The Very Reverend Dean Phillipe Aime Martin, S.M., V.F., Parish Priest at Hokitika, took charge of St. Mary's Catholic church in the year 1868. He was born in the South of France, in 1830. Dean Martin went to Australia as a Marist missionary, by the ship “Star of Peace,” and afterwards arrived in New Zealand by the ship “Storm Bird.” After sixteen months as curate in Nelson, he went to Dunedin in 1862, and afterwards in 1864, to Inveargill, before he was transferred to Hokitika.