St Werenfried’s Catholic Church has been an important part of the community of Waihī Village, on the southern shores of Lake Taupō, since its construction from 1885-1889 by the local Māori community and the Mill Hill Missionary Father John Werenfride Smiers. Waihī Village is to the north-west of Tūrangi, on the Tūrangi-Tokanuu Road. Traditional History This area is associated with Ngāti Tūwharetoa, and Waihī Village is the traditional settlement of the Ngāti Turumākina hapū . Ngāti Tūwharetoa descends from Ngātoroirangi, the tōhunga (high priest) who came to New Zealand aboard Te Arawa Waka. After landing at Māketu, Ngātoroirangi travelled south and claimed the Taupō region. While ascending Tongariro, it is said that Ngātoroirangi struggled, and fearing he would be overcome by the extreme cold he chanted karakia calling to his sisters Hauhangaroa and Kuiwai back in his homeland of Hawaiki. They responded by sending the fire gods Te Pupu and Te Hoata to assist Ngātoroirangi. The geothermal areas of mud pools, geysers, hot water springs and volcanoes that stretch from Whakaari/White Island to Tongariro have many stories associated with Ngātoroirangi, Te Pupu, and Te Hoata , and the Hipaua geothermal area surrounding Waihī Village is a physical reminder of the journey of their significant ancestor. Ngātoroirangi returned to the coastal Bay of Plenty, which is where the eponymous ancestor of Ngāti Tūwharetoa originated. When Tūwharetoa (originally named Manaia) was born in the sixteenth century, it was prophesied that he would return to the lands claimed by his tupuna in the central plateau. Tūwharetoa lived most of his life in Kawerau, and the settlement of the Taupō area was achieved through his sons and grandsons. Waihī Village became recognised as the home of Ngāti Tūwharetoa paramountcy during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries . During the eighteenth century, Ngāti Tūwharetoa is described as functioning more as a collective of autonomous hapū than a unified iwi, but Te Rangituamātotoru (who was the great grandson of Te Rangiita) became recognised as a Paramount Chief due to his leadership skills and attributes of mana whakapapa, mana tangata, and mana whenua. This chiefly status is described in WAI 1130 Te Kāhui Maunga: The National Park District Inquiry as follows: ‘Mana whakapapa meant that the senior line of descent from the founding ancestor of the tribe was the starting point for selecting an ariki. Mana tangata required the recognition and acceptance of the ariki’s status by each hapū and this often depended on his ability to lead wisely, his political astuteness, his ability to forge strategic alliances, and his prowess in war. Mana whenua indicated the geographical spread of influence of the cluster of hapū. The ariki, through strong leadership and wise counsel, was responsible for protecting their land and developing its resources.’ With the passing of Te Rangituamātotoru, the status of paramount chief was passed to Hereara Te Heuheu Tūkino I (often referred to Herea), and to this day the paramountcy has remained with the Te Heuheu family at Waihī Village. Waihī Village contains many sites of deep importance to the Ngāti Tūwharetoa people, including the marae and carved meeting house Tāpeka, and the ancestral tomb of the Te Heuheu family that is carved in the Ngāti Tarāwhai tradition . Today, Waihī Village is an important gathering place for Māori tribal and political leaders, and Sir Tumu Te Heuheu Tukino VIII has hosted many international dignitaries at Waihī Village, including members of the British Royal family. Above the town rises the Hipaua Steaming Cliffs, and a feature of the town is the impressive Waihī Waterfall, and hot pools on the edge of the lake. In 1846, a landslide from the Hipaua Cliffs took the lives of a large number of people, including chief Mananui Te Heuheu Tukino II. In 1910, a ridge behind the village collapsed and one person was killed. In 1956, the village was threatened by earthquakes – the response of the people of Waihī was that they had no intention of leaving their homes or their church. In 2009, the town was again threatened by landslides and the town evacuated for some time. The arrival of Christianity at Waihī Village Waihī Village was the site of an early Catholic mission station established by the Society of Mary (Marist) Missionaries. The first Christian missions to the southern Lake Taupō region were established by the Methodists and Anglicans (such as Thomas Samuel Grace) in the 1840s, however, they closed due to a lack of church support and the impact of the New Zealand Wars. Father Jean Lampila (1808-1897), was a French Marist Missionary who arrived in New Zealand in 1842, and established missions throughout the North Island. Lampila was well-known for a series of fiery public debates with his Anglican rivals which, as his biographer states, were successful in ‘attracting considerable interest from the Māori who, to some extent, engineered them’. He also had a habit of challenging his missionary competitors to a literal trial by fire. Such an event is well remembered in Waihī – it is said that Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II challenged Lampila and a Church Missionary Society missionary to such a trial; Lampila was willing to be involved but the Anglican was not, securing Te Heuheu’s adherence to the Catholic faith. A mission was established in nearby Pukawa, in 1850, but this closed in the 1860s, and thereafter the Catholic faith was serviced only by two fathers in Matatā. The 1880s were a time of significant activity for the Ngāti Tūwharetoa paramountcy at Waihī Village. Horonuku Patatai Te Heuheu Tukino IV had succeeded to the role of Paramount Chief, and the start of the decade saw the investigation of the Rohe Potae land block with the Native Land Court, which originally included substantial Ngāti Tūwharetoa Lands, but by 1885 Horonuku requested separate title investigation. In 1886, the Taupō-nui-a-Tia block was awarded, and the following year Horonuku gifted the sacred peaks of Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu to the people of New Zealand by way of transfer to the Crown. Horonuku died at Waihī Village in July 1888, and was succeeded by his son Tūreiti Te Heuheu Tukino V (1865-1921). It was under the mana of Tūreiti that the Catholic mission was revived in the area with the arrival of the Society of St Joseph for Foreign Missions (better known as the Mill Hill Missionaries) in 1889. The Mill Hill Fathers were responsible for the Māori Mission in the Auckland diocese (of which Waihī was its most southern town) for more than a century. The Waihī community was a prominent part of the Mill Hill Fathers mission for many years, and helped to reignite the cause of Catholicism in the area. Many of the Mill Hill Missionaries were Dutch and German, and it was a Dutch priest, Father John Werenfride Smiers (1856-1944), who came to Waihī in 1889 after an initial period of induction in Matatā with Father James Madan (1841-1905). Smiers first established a small presbytery and sacristy at neighbouring Tokaanu before building St Werenfried’s at Waihī beginning in 1890. Father Smiers’ patron saint was St Werenfried, an English-born saint from the early Middle Ages who has a strong association with The Netherlands. The name St Werenfried is not well known in New Zealand, and this is the only church in New Zealand dedicated to this patron saint of horticulture and sufferers of arthritic complaints. Construction of the church at Waihī Village Smiers wrote in exuberant letters home to family and friends about his arrival in Waihī in July 1889, and his efforts to build a church. The seeds of Catholicism, planted in the decades earlier by Lampila, meant the community in Waihī and in the wider district gave him an enthusiastic welcome, and Tūreiti provided him with letters of recommendation ‘expressing his respect for me and asking the people to give me a hearing since I am a priest of the true God’. On his arrival in Waihī he found a house that had been built for him, and a traditional Māori house that was used for worship: ‘consisting of just one room, which is both prayer-house and living quarters. In the one room, people smoke, cook, eat and sleep! And also Mass is said … It really isn’t a suitable place to say Mass, and I will have to look for something better. In fact I have drawn up plans for a small new church. I had better not send you the plans for my building, as you will probably burst out laughing’. His plan was for a church 30 feet (9.1 metres) long by 18 feet (5.5 metres) wide, and 23 feet (7 metres) high. He states that ‘We are very fortunate here, as the Māori are skilled forestry workers. But I don’t know if they have the skills to build a church, and I am not much of a carpenter myself. Quite a problem!’ Nothing appears to dismay Father Smiers, he cheerfully says that while the local people have no money to pay a carpenter, and have barely enough to provide him with food: ‘I am convinced my little church will get built. I am putting all my trust in God, and he has not failed me yet. I am counting on the help of Saint Werenfried, the patron saint of my new parish.’ At the end of 1889, he wrote to Father Madan and asked if he could send the carpenter John Francis O’Shea, whom he had met in Matatā to help with the building of the church. O’Shea arrived two weeks later, having walked all the way. The Bishop of Auckland wrote during this time of hard work and while indicating he would ‘help as much as I can’, and assuring him that ‘the beginning is always the hardest part’, stated that he also expected Smiers to build a convent within two years. In around February 1890, Smiers writes: ’The building of the church and house are coming along only slowly’, and estimated that despite dynamiting the rocks on the site it would take another two months to clear the site, and that the work on the timber was also progressing slowly as the local people have to work so hard on their crops. It seems that O’Shea may have helped Smiers to build a small presbytery, and then the sacristy, which was used for services until the entire church was completed. The church building continued for five years, and St Werenfried’s was opened on Christmas Day 1895. Just one month earlier however, O’Shea was tragically killed when he went to one of the boiling springs for hot water and slipped and fell. One of the Mill Hill fathers, Father Holierhoek, gives a vivid account of his visit to Waihī to witness the opening of the church. Holierhoek describes Smiers’ work in completing the church, and comments that while he himself was known to be strong, he was nothing compared to Smiers; he writes that if any piece of timber in the church could speak it would say ‘I had the honour of being carried through the bush on the shoulders of the Priest’. The opening, on Christmas Day, was a great occasion and both Māori and Pakeha came from far and wide, hosted by Ngāti Turumākina, who had also constructed a 150 foot (30.5 metre) long wharekai for festivities: ‘The Waihi natives were equal to the great occasion … For days before they worked hard, in order to be able to give the guests a hearty welcome and hearty meal to boot’. On Christmas Eve, the community ‘turned the thoughts to higher things’, and kept Smiers in the confession all night. On Christmas Day, a procession went around the building, and then entered to the singing of the Litany of Saints. Paramount Chief Tūreiti Te Heuheu V stood inside the church and welcomed the congregation inside. Holierhoek describes in detail the special music that had been prepared by the congregation for the service, and noted that ‘…Christmas Day, 1895, will not be forgotten in a hurry’. The only hint about the original decoration of the church was a mention in an early letter from Smiers, before the church was even begun, to the fact that someone had sent him a picture of St Werenfried which he said he intended to frame and hang above the altar when the church was complete, and this framed image still hangs in the church today. An early photograph shows that the rafters decorated with kowhaiwhai are not late additions but from the earliest period of the church. Smiers left Waihī the following year, and went on to build many Catholic churches and associated buildings throughout the North Island. Smiers contributed a further 35 years of service to the Catholic Church, in Taupō, Puhoi, Whangarei (for nine years), Auckland, finally retiring to Tauranga in 1931. Smiers coordinated the construction of churches in Te Kopuru (1899), Maungakakaramea (1902), Northern Wairoa (1899), and a convent school in Whangarei in 1910. Following Smier’s departure in 1896, he was replaced by Father Charles Kreijmborg, a notable Dutch Mill Hill ‘carpenter-priest’ who had arrived in New Zealand three years earlier. Fr Kreijmborg built the Church of the Immaculate Conception at Tokaanu, and was replaced in 1902 by Father Edward Bruning, who established a convent and Catholic school in Tokaanu, run by the Sisters of St Joseph. The decision to place the convent and school in Tokaanu was quickly considered a mistake and the convent and school buildings were moved to Waihī in 1910, where they remained an important part of the Waihī Catholic community until the 1960s. The next prominent cleric for the parish was the Dutch Mill Hill Missionary Father Adrian Cornelius Langerwerf (1876-1935) who served the area from 1903-1935 and was much loved by the community. Langerwerf was ordained priest in 1901, and arrived in New Zealand in December of that year. From his arrival in Waihī in 1903, he worked very hard to support the town and his congregation economically as well as spiritually, and set up a number of enterprises, including a butter factory, and from the Waihī waterfall set up both a electrical generation plant and a water reticulation plant, allowing, by 1919, every home in Waihī to have both electricity and running water. In 1928 the butter factory closed, and was converted into a timber factory, and the Tuwharetoa Timber Company operated there until the mid 1930s. In 1926 the community, grateful for the work Langerwerf had done, built him a new presbytery to replace the one built by Smiers; the house was completed by Ngāti Turumākina and a group of ‘carpenter-priests’ who came from throughout the diocese to help complete the project. The official opening lasted for two days, and C.C. Martindale, well known British Catholic author and philosopher, visited Waihī in 1928 and described Langerwerf as ‘carpenter, mason, plumber, electrician … he is happy both in the mountain farms and the great saw-mill’. After his death in 1935, over 1,000 Māori arrived in Waihī for the unveiling of Langerwerf’s tombstone and memorial cross next to the church. The Mill Hill relationship continues The 1950s saw the development of yet another connection with not only the Mill Hill Missionaries, but the Dutch Mill Hill community. In 1957, two impressive stained glass windows, were installed on either side wall of the altar. These windows were created by the Dutch migrant artist Martin Roestenburg (1909-1966), and are regarded as some of his finest work in New Zealand. Roestenburg trained in painting, and completed specialist training in sculpture, mural, stained glass windows and photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich . He completed commissions for a number of Dutch churches in the 1940s, and was assisted by the Mill Hill Fathers to immigrate with his family to New Zealand in 1951 . After arriving in Wellington, the Roestenburgs settled in Taihape, and began a long artistic association with the Catholic Church. Roestenburg completed many commissions around the North Island including stained glass windows for the Church of our Lady of the Rosary in Hamilton (now in the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin, Hamilton), Turakina Māori Girls School Chapel in Marton, and Three King’s Church in Mt Albert, Auckland. He contributed paintings to the Wellington Hospital Chapel, and created the iconic 14 metre high statue of Our Lady of Lourdes that stands in Paraparaumu, near Wellington. Roestenburg also created the foyer mosaic and Stations of the Cross for St Mary’s Catholic Church in Taihape (List No.7572, Category 1 historic place). One of the windows created by Roestenburg for St Werenfried’s shows a Māori Madonna wearing a korowai and holding baby Jesus . The image of Mary is based on a portrait of the late Mamae Pitiroi, wife of well-known Ngāti Tūwharetoa orator Heemi Pitiroi. Roestenburg also used the portrait of Pitiroi as a basis for a statue that stands outside the Catholic Church in Taupō . The use of the image of Mamae Pitiroi is of special significance to Ngāti Tūwharetoa. Mamae Pitiroi died while paying her respects at the tangi of Te Puea Herangi (1883-1952). Te Puea had been involved in organising the carvings for the wharenui Tapeka that stands alongside St Werenfried’s. The next major addition to the interior of the church was the weaving of the tukutuku panels. These large-scale panels include a combination of very traditional tukutuku patterns such as ‘poutama’ seen on the wall behind the altar, and much more modern stylised fern designs. These panels cover the original diagonal wall linings which are now only visible in the choir loft. These panels were likely installed in the mid-1970s or later. Another important person associated with the church, with both religious and ancestral connections to the place, is Bishop Max Takuira Mariu (1952-2005) who was the first Māori Catholic Bishop of New Zealand. He attended the Sisters of St Joseph convent school in Waihī Village, was ordained at St Werenfried’s in 1977, and his tangi was held at Waihī Village in 2005. Waihī Village continues to be the centre of the Ngāti Tūwharetoa arikinui, and St Werenfried’s stands as a symbol of the association of the Ngāti Turumākina and the Te Heuheu family with Catholicism. The church continues to be a significant centre for baptisms, marriages, funerals and other important life events, and is a church that has evolved with its community, while still representing the early stages of the Catholic faith in New Zealand. St Werenfried’s stands proudly on the southern shores of Lake Taupō as one of the oldest surviving Mill Hill Mission churches in New Zealand, and marks the southern extent of their mission stations in New Zealand.

Current Description Waihī Village is located on the southern shores of Lake Taupō in Waihi Bay. In 1866, the Native Land Court investigated the area and declared Waihī Village to be a papakainga. In 1924, the land was divided into family blocks, and since then further subdivision has been prevented. The Roman Catholic Church was given the land containing the church, and the large section containing the convent, in 1929. The settlement currently has about 20 houses, and is considered a ‘private village’ with unique character. The main features of the village are the church and the marae, which are separated by the urupa between them. St Werenfried’s is a striking example of the Victorian Gothic style Church. The main part of the church is a simple design, with timber framing and clad with timber weatherboard, with a steep short run corrugated iron roof. The front door of the church is set into the steeple, and is surrounded by lancet shaped framing, which matches the shape of the side windows. Above the door, inserted into the spire, is a lozenge shape glass window. The narrowness and height of the building are strongly emphasised by the outset tower and slim square steeple which rises high above the church. The open wooden belfry in the spire features decorative turned-timber designs. The top of the spire is clad corrugated iron, above which is a cross. The two sides of the church have three lancet shaped windows each, which are described further below. In the rear elevation of the church there is a small sacristy, with door on the north side, and window on the southern side. Internally, the church is a strong mix of traditional Catholic and Māori iconography and imagery. The rafters and scissor trusses that make up the roof structure are decorated with kowhaiwhai patterns which appear to be original to construction. There are two steel tie rods that provide additional bracing, and these, along with the metal connection plates added to the scissor trusses are likely to date to the early twentieth century. The side walls are covered with tukutuku panels, over which the original depictions of the twelve Stations of the Cross are now mounted. Behind these tukutuku panels are the diagonal tongue and groove wall linings, alternating dark and light. Tukutuku also cover the wall behind the altar, and also the small lectern. These tukutuku panels are made using modern materials of peg-board and a plastic raffia that closely matches the traditional kiekie or pingao. This technique was an innovation of the early 1970s, so these panels were likely created and installed some time after 1975. The main part of the ceiling is steeply pitched, but at the entrance is a flat ceiling as a result of the choir loft which also provides access to the tower above. Within the choir loft the original diagonal tongue and groove wall linings are still visible, and there is also an example of an uncompleted kowhaiwhai pattern on the rafter. Here it is evident that the kowhaiwhai was originally drawn onto a white painted rafter, which was subsequently in-painted with red and black. Some retouching has occurred on a few of the rafters, but there are still some that show only one paint layer. The ceiling of the choir loft area also indicates that an earlier colour of the ceiling was a pale duck-egg blue, rather than the current pale ochre yellow. Each side wall features three typical Gothic pointed-arch windows, with the window on each side closest to the altar filled with stained glass. The stained glass windows are slightly larger in size than the original two on each wall, but maintain the pointed arch form. One of the stained glass windows shows a Māori Christ with stigmata and the other a Māori Madonna and Child, wrapped in a korowai. These windows include an inscription at the base in Te Reo Māori. The window with the Māori Madonna and child is inscribed ‘E Maria E Toku Whaea’ and the other ‘E Te Ngakau Tapu O Hehu’. Behind the high altar is an image of St Werenfried and the altar is flanked by angels and silver candelabra. Below this image stands an ornate wooden reredos. The church has many quintessential European church design elements, such as the central aisle with pews either side, the altar facing east, and two doors to access the sacristy. Alongside the church is the grave and memorial cross of Father Langerwerf, the Dutch Mill Hill priest who worked in Waihī for decades until his death in 1935. The grave is topped in carrara marble with a large marble cross. The gravestone was made by W. Parkinson & Co, a well-known and prolific monumental mason company originally based in Auckland. During the same time period that this gravestone was completed, Parkinson & Co. also completed the roll of honour for the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and the Whangarei marble columns and other interior marble features in the Auckland Railway Station. The inscription on Fr Langerwerf’s gravestone details how ‘Pa Ateriano’ (a translation of Fr Adrian) was born in Holland on 15 September 1870, was ordained a priest on 21 September 1901, and on 15 December of the same year came to New Zealand. He became ‘the priest of Ngāti Tūwharetoa in 1903’ until his death in 1935. The grotto to Mary is located on the southern side of the church, and is covered with ivy, with the statue of the Virgin Mary clear and well maintained within its painted blue background. Comparative Analysis The decoration of church rafters with kowhaiwhai is not uncommon in early churches built within Māori communities, but the use of traditional decorative arts in Māori Catholic churches became rare from the turn of the twentieth century. We know from written accounts that the Catholic churches at Tauranga (opened in 1847) and Rotorua (dedicated in 1890) were decorated with kowhaiwhai and tukutuku, however neither of these churches survive today. The earliest extant Māori Catholic church is St Mary’s at Pukekaraka, Otaki (List No. 4701, Category 1 historic place), however this church has never been decorated with traditional Māori art such as kowhaiwhai. Other early Māori Catholic churches such as St Gabriel’s at Pawarenga (List No.76, Category 1 historic place), the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption at Motukaraka (List No.72, Category 1 historic place), and St Peter’s at Panguru (List no.444, Category 2 historic place) date to a similar time period as St Werenfried’s, but are both undecorated. St Werenfried’s is the oldest surviving Catholic church with Māori decorative arts. There are very few stained glass depictions of Māori, and even fewer where the person depicted can be identified. The earliest example of a Māori depicted in stained glass is the 1893 window of Matiaha Tiramorehu at Kotahitanga Church in Moeraki (List No.9437, Category 1 historic place). Two Ngāti Porou soldiers who died in the First World War, Second Lieutenant Henare Kohere and Captain Pekama Kaa, are depicted in a memorial window dating to c.1924 at St Mary’s Church, Tikitiki (List No.3306, Category 1 historic place). There are other stained glass depictions of unidentified Māori in buildings such as at the Christchurch Arts Centre (List No.7301, Category 1 historic place) and St David’s Church at Khyber Pass in Auckland (List No.7367, Upper Symonds Street historic area). The window depicting the Māori Madonna and child, based on the image of Mamae Pitiroi is the only known example of stained glass featuring a Māori woman whose identity is known.