Photo Courtesy of Andrew Bishop

Whakatane - Beginnings

On the last Saturday of January, 1933, four sisters arrived by car from Matata where they had landed the previous evening after a journey of eleven and a half hours from Auckland. They were Sister Laurencia (Provincial), Sister Serenus (Superior and Head Teacher), Sister Dolorosa (Assistant Teacher), and Sister Cecilia Clare (Music Teacher). Whakatane was part of the Matata Parish and the Sisters were driven over by Father van Beek, the Parish Priest.

The Convent, which was built of kauri, was well back from the street, and didn’t look very attractive from the outside, as it was grimy with dust and cobwebs. There still remained a few trees and shrubs which had once been an attractive shrubbery. Near the front door was an arch made of the jaws of a whale – a mighty big one it seemed!

Inside, there was a hive of industry, carpenters and paperhangers busy with hammers and brushes, and women making the sisters' beds. Everything we needed seemed to there, even a pair of scissors. One necessary utensil was missing – a teapot, so tea had to be made in a jug. The cupboards were well-stocked with groceries and linen. The Church-School had recently been built (1932) and until then the little Maori Church at the Pa was the only place of worship.

On Sunday, Holy Mass was celebrated in the Church (not yet a school) and the sisters were introduced by the Parish Priest. In the afternoon the Convent was opened and blessed by Father Steve O’Callaghan, the Superior of the Mill Hill Fathers. His Lordship, Bishop Liston was to have performed the ceremony, but he met with an accident on the way and had to return to Auckland.

The following morning, a new St Joseph’s School was opened. There were between forty and fifty pupils, all anxious to commence work, but alas, the school was not as well furnished as the Convent. Furniture was somewhat scarce, no desks, so the children had to kneel on the floor and write on slates which rested on the Church seats.

After a few days some desks did arrive and kept on arriving until we had sufficient. These desks were of an unusual type, as they had to be converted into church seats for use on Sundays. There were no blackboards either, so the teachers wrote their work on sheets of cardboard which they attached to the walls. After six weeks there was great rejoicing when two blackboards were seen arriving by truck. Later, two more arrived which made the teachers happy. They had to be on castors to be wheeled into the corridor every Friday evening.