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 NEW ZEALAND

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NEW ZEALAND

in a total population of 2G,707. At the last Govern- ment census (1900) the Catholic total had amounted to rjti.il',)"). The total population of the dominion (exclusive of JMaoris), according to the same census, was SMS,r)7S, so tlial the Catliolic population is slightly over one-seventh of the whole. To-day (1910J the estimated Catholic population of New Zealand is over 130,000, with 4 dioceses, 1 archbishop, 3 suffragan bishops, 212 priests, 02 religious brothers, 8,55 nuns, 333 churches, 2 ecclesiastical seminaries (comprising 1 provincial ecclesia-stical seminary and 1 ecclesiasti- cal seminary for members of the ^iarist Order), 2 col- leges for boys, 32 boarding and high schools, IS supe- rior day schools, 15 charitable institutions, and 112 Cathohc primary schools. According to the "New Zealand t)(hcial Year-Book" for 1909 (a Government publication) the total number of Catholic schools in the dominion is 152 and the number of Catholic pupils attending is 12,0,50. New Zealand has added one new religious congregation (the Sisters of Our Lady of Compassion), founded in 1SS4 by Mother Mary Au- bert, to "Heaven's Army of Charity" in the Catho- lic Church. Under the direction of their venerable foundress the members of the order conduct schools for the Maoris at Hiruharama (Jerusalem) on the Wanganui Kiver, a home for incurables, Wellington, and a home for incurable children, Island Bay, Well- ington. The order has quite recently extended its operations to Auckland.

The ordinary organizations of the laity, as usually found in English-speaking countries, are well and solidly established throughout the dominion. For benefit purposes New Zealand formed a separate dis- trict of the Hibernian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society. Thanks to cajjable management, due to the fact that the society h;is drawn to its ranks the ablest and most representative of the laity, the organization is making remarkable progress. On 30 January, 1910, the membersliip was reported at 2632; the funeral fund stood at £7795:2:2 (nearly .$40,000) and the sick fund amounted to £12,558:5:0 (over .?02,000). The Society of St. Vincent de Paul was probably the earliest lay organization established in New Zealand, a conference formed at Christehurch in July, 1807, by the Rev. Fr. Chastagner, S.M., being the first founded in Australasia. In almost every parish there are young men's clubs, social, literary, and athletic; in con- nexion with these a federation has been formed under the name of the Federated Catholic Clubs of New Zealand. In 1909 a Newman Society, on the lines of the Oxford University Newman Society, but with wider and more directly practical objects, was inau- gurated by the Catholic graduates and undergraduates of New Zealand University. As the number of uni- versity men amongst New Zealand Catholics is now veiy considerable, the new society promises to prove an important factor in the defence and propagation of the faith.

IV. Missions to the Maoris. — From the outset, the conversion of the native race was .set in the fore- front of the Church's work in this new land. When the Marist Fathers, having been withdrawn to the Diocese of Wellington, left the Diocese of Auckland in 18.50, they had in that part of the North IslaW 5044 neophji^es. In 1853 there were about a thou- sand native Christians in the Diocese of WeUington. Homes and schools for native children were founded by the Sisters of Mercy at Auckland and Wellington; and in 1857 the governor. Sir George Grey, in his offi- cial report to Parliament, gave high praise to the Catholic schools among the Maoris. Up until 1860 the Maori mission was most flourishing. Then came the long-drawn years of fierce racial warfare, during which the natives kept their territory closed against all white men; and the Catholic missions were almost completely ruined. They are being steadily built up once more by two bodies of earnest and devoted men,

the Marist Fathers in the Archdiocese of Wellington and Diocese of Christehurch, and the Mill Hill Fa- thers in the Dioccso of -Vuckland. The progress made during the last twenty-five years may be gathered from the following summaries, (a) The Archdiocese of Wrllingtun and Dioccso of Christehurch (districts: Otaki, lliniliarania, Haetihi, Wairoa, aiidokatti) liave about 40 st:itions and 19 churches, served by 7 priests. There are also 4 native schools; 1 highly cfiicienl. na- tive high school, maintained by tli<' Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions; and 1 orphaiuige, conducted by the Sisters of Our Lady of Compassion. The total number of Catholic Maoris is about 2000. Several very successful conventions of Maori tribes have been held in Otaki since 1903. At the last (held in June, 1909), which was attended by His Grace Archbishop Redwood, tlic institution of a Maori Catholic maga- zine was decided upon and has since been carried out. (b) The Diocese of Auckland (districts: Rotorua, head- quarters of the provincial of the mission, Matata, Tauranga, Hokianga, Okaihau, Whangaroa, Whan- garci, DargaN'ille, and Coromandel) has 57 stations and 22 churches, served by 16 priests, of whom 9 are wholly and 7 are partly engaged on the Maori mission. There are 4 native schools conducted by the Sisters of St. Joseph. The total number of Catholic Maoris is about 4000. Throughout the three dioceses the Ma- ori population is extremely scattered, and the mission- aries have frequently to travel great distances. As the deleterious influence of Maori tolmngaism (belief in wizards and "medicine-men") is on the wane, and the rancorous feelings engendered by the war are now subsiding, the prospect in this distant outpost of the mission field is most hopeful and promising.

V. Education. — Primary education is compulsory in New Zealand; and of every 100 persons in the do- minion at the time of the census of 1906, 83.5 could read and write, 1.6 could read only, and 14.9 could neither read nor write. As mentioned above, New Zealand became a self-governing colony in 1852. Each province had its separate legislature and the con- trol of education within its borders, and most of the provinces subsidized denominational schools. The provincial legislatures were abolished by the Acts of 187.5-6, and one of the early measures (1877) of the centralized New Zealand Government was to abolish aid to denominational schools and to introduce the (so-called) national system known as "free, secular, and compulsory". From that day to this the entire public school system of New Zealand has remained, legally, purely secular.

From the first CathoHcs have protested against the exclusion of Christian teaching from the schools; and they have refused, and continue to refuse (unless where forced by circumstances) to send their children to schools from which their religion is excluded. As in other countries, so here. Catholics have shown the sincerity of their protest by creating, at enormous and continual sacrifices, a great rival system of educa- tion under which some 13,000 Catholic children are nurtured into a full and wholesome development of the faculties that God has bestowed upon them. With scarcely an exception. Catholic primary schools follow precisely the same secular curriculum as that pre- scribed under the Education Act for the public schools; and they are every j'ear inspected and examined, under precisely the same conditions as are the public schools, by the State inspectors. The cost of carrying on the public school system is not derived from any special rate or tax, but the amount is paid out of the Consoli- dated Fund, to which Catholics, as taxpayers, con- tribute their share. Catholics are thus subjected to a double impost: they have to bear the cost of building, equipping, and maintaining their own schools, and they are compelled also to contribute their quota of taxation for the maintenance of the public school sys- tem, of which, from conscientious motives, they cannot