The Star: February 08, 2024

Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Relics buried under
church on display
• By Niva Chittock
PARTS OF history found buried
under a cathedral in coffee jars
are seeing the light of day again
in an exhibition this week.
Father Kevin entombed the
Catholic relics under the side
chapel of the Cathedral of the
Blessed Sacrament nearly 50
years ago, in 1975.
They were unearthed again
after the earthquakes, when the
cathedral was demolished.
Christchurch diocese archivist
Triona Doocey said why he chose
coffee jars and other pantry
containers as the vessels remains
a mystery.
“It was just a really practical
solution because you need something
that’s air tight, water tight,
that’s going to protect them and
the jars did the job. There was
one other jar that did leak, and
that was a jam jar rather than
a coffee jar. So if you’re doing
a time capsule, do not use jam
jars,” she said.
“Why go to the expense of
having something fancy made
when the jars did what they were
supposed to do? There was also a
Schweppes bottle, which, I think
it was a bit of a joke on Father
Kevin’s part – he had lottery
tickets rolled up inside it.
“That was quite entertaining to
open that and see he had a good
sense of humour,” Doocey said.
It was also unclear why Father
Kevin decided to bury the relics
in the first place, she said.
“We think possibly it might be
that relics became almost uncool.
So he put them in a steel box,
what we call a tabernacle, and
he buried them beneath the side
chapel and he’d written a note to
say they were buried . . . It was
just a matter of finding them.”
The relics were collected by
the first bishop of Christchurch,
Bishop Grimes, who held the
position from 1887-1915.
He picked them up on trips to
the Vatican, and had an extensive
collection – some are believed to
date back to the medieval times,
Doocey said.
“He was on the opposite side
of the world to the Vatican, to
Rome, to everybody’s home who
were here in the newly established
city and I think he wanted
to provide a little bit of a connection
for them,” she said.
“Everybody had their favourite
saints, so he really did have a
widespread selection.”
The relics have been studied
and arranged into an exhibition
at the Pūmanawa gallery in
the Arts Centre. It runs until
Saturday.
– RNZ
NEW ZEALAND cricket greats
Sir Richard Hadlee, Debbie
Hockley and the late Martin
Crowe have all been inexplicably
listed as Australian on the ICC
Hall of Fame website.
In the latest
instalment of perceived
injustices in
the trans-Tasman
cricket rivalry –
dating back to the
1981 underarm
controversy – New
Zealand’s only inductees
to the Hall
of Fame appear as
Australian, next to
an Australian flag.
Former
allrounder and
Canterbury representative
Hadlee
was in the original induction
when the hall was opened in
2009, while long-serving White
Ferns captain Hockley was inducted
in 2014 and batting great
Crowe a year later.
Hadlee told RNZ he wasn’t
aware of the mistake and hoped
it would amended.
“We come from New Zealand,
I just hope somebody can
correct it, so that’s all I’d say on
the matter.
“I’m too old to get involved
Thursday February 8 2024 The Star
NEWS 13
Hall of Fame lists
Hadlee as Aussie
in these sorts of things. People
know that Martin, and Debbie
and myself are all from New
Zealand so it’s not an issue for
me.”
It is unclear how long
the erroneous
information has sat
on the website.
RNZ has sought
comment from the
ICC.
Elsewhere on
the website, a
drop-down menu
of what should be
the nine test cricket
nations actually
only numbers eight,
with New Zealand
excluded.
Hadlee, 72, is
regarded by many as
New Zealand’s finest cricketer,
having taken a national record
431 test scalps while also scoring
3124 runs.
Allrounder Hockley, 61, broke
ground in women’s cricket,
becoming the first to play 100
ODIs and score 4000 ODI runs.
Crowe, who died in 2016,
scored 5444 test runs and
was admired globally for his
classical batting style.
– RNZ
• Sport, pages 24-26
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