelity to old ties by naming his principal New Zea- land residence "Stonyhurst ". There are a number of Catholic names in the list of past premiers, cabinet ministers, and members of Parliament who have helped to mould the laws and shape the history of the dominion. The present premier (1910), the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward, P.C, K.C.M.G., is a Catholic, and out of a legislative council of forty -five members five are Catholics.

The prominent feature of the political history of the past twenty years has been the introduction and de- velopment of that body of "advanced" legislation for which the name of New Zealand has become more or less famous. The mere enumeration of the enact- ments would occupy considerable space. It must suffice to say that, broadly speaking, their purpose is to fling the shield of the State over every man who works for his livelihood; and, in addition to regulating wages, they cover practically every risk to life, limb, health, and interest of the industrial classes. It should be mentioned that there is no strong party of professed State-Socialists in the dominion, and the re- forms and experiments which have been made have in all cases been examined and taken on their merits, and not otherwise. Employers have occasionally pro- tested against some of the restrictions imposed, as being harassing and vexatious; but there is no politi- cal party in the country which proposes to rejjeal these measures, and there is a general consensus of opinion that, in its main features, the "advanced legislation" has come to stay. In 1893 an Act came into force which granted the franchise to women. The women's vote has had no perceptible effect on the relative position of political parties; but it is generally agreed that the women voters have been mainly re- sponsible for the marked increase in recent years of the no-Ucence vote at the local option polls. Elections are quieter and more orderly than formerly.

II. The Maoris. — The New Zealand natives, or Maoris, as they call themselves, are generally acknowl- edged to be intellectually and physically the finest aboriginal race in the South Sea Islands. Their mag- nificent courage, their high intelligence, their splendid physique and manly bearing, the stirring part they have played in the history of the country, the very ferocity of their long-relinquished habits, have all combined to invest them with a more than ordinary degree of interest and curiosity. Of their origin it can only be said, broadly, that they belong to the Polyne- sian race — ethnologists have tried to trace a likeness to the Red Indians of North America — and according to tradition they came to New Zealand about twenty- one generations ago (i. e., about five hundred and twenty-five years) from Hawaiki, an island of the Pacific not identified with any certainty. After being

robbed and despoiled by the early white civilization and by trader-missionaries, tardy justice has at length been done to the native race. To-day the Maoris have four members in the house of representatives and two in the legislative council, all men of high lineage and natural orators. Until recent years it was sup- posed that the Maoris were dying out, but later statis- tics show the contrary. The official figures show that the Maori population fell from 41,993 in 1891 to 39,- 854 in 1896, increased to 43,143 in 1901, and further to 47,731 in 1906 (last census year).

III. The Catholic Church in New Zealand.— The first Catholic settler in New Zealand was an Irish- man named Thomas Poynton, who landed at Hoki- anga in 1828. Until ten years later the footsteps of a Catholic priest never pressed New Zealand soil. Poynton's brave and pious wife, a native of Wexford County, took her first two children on a journey of over two thousand weary miles of ocean to be baptized at Sydney. Through Poynton's entreaties for a mis- sionary the needs of the country became known, first at Sydney and next, at Rome. In 1835 New Zealand was included in the newly created Vicariate Apostolic of Western Oceanica. In the following year its first vicar Apostolic, Mgr Jean Baptiste Frangois Pompal- lier, set out for his new field of labour with seven mem- bers of the Society of the Marist Brothers, which only a few months before had received the approval of Pope Gregory XVI. On 10 January, 1838, he, with three Marist companions, sailed up the Hokianga River, situated in the far north-west of the Auckland Province. The cross was planted in New Zealand, and the first Mass celebrated in the house of the first Catholic settler of the colony. Irish peasant emi- grants were the pioneers of Catholic colonization in New Zealand; the French missionaries were its pioneer apostles. Four years later (in 1842) New Zealand was formed into a separate vicariate, Mgr Pompallicr being named its first vicar Apostolic. From this time forward events moved at a rapid pace. In 1848 the colony was divided into two dioceses, Auckland with its territory extending to 39° of south latitude forming one diocese, WelUngton with the remaining territory and the adjoining islands forming the second. (See Adckland, Diocese of.) Bishop Pompallier remained in charge of Auckland, and Bishop Viard, who had been consecrated his coadjutor in 1846, was appointed administrator of the Diocese of Wellington, which was entrusted to the Society of Mary. By Brief of 3 July, 1860, Bishop Viard ceased to be coadjutor and was constituted first Bishop of Welling- ton. In 1869 the Diocese of Dunedin, comprising Otago, Southland, and Stewart's Island, was carved out of the Diocese of Wellington, and the Right Rev. Patrick Moran who died in 1895 was appointed its first bishop. His successor (the present occupant of the see), the Right Rev. Dr. Verdon, was consecrated in 1896. In 1887, at the petition of the Plenary Synod of Australasia, held in Sydney in 1885, the hier- archy was established in New Zealand, and Welling- ton became the archiepiscopal see. The Most Rev. Dr. Redwood, S.M., who had been consecrated Bi.shop of Wellington in 1874, was created archbishop and metropolitan by papal brief, receiving tlic pallium from the hands of the Right Rev. Dr. Luck, Bishop of Auckland. The same year (18S7) witnessed the erec- tion of the Diocese of Christchurch. The first and present bishop is the Right Rev. Dr. Grimes, S.M., con.'if'crafed in the same year. Ten years later New Zealand, liiiliMto 1 1, prudent on Australia, was made a seiKirat rli -i.i-l i^mI province.

Some idr.n.f t lie Lipid growth of the Catholic popu- lation, botli in nuinbens and in activity, may be gath- ered from the following figun^s. In IS 11), when New Zealand was declared a colony, the number of Catho- lic colonists was not above 50 in a total population of some 5000. Eleven years later they numbered 3472