The first
Church in Meeanee – Taradale was built in 1863 by Fr Reignier, and blessed
by Bishop Viard, the first Bishop of Wellington in 1863. It was extended
in 1875 and again in 1892. This Church served the Parish until the
present Church in Osier Road was blessed and opened by Cardinal McKeefry
on 29 October 1972.
The
alterations made in 1892 were probably made to meet the needs of the
students from the Seminary which had opened in 1890.
The old
Meeanee Church is now in private ownership. Both the Church and the
adjoining presbytery (built in 1912 after the Seminary buildings were
moved to the present site in Greenmeadows) have been sold by the Society
of Mary.
In 1872 a
school which was known as St Mary’s – Meeanee College was established with
Maori boys as boarders, and probably some local children as day pupils.
This school carried on until 1886 when it ceased being a boarding school
for Maori boys. From 1886 until 1924 the school was staffed by the
Sisters of St Joseph (Brown Josephites). In 1926 the new parish school
was built in Guppy Road on its present site, and staffed by the Sisters of
the Mission. It had the name of St Joseph’s Primary School until 1974.
It was very confusing with so many schools in the Hawke’s Bay area having
the same name, hence the name change to Reignier.
In 1901, Fr
David Kennedy, one of the first New Zealand born Marist priests built an
observatory at the seminary. This was replaced by larger observatory in
1905. It was from this observatory that some of the earliest and best
photo’s of Haley’s Comet were taken in 1910. Many of the original glass
plate negatives survive and prints of the best were requested by NASA for
inclusion in its “Atlas of Comet Haley 1910”. The observatory was the
most up-to-date in the country at that time, both for astronomy and
meteorology. It was moved to a hill above the present seminary, but was
unfortunately destroyed by storm in 1912.
Thanks to
Mount St Mary’s Archives for parish history.
