The Roman Catholic Diocese of Christchurch has a history, the chief events of which are fresh in the memory of men still living, and still in some of its associations it goes back well towards the beginning of colonisation. Long before even a Catholic missionary had found his way to the colony the few Irish Catholics who had strayed here from Australia urgently entreated Archbishop Polding, of Sydney, to send them a priest to minister to their spiritual wants. But priests were scarce in those days and Irish Catnolics had to content themselves for a long time by repeating their beads and their rosaries in lieu of the ceremonies of their Church. It is said of one pioneer Irishman—an ardent Catholic, no doubt—that when his first child was born, he sent it with its mother to Sydney, a distance of over 1000 miles, in order to get it baptised by a priest. The first Catholic missionaries who arrived in this colony were chiefly Frenchmen and Italians, and their labours were confined principally to the North Island, but in 1848 New Zealand was, for Catholic purposes, divided into two dioceses, Auckland and Wellington; the latter embracing, as well as its northern districts, the whole of the province of Canterbury. This arrangement sufficed while the population was sparse but it could not continue to give satisfaction for long, and so in 1876 the people of Christchurch petitioned Pope Pius IX. for a Bishop of their own, basing their claim on the fact that the growing importance of their city necessitated a resident Bishop who would be in constant and close communication with his flock and in touch with their wants and aspirations. The Most Rev. Dr Croke, the late Archbishop of Cashel, in Ireland, had just previously resigned the see of Auckland, and shortly afterwards the Rev. John Peter Charegre, who had been for some time in charge of the mission in Christchurch, was preconised as Bishop of Auckland. Father Charegre, who, it appears, was a man of a most retiring disposition, at once journeyed to Rome for the purpose of declining the proferred dignity, and while he was there the petition from the people of Christchurch arrived in the papal city. On Father Charegre refusing the Bishopric of Auckland, the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda immediately effered him that of Christchurch, but this be also declined, alleging as his reason that he could not think of returning to Christchurch as its first Bishop. The difficulty of finding suitable men to accept Colonial Bishoprics was at that time very great, and so Christchurch remained attached to the Wellington diocese until the 10th of May, 1887, when it was erected into a separate diocese by a Papal brief at the instance of the Plenary page 200 Synod held in Sydney, in 1885. The Christchurch diocese embraces the provincial districts of Canterbury and Westland, as well as part of the provincial district of Nelson, and the Chatham Islands. The Rev. John J. Grimes, of the Society of Mary, Superior of the Novitiate at Paignton in South Devon, England, was appointed as its first Bishop. He was consecrated on the 26th of July, 1887, and since he has been in charge of the diocese he has made himself a favourite with all classes of the people. The ovation which he received on the day of his landing will long be remembered by all those who took part in it. Never of a very robust constitution, when he came to the colony he was far from being strong, and, so, after about three years, his medical adviser thought it desirable that he should take a long sea voyage. This gave him the opportunity of paying his first episcopal visit to Rome, as well as making a prolonged tour on the Continent of Europe. He returned to his diocese very much improved in health and spirits, and brought back with him from Sydney the Very Rev. Stephen Cummings, who belonged to the Society of Mary, and became VicarGeneral of the diocese.