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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui, was erected by the late Very Rev. Dean Kirk, S.M., in 1877, and occupies a site in Victoria Avenue. It is a handsome building, with seating accommodation for 1400 persons. There is a Convent, with a community of twenty-seven sisters of the Order of St. Joseph of Nazareth. To the convent a high school for young ladies is attached, which is attended by 100 scholars, including forty boarders; and there is a division for boys, with about thirty-five scholars. The property of the Roman Catholic Church in Wanganui also includes a two-storeyed building, used partly as an orphanage and partly as a parish school (with about 120 scholars), a mixed infants' school page 597 at Aramoho (with 60 scholars), and a Marist Brothers' School (with 90 scholars). Attached to the church are the Associations of the Sacred Heart, with 500 members; a branch of the Sodality of the Children of Mary, with 100 members; a branch of the Living Rosary; and a Catholic Club (with over 300 members).