Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy in New Zealand - UC Research ...

more spac,ious class-roorr.sbecaJne a necessity; so in 1876
41
( 1 ) Mother Cecilia Benbow left for> Europe in search of teachers
nnd funds and returned t·.:ro years later VIi th sixteen Sisters
and £2,000.
She lost no time in direciing the building of
new prenlises and before the year was out the present convent
sroup, st. Uar~rr sr Hill Street, had been erected.
Prom its
inception St. llary' s High School has stood for the best in
higher education; it aims at the ~raining of young women
for efficiency in things intellectual and social but its
chief care is the development of character according to the
ideals of true Catholic woman~1ooc1.
truly a picked band, children of
(2) Its first pupils were
ioneers v7hose own (3) intellectual
pursuits had, perfo1·ce, to give way to sustained
effort in order to wr·est a livelihood from virgin soil. V.li th
these pioneers (l.i.) 11 education was almost a passion 11
and we
are not surprised to find their daughters travellj.ng to
school in a sailing ship and living on ship's biscuit and
salt pork vvhen contrary winds made the journey longer than
they had anticipated. So perilous were these journeyings
to and from sc~wol,
that fwmetirnes on their return after the
holidays, the children found the ;")lster·s praying for their
souls as for those lost at sea.
It was not any catalogued
number of courses which the school professed, that induced these
1 •
2.
3.
4 ..
11
Ze alanc1ia 11
Ibid.
C.H. B.E.
C.H. B.E.
Nov.. 18th, 1937. (M. Goul ter .. )
Vol. 7 Part 2 Ch. X11 Page 242.
Vol. V11. Part 2. Page 243.