Father Rougier.
pp. 7-8 · Read in the full issue
Death In Tahiti Ends
Picturesque Career.
From Our Own Correspondent
Papeete, Dec. 30.
A PICTURESQUE career was brought to an unexpected close on December 16 by the death of Monsieur l’Abbe Emmanuel Rougier, who passed away very suddenly at his home at Taaone from heart failure.
According to “Fiji Encyclopedia” for the year 1907 the deceased gentleman, more familiarly known as “Pere” Rou gier, was born in Auvergne, France, in 1864, educated at La Chartreuse, Riom, and St. Chamond, and his studies in divinity were accomplished under the Sulpicians le Puy; he also studied in England and Spain. Joining the Marist
Order in 1887, he was ordained priest in 1888 by special permission of the Pope, he being at that time under the age of 21 years.
Arriving in Fiji in August, 1888, Pere Rougier was appointed almost immedi ately to the Rewa District and was still there in 1907.
Subsequently, Pere Rougier spent several years in the New Hebrides, where he appears to have had some dif ference of opinion with the Bishop of New Caledonia in connection with the administrative side of the Marist Brothers affairs, as a result of which he received a special dispensation from Rome and withdrew from active partici pation in the religious life of his Order.
Henceforth, though he retained his clerical habiliments to the end, we find Pere Rougier actively engaged in large plantation enterprises in the northern equatorial area of the Pacific. Fanning Island came into his possession, to be subsequently sold to the British Com pany which owns it at present, and he later acquired a 99 years’ lease of Christ mas Island, and operated from his headquarters in Tahiti by means of the three-masted schooner “Marechal Foch.”
Since he arrived in this Colony some fifteen years ago, Pere Rougier took a
Late Father Rougier.
keen and courageous interest in all mat ters affecting the public welfare, and un stintingly sacrifled his leisure for the good thereof. He became successively President of the Chamber of Agricul ture, Member of the Council of Admin istration, President of the Society of Oceanic Studies, of the Syndicate Agri cole, and of the Syndicate d’Initiative (Tourist Association), of which latter body he was the founder and continuous President since its inception, and had again been unanimously re-elected to that important position the day before his untimely end.
Pere Rougier indeed embodied a com bination of energy, ability and public spirit rarely found in any community and almost unique in the Pacific Islands, where the climate is apt to engender a laisser-faire philosophy towards matters affecting the public welfare. He was in tensely interested in the introduction of beneficial flora and fauna, and main tained an extensive garden at Taaone; in this field alone his passing repre sents a very real loss to the colony.