The Bellringers Apprentice

Marie and I have been commissioned to supply some images for the Basilica, no payment but enough blessings to get a foot into Heaven when we go there I guess. Thomas's Mum rang me to say that Thomas was in the Bell Tower practicing ringing the bells. I shot up there like a dog shot up the backside and captured a few images. Thomas is serving his apprenticeship under the watchful eye of Martin Kane  who is ringing the bells. 
The Bells
This north-east tower houses a peal of bells, a C major scale. They are the work of London, England, bell founders John Warner and sons, cast in 1912 at a cost of £1000, installed in July 1914. They were blessed by Reverend Dean Francis Hills, S.M., on Sunday 12 July, 1914, and first rung on 26 July, 1914. The Bells are names (in ascending order) after the children of Nicholas Quinn who gave a bequest of £300 toward the cost. Nicholas, Mary, Francis, John, Michael, Thomas, Henry, Patrick. The heaviest, Nicholas, weighs nearly a tonne. They were originally played every hour, until complaints were received from the Nurses' Home. Access to the campanile is by the south-east tower. A campanile is a a bell tower, especially one freestanding from the body of a church. A cast iron staircase leads from the choir loft.
Rita Evadney Minehan b. 12 August 1906 died 2 July 2006 - six weeks short of her 100th birthday. 
Cavalcade of memories, 1869 - 1969: the unique story of the Sacred Heart Parish of Timaru, New Zealand by Rita Minehan - 40 pages
Sacred Heart's principal bell-ringer is Mrs Rita Minehan (since 1925), assisted in 2002 AD by her musicians Glenis Cunningham, Martin Kane and Jacob Barwick.
Bells ring out for Rita for the last time. 
The bells tolled for Timaru's leading lady Rita Minehan as her life was celebrated at the Sacred Heart Basilica yesterday morning - the church she had served so devoutly for many decades. Clergy Father Leeming officiated. She was one of the great characters of Timaru - flamboyant and strong-willed and fearless. Rita received the Queen's Service Medal [Q.S.M.] for Public Services 31st Dec. 1994 and later presented with the Papal Benemerenti Medal ( from Latin as "well-merited") and Citation at an afternoon tea, given for outstanding Catholic and Christian witness in the Sacred Heart Parish, the community of Timaru and the Diocese of Christchurch. She was a strong, staunch Catholic lady, mother of six children, was a great defender of the unborn, 78 years a bell ringer at the Basilica (1925-2003) and a renowned piano teacher. She donated her Bosendorfer piano to Chalmers Church. She had owned it 47 years. Her husband was W. S. (Bill) Minehan, former manager of the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company. He became something of a local celebrity when he was robbed at gunpoint on the highway south of Timaru when delivering the payroll to the Pareora Freezing Works.