In the early days of settlement, State aid, in the shape of land endowments, was granted to the various religious denominations, as they established their churches in the colony, but for many years past Government support has neither been bestowed nor applied for. New Zealand has no established or State church, but of the various denominations the Church of England has the largest number of members and adherents. All the religious bodies of Britain are represented in New Zealand, and throughout the colony the respect they command is universal, while the influence they exert is apparent in public, private, and social life. In every city, town, and village, churches or places of worship have been erected, while in the more remote settlements services are held alternately, by the various sects, in schools or public halls. A spirit of amity and tolerance exists between the Christian bodies, and on questions of public importance joint action is often taken by the clergy of all denominations, who are, in most instances, men of considerable culture, learning, and influence. The Church of the Province of New Zealand, better known as the Church of England, is divided, for working purposes, into six dioceses, namely: Auckland, Waiapu, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, and Dunedin. The Most Rev. Samuel Tarrant Nevill, D.D., of Dunedin, is Primate of New Zealand, and there are six other Bishops, including the Bishop of Melanesia. Meetings of Diocesan Synods are held once a year, and every third year the General Synod meets in one or other of the dicceses. The clergy of the diocese of Waiapu, including the Bishop and native ministers, number forty-nine. The Roman Catholic Church in New Zealand is under the charge of the Most Rev. Francis Redwood, S.M., D.D., Archbishop of Wellington, who has three other bishops in charge of the other centres. The Catholic district of Hawke's Bay, which extends to Pahiatua, is under the care of ten priests. The Presbytery of Hawke's Bay, which includes Gisborne, is divided into thirteen parishes, each in charge of resident ministers. The Methodist Church has six resident ministers in Hawke's Bay, and the Baptist and Congregational denominations each have a minister residing in Napier.

The Diocese of Waiapu, of which Napier is the centre, was formerly part of the New Zealand Diocese, but was constituted a separate diocese in the year 1859. It was bounded on the north by Tauranga, and on the south by Gisborne, and had a population almost exclusively Maori. The meeting of the first Synod was held at Waerenga-a-hika, Turanga, on the 3rd day of December, 1861, when the proceedings were conducted in Maori, Bishop Williams being president. During the Maori troubles, this portion of the diocese suffered considerably from the Hau-hau fanatics, and in March, 1865, the Rev. Mr. Volkner was murdéred at Opotiki. In 1868 the boundaries of the diocese were extended, and the provincial district of Hawke's Bay was taken from the Diocese of Wellington, and added to that of Waiapu, thus extending it to Woodville on the south. The new Synod met at Napier in August, 1872, and included Bishop William Williams (president), Archdeacon W. L. Williams (the present Bishop), the Rev. Samuel William (now Archdeacon), and Mr. J. B. Fielder. Bishop William Williams resigned the see in the year 1876, owing to ill-health, and Archdeacon W. L. Williams, as commissary appointed by the Primate, administered the affairs of the diocese till the consecration as Bishop of the Rev. Edward Craig Stuart, who was elected by the Synod on the 25th of September, 1877. Bishop Stuart resigned his see on the 31st of January, 1894, to take up missionary work in Persia. He was succeeded by Archdeacon W. L. Williams, who was elected Bishop by the Diocesan Synod on the 25th of September, 1894, and was consecrated in the Napier Cathedral on the 20th of January, 1895.

There are three Archdeaconries in the diocese, namely Tauranga, Waiapu, and Hawke's Bay. The two former are vacant, and the Venerable Samuel Williams is Archdeacon of the latter. The Cathedral Chapter consists of the Bishop, the Venerable Archdeacon Samuel Williams, the Rev. Canon F. Mayne (Vicar of the Cathedral Parish), the Rev. Canon C. Jordan (Vicar of Tauranga), the Rev. J. C. Eccles (Vicar of Woodville), and Messrs J. Thornton and J. B. Fielder (lay members). There are also fifty licensed clergy, 145 lay readers, eighty churches, and 150 other places of worship. The churches in Napier are in charge of the Rev. Frank Mayne, M.A., Canon and Vicar of the Cathedral Parish of St. John the Evangelist; the Rev. C. L. Tuke, Vicar of St. Augustine's; and the Rev. Oliver Dean, Vicar of St. Andrew's, Port Ahuriri.

The Napier Cathedral, which is one of the largest ecclesiastical buildings in New Zealand, may be said to owe its existence to the untiring energy and zeal of the late Very Rev. De Berdt Hovell, sometime Dean of Waiapu. The scheme for its erection was taken in hand in the year 1885; in the month of September, 1886, the foundation stone was laid; and the Cathedral was conseerated and formally opened for divine worship in December, 1888.

The task of designing the Cathedral was placed in the hands of the late Mr. B. W. Mountfort, architect, of Christchurch, and the Napier Cathedral is one of his very best creations. The plan of the Cathedral may be described as nave, chancel, and transept, with a morning chapel north of the chancel, and an organ chamber on the south. At the west end of the nave there are spacious vestries, in two storeys, for clergy and choir. The nave and chancel are under one continuous roof, into which the transep roofs join at a somewhat lower levation, so that the ridge is unbroken, save where the cross shows outwardly the commencement of the chancel inside. The roof is covered with states of two colours, arranged in patterns, and finished at the sky line with a perforated tile ridge. The main walls show a series of buttresses on each side, connected together by bold arches forming recesses, each of which contains a window of a couple of lancets, with diamond perforations above and between them. The brickwork of the walls is relieved by stone string courses and flat bands of stone, and is crowned by a handsome and massive cornice. An effective use has been made of moulded bricks, both within and with page 346 out the building. The north and south transepts are entirely different in their component parts; that on the north shows three deep lofty recesses, the centre containing a triplet, and each side a couplet of lancets, also a porch of entrance below; while the south transept, over a pent porch, shows a large rectangular window, supported by a single lancet on each side, and high up in the gable a scries of four equal lancets. The great west front towers up in grand massive style, with its three large recessed arches containing windows, and the western porch below; while the lower vestry building, with its varied windows and dormer, gives great scale to this front. On entering the building by the west porch, the striking nature of the interior at once proclaims itself. In one wide span the lofty roof stretches for one hundred and seventy feet in a solemn, stately perspective to the great five-light window. This interior is unlike anything yet attempted elsewhere in New Zealand, and by its spacious effect reminds the spectator of a wide basilica. The roof is without the beam, and would exert an enormous thrust on the walls, but that this pressure is amply provided for by abutments of more than ten feet projection, which, however, save for a suitable proportion, do not show themselves outside; in fact, the buttresses are three fourths internal, and their counter butting effect is still further increased by boldly projecting the internal face of the abutments at a suitable height, on massive moulded stone corbels. Each internal buttress is piereed on the ground floor by a narrow pointed arch, which forms a passage on each side of the Cathedral for access to the seats. Each principal of the roof is framed double, and in all directions run bands of circular perforated cusped quatre-foils. All this pierced work, repeated again and again down the length of the roof, gives great lightness and play to the appearance of the perspective. The chancel has an aseent of three steps from the nave, from which it is separated by a fine screen of open work with gates. The floor of the chancel eastward of the choir stalls continues to rise until the Holy Table stands nine steps above the floor of the nave. A handsome credence of stone and tiles is arranged in the south wall.

The eastern window, of great size, has been filled with very beautiful stained glass, and was placed there in memory of the late Hon. Robert Stokes, sometime member of the Legislative Council of New Zealand; another richly-stained window has been erected to commemorate the first Bishop of the diocese, Dr. Williams; while a third, in memory of the wife of the late Mr. H. Stokes Tiffen, has been placed in the north transept. Other memorials have been erected to Captain Carr, of the Royal Artillery, Mr. Davis Canning, and Dean Hovell; while under an Agnus Dei window, in the south transept, there is a very touching inscription, on white marble, in commemoration of the eldest son of the late Dean, Hugh de St. Croix Hovell, who died under singularly sad circumstances. On the south side of the nave, opposite the north entrance, a wide arch leads to the vestries, underneath a picturesque projecting minstrel's gallery, which, is entered from the upper vestry. In the sacristry admirable paintings of Bishop Selwyn, Bishop William Williams, Bishop Stuart, Bishop W. L. Williams, Dean Hovell, and Archdeacon S. Williams, have been placed. They are from the brush of Herr Lindauer, and the credit of having secured them for the diocese is due to the Rev. J. C. Eccles, vicar of Woodville.

A new organ is now (1906) in course of construction in the Cathedral, and this instrument will be one of the largest in any church in New Zealand. It will comprise three manuals of sixty-one notes compass, and pedals of thirty-two notes, twelve pistons, twenty-one pneumatic registers, and three hitching pedals. The action throughout is on the improved tubular pneumatic principle.

Napier Cathedral.

The Right Rev. William Leonard Williams, Anglican Bishop of Waiapu, was born in the Bay of Islands in the year 1829, and is a son of the first Bishop of Waiapu, one of New Zealand's most prominent missionaries. He was educated at St. John's College, Auckland, and afterwards went to England, and graduated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, taking the degree of Bachelor of Arts, with third-class honours, in Literas Humanioribus, in 1852. In the following year he returned to New Zealand as a missionary, and was engaged with his father, who in 1839 removed his head-quarters to Poverty Bay. In 1862 Mr. Williams was installed Archdeacon of Waiapu, and continued to labour among the Maoris until 1865, when the Poverty Bay Mission was broken up in consequence of the incursions of the Hauhaus. The Archdeacon took his family to Auckland, but, notwithstanding the very unsettled condition of the natives, he himself spent most of his time in the neighbourhood of Poverty Bay, in spite of many obstacles and warnings. He was there with a portion of his family when the Chatham Island prisoners, led by Te Kooti, landed at Whareongaonga, and was within a few miles of the scene of the massacre on the 10th of November, 1858. In 1877 he made Gisborne his head-quarters, where, in the year 1863, the Maori Theological College was placed under his charge as principal. He continued in this position until the resignation by Bishop Stuart, of the Waiapu see, and he was elected to fill the vacancy in 1894, and consecrated in the following year at Napier Cathedral by the primate, assisted by the Bishops of Christchurch, Nelson, and Melanesia. In Maori Literature, Bishop Williams has done much useful work. He has re-edited the “Dictionary of the Maori Language,” complied by his father, and is page 347 the author of “First lessons in Maori,” published by Messrs Upton and Company, of Auckland. Some of his papers have been published in the proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, notably one on “Cook's Landing at Poverty Bay,” and one exposing the falsehood of the story of John Rutherford. As head of the Church in the Diocese of Waiapu, Bishop Williams is very greatly loved and revered, and under his guidance and influence the Churches of the diocese are a power for good and the advancement of religion. After an absence of forty-four years from the land of his forefathers Bishop Williams revisited England and the scenes of his university career, during the Record Reign celebrations and sitting of the Lambeth Conference. He was warmly welcomed to his old University, which conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Dr. Williams spent four or five months in England, and speaks highly of the unvarying kindness with which he was everywhere received as a New Zealand Bishop, and the eldest son of one who had, more than seventy years before, placed his life at the disposal of the Church Missionary Society as a volunteer for missionary work, in what was then one of the wildest, most savage, and least-known countries on the face of the earth. Bishop Williams married the daughter of Mr. John Bradshaw Wanklyn, of Witherslack, Westmorland, in 1853, and has four daughters and five sons. The eldest son, Mr. F. W. Williams, is the senior managing director of Messrs Williams and Kettle; the second, the Rev. Herbert W. Williams, is the principal of the Maori Theological College at Gisborne; the third, Mr. Alfred Williams, is a surgeon at Harrow, Middlesex, England; the fourth, Mr. Frank W. Williams, is a sheep-farmer on the East Coast, south of Gisborne; and the fifth, Mr. Arthur Williams, is an engineer in England. Three daughters are married, the eldest to Mr. Charles Gray, of Gisborne; the second to Mr. McLean, sometime manager of the Bank of New Zealand, Napier; and the third to the Rev. A. F. Gardiner, of Havelock North.

The Right Rev. W. L. Williams.

The Rev. Canon Frank Mayne, M.A., Vicar of St. John's Cathedral, Napier, was appointed to his present position in 1906, to succeed the late Dean Hovell. Canon Mayne is referred to on page 183 of the Otago volume of “The Cyclopedia of New Zealand.”

Rev. Canon F. Mayne.

Interior of Napier Cathedral.

Mr. John Hill Fray, F.M.I.C., London, who was appointed organist and choir-master of the Napier Cathedral on the 8th of August, 1905, was born at Bristol in January, 1859, and is a son of Mr. George Fray, a well-known coach-builder there. He was educated at Bristol, and at the Pulteny Street School, Adelaide, South Australia, under the Rev. W. S. Moore. Mr. Fray then returned to the Old Country to study music. He was trained in the practical knowledge of the organ at Westminster Abbey, under Doctor (now Sir Frederick) Bridge, the celebrated organist, and in the theory of music under Professor Prout, B.A., who now (1906) occupies the chair of music at the Dublin University. He subsequently returned to South Australia, and was appointed organist of St. Peter's, Glenelg, and for two years was an under-graduate of the Adelaide University, where he studied under Professor Ives, Bachelor of Music (Oxford), and Professor Bragg, M.A. In the year 1898, he was appointed organist of St. John's Pro-Cathedral, in Launceston, Tasmania, which post he held until September, 1905. During those seven years he did excellent work as organist of his church, and as choir-master of the Launceston Church Choir Association, and on his departure for New Zealand, was publicly entertained and presented with a purse of sovereigns. Mr. Fray is the local secretary to Trinity College, London, and has been appointed visiting music master of the Napier Boys' and Girls' High Schools. At the request of the Cathedral Vestry, Mr. Fray prepared the specifications of the new organ at the Napier Cathedral.

Mr. J. H. Fray.

Mr. John Beckett Fielder, Secretary, Treasurer, and Registrar of the Diocese of Waiapu, was born in Finsbury Square, London, England, in the year 1839, and was educated at Dalston Academy, London. After serving as a clerk in various offices, he left England for India, joining the 70th Surrey Regiment at Rawul Pindee, in 1858, and two years later came with the regiment to Auckland. Mr. Fielder was in the detachment sent to Dunedin on the outbreak of the gold-fields in Otago, and was appointed clerk to the deputy-assistant commissary-general. In 1863 the detachment left for the scene of the Tatarai-maka massacre in Taranaki, and a few months later was ordered to Auckland, its head-quarters. He was next appointed district clerk at Otahuhu, and subsequently removed to Papakura in the same capacity. Mr. Fielder saw active service in the Waikato, under General Cameron. In 1865 the regiment was ordered Home, and Mr. Fielder, then holding the position of paymaster-sergeant, took his discharge, and entered the civil service as assistant clerk in the Napier resident magistrate's court; was afterwards appointed clerk to the bench and deputy-registrar of the Supreme Court: and two or three years later entered the Deeds Department, and became deputy-registrar of deeds and deputy-commissioner of stamps, which offices he held till his retirement from the service in 1879. He then accepted the secretaryship of the Napier Gas Company, and the management of the Hawke's Bay Permanent Building and Investment Society, having since 1867 also held the secretaryship of the Napier Building Societies, Nos. 1, 2, and 3. Mr. Fielder is also provincial corresponding secretary of the Hawke's Bay District I.O.O.F., M.U., one of the directors of the New Zealand branch of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows, honorary treasurer of the Napier Bowling Club, district agent of the Royal Exchange Fire Insurance Company, and also of the New Zealand Plate Glass Insurance Company, member of the Vestry, and churchwarden of the Napier parish since the year 1866, secretary of the Waiapu Board of Diocesan Trustees, the Napier Park Company, the Napier Recreation Ground Company, and the Cemetery Trust. When the native troubles arose, Mr. Fielder joined the Napier Rifle Volunteers, and became sergeant-major. He was also present at the engagement at Omaranui, and holds the New Zealand war medal. Mr. Fielder married a daughter of the late Dr. Gibson, of Dublin, Ireland, in 1864, and has, surviving, one son and two daughters.

Mr. J. B. Fielder.

The Very Rev. De Berdt Hovell, sometime Dean of the Cathedral Chapter of the Diocese of Waiapu, and of Napier Cathedral, was born in 1850, and was the eldest son of Dr. Charles H. J. Hovell, sometime surgeon of the 3rd Waikato Regiment, and Brigade-Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel. Dean Hovell was educated at the King's school, Rochester, under the Rev. Robert Whiston, M.A., and succeeded page 349 in gaining, by competitive examination in 1863, one of the valuable scholarships pertaining to the school. It was originally intended that Mr. Hovell should enter the English Civil Service, but he decided to take Holy Orders, and with that object in view entered, in 1868, St. Boniface College, Warminster, and in 1869, St. Augustine's College, Canterbury. At St. Augustine's Mr. Hovell secured, in 1870, the Whyte-head Greek Testament Prize, one of the blue ribbons of the College. He was also, at the same time, a prominent athlete, being captain of his college cricket eleven and football fifteen. In 1873, together with several other candidates, he was ordained deacon in Bombay Cathedral by Bishop Douglas. After his ordination he was stationed at Kolapore, but was a resident of Bombay during the Parsee-Mahommedan disturbances in the latter city in 1874. He came to New Zealand (whither his father had preceded him) in 1875, having been appointed a member of the staff of the Pro-Cathedral Church of St. Michael and All Angels in Christ-church. In the following year, he was unanimously nominated to the incumbency of the united parishes of All Saints' (Prebbleton), St. Saviour's (Templeton), and St. Mary's (Halswell), where he remained for a little over two years. In 1878, upon the recommendation of Bishop Harper, then Primate of New Zealand. Mr. Hovell was offered and accepted the incumbency of St. John's, Napier, the old Pro-Cathedral Church of the diocese of Waiapu. On taking charge of the Napier parish, Mr. Hovell found matters in a most discouraging and disorganised condition. The only existing Church of England buildings in the town were an exceedingly ugly wooden church, which stood where the present deanery lawn now stands, and a damp unsuitable house, which had been used as a residence by the previous incumbent. There were only thirty persons registered as communicants for the whole of Napier, and there was not even a building for Sunday school purposes. On the other hand, a debt of £1,300 was in existence. Ten years passed away, and how great a change had been effected was stated by Dr. Stuart, Bishop of the diocese, in an address to his Diocesan Synod, delivered at Napier on Tuesday, the 27th of September, 1887, when he referred in gratifying terms to the outward and material progress of the church in Napier, and the untiring energy and sound judgment of the incumbent of St. John's, which had contributed so greatly to the marked improvement visible on all sides. Napier Cathedral, referred to by Bishop Stuart as Dean Hovell's magnum opus, was consecrated in the presence of a large congregation in December, 1888; and, when the Cathedral Chapter was formed in 1889, and the Bishop announced that he intended to appoint Mr. Hovell to the high office of Dean, the statement was received in the Diocesan Synod with loud cheers. As an example of the Dean's influence with his people, it may be mentioned that on Sunday, the 21st of July, 1895, he asked the Cathedral congregation to forward him, during the following week, a sum of a thousand pounds for the purpose of clearing off a liability which still remained upon the Cathedral. All through the intervening days contributions flowed in, and, on the succeeding Sunday, the Dean carried into the Cathedral upon the brazen alms dish, a sum of £1230 in cheques, notes, gold, silver, and copper, and placed it upon the altar, while the congregation rose in a body, and sang the Doxology. Dean Hovell was a man who served the community in many ways. It was largely through his influence, and that of Father Grogan, that the strike of the Napier Break-water labourers was brought to an end in October, 1896. He had been a prominent Freemason for many years, and was Past Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of New Zealand, Past District Grand Chaplain of the English Constitution, and also a Past Master; and he also held office as chaplain of Lodges Scinde and Victoria in Napier. He was, further, a Past Master of the Society of Loyal United Friends, and a Past Chief Ruler of the Order of Rechabites. For over twenty years he acted as Chaplain of the Napier Garrison, was appointed Chaplain of the Wellington Battalion upon its formation, and, later, Chaplain of the East Coast Battalion. He was a member of the General Synod of the Church of the Province of New Zealand for many years; also a member of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Waiapu, a diocesan nominator, and an assessor of the Bishop's Court. In 1876, he married Emily, younger daughter of Mr. George Ffitch, sometime of Woodstock station, Canterbury, New Zealand, and formerly of Felsted, in the county of Essex, who was one of the original land purchasers under the Canterbury Association; by her he had four children, one daughter and three sons. Dean Hovell died suddenly at Ormondville, Hawke's Bay, on Monday, the 4th of September, 1905.

The Late Very Rev. Dean Hovell.

St. Augustine's Church, Napier, was erected in the year 1885, and is situated at the corner of Bower Street and Edward Street. It is a wooden building with seating accommodation for about 250 persons. A large Sunday school, and a vicarage are situated close by.

The Rev. C. Laurence Tuke, Vicar of St. Augustine's Church, Napier, is a native of Kent, England, and was educated at Haileybury College, and the United Services College, Westward Ho, and in New Zealand, at St. John's College, Auckland. He has since ministered in various parts of Hawke's Bay, and was appointed to his present incumbency in 1900. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Tuke is chaplain of Lodges Scinde and Victoria.

St. Paul's Presbyterian Church is one of the oldest churches in Napier. It is a wooden building, which has been renovated and enlarged from time to time, and now (1903) has seating accommodation for about 500 persons. The church has a membership of about 350, and the services are well attended. St. Paul's schoolroom is a separate building, with seating room for about 350 pupils. The roll number is about 200, and two Bible classes are conducted in conjunction with the Sunday school.

St. Paul's Church.

The Rev. John A. Asher, B.A., was appointed to his present charge in January, 1899. He was born in the year 1864, in Invercargill, where he was educated at the primary and secondary schools, and at the Otago Boys' High School and the Otago University. He graduated in the year 1886, and then went to the Old Country; after four years' theological study in Edinburgh was licensed as a page 350 minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and immediately afterwards returned to New Zealand. Mr. Asher was for about eight years pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Gore, prior to receiving his present appointment.

The Catholic Church, Napier. The foundation of the Catholic Mission in Napier dates as far back as the year 1859, when Father Regnier, S.M., built the first church, which is still in an excellent state of preservation, and is now used by the Marist Brothers as a school. It was in the same year, owing to the large number of Catholics amongst the soldiers, that Napier was first separated from Meanee, and Father Forest was appointed the first resident priest. Through the liberality of Mr. Thomas Fitzgerald (first Superintendent of Hawke's Bay), who gave a grant of land to the new mission, Father Forest was soon able to build a presbytery on one of the most beautiful sites in Napier, known as “Holy Mount.” Father Forest's most important work was the erection of the convent and schools for girls in the year 1863, with the introduction of the Sisters of “Our Lady of the Missions” in 1865. About the same time Father Regnier, who still had charge of the Meanee Mission, erected in the Napier Convent grounds a native school for half-caste girls and other poor children an institution which has since, under the able care of the Sisters, acquired an excellent reputation. This school is subsidised by the Government, and visited twice a year by the Government Inspector for Native Schools. There are at the school over sixty Maori and half-caste pupils, many of whom are sent from other parts of New Zealand by the Government, to take out their scholarships under the Sisters. Father Forest's next work was to erect St. Mary's Church, a handsome building of kauri timber, with fine slated roof, beautiful stained glass windows, and a handsome marble altar, at a cost of £2,300, St. Mary's is capable of seating 150 persons. The last work of Father Forest was the introduction of the Marist Brothers, the first branch in the colonies of the teaching order founded in 1837 by Father Champagnat, at St. Genis, near Lyons, France. The present Catholic population of Napier is about 1,580, and the number of children attending the convent, including boarders and Marist Brothers' school, is over 300 in all. These schools are undoubtedly among the most efficient in the colony. This progress required more school accommodation, as well as a residence for the Brothers, which cost £1,200. Father Forest, after twenty-six years' missionary labours in Napier, died in 1884, in his eightieth year. His successor, Father Grogan (now the Very Rev. Dean Grogan), shortly after his arrival in Napier, saw that St. Mary's Church was neither large nor central enough for the requirements of his numerous congregation. His first step was to purchase a site for a new edifice in the heart of the town, and the year 1894 saw his labours crowned with success in the completion of St. Patrick's Church, usually called St. Patrick's Cathedral—which is a fine building of kauri, of pure Gothic style throughout, and capable of seating about 700 people. It was built at a cost of £3,500. The beautiful stained glass windows were imported from Lyons, and the bell, which weighs half a ton, was cast by the well-known firm of Bourdon and Company, of that city. The tall elegant spire of St. Patrick's is the first object to attract the eye on approaching Napier by train.

The Rev. William Donoghue Goggan, S.M., was appointed to the charge of the Catholic parish of Napier in succession to Dean Grogan. Father Goggan was born in the United States, and educated at St. Stanislaus, Tullamore; St. Mary's, Dundalk; and the Royal University, Dublin; and he pursued his philosophical studies at Agen, France, and his theological studies at Barcelona, in Spain. He was then sent out as Professor of Science and Mathematics at St. Patrick's College, Wellington, where he took up his duties in June, 1885, and filled the position for seven years and a-half. Father Goggan then joined Father Devoy at Te Aro, where he laboured for four years. He was promoted to the charge of the Blenheim district in 1896, and subsequently was again promoted to Napier.

Rev. W. D. Goggan.

Trinity, Methodist Church is situated in Clive Square, and is a wooden building of considerable dimensions. The interior is attractively arranged, and a large gallery extends nearly half-way round the building. The pulpit is placed at the cast end, and at the back of this there is a sweet-toned pipe organ, on both sides of which is seating accommodation for the choir. The Church is attended by a large and increasing congregation. The present minister is the Rev. A. C. Lawry.

The Baptist Church, situated in Tennyson Street, is a wooden building, with seating accommodation for about 250 persons. The pulpit is placed at the south end, on a broad platform, and the vestry is contained in a small wing. There is an organ both in the church and in the schoolroom. The Rev. C. Dallaston, formerly of Wellington, is the present pastor of the Church.

The Congregational Church, in Napier, stands in Carlyle Street, close to Clive Square, and is a wooden building of Gothic architecture. It is built on a large section, and the Sunday school stands at the rear. The interior of the church is bright and attractive, and seating accommodation is afforded for about 250 worshippers. The Church possesses a small organ, and the singing is led by an efficient choir, under the conductorship of Mr. F. L. Derbyshire. The Rev. R. Mc-Naughton is minister in charge.