[1] A Wellington lawyer, Thaddeus McCarthy, began drafting the complicated contract providing for the transfer of ownership of the Prescott farm to the Cistercians.
Worried lest he lose the Trappists as he had lost the Carmelites who he had tried to establish in his archdiocese before, McKeefry consulted the Sydney Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Romolo Carboni, who intervened to smooth over the misunderstanding.
By 15 September 1959 it was considered sufficiently stable for the connection with Mt Melleray to be ended, and the General Chapter of the Order raised Kopua to the status of an abbey.
Monks were offered the opportunity for higher studies in Rome, Latin gradually gave way to English in the Liturgy and the emphasis placed on fraternal life in community led to significant changes in lifestyle.
[1] During the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Murphy and his team of priests quietly helped Bishop Owen Snedden (then McKeefry's assistant) with the painstaking work of criticising and commenting on draft English translations of various liturgical books as the church changed gear from the universal use of Latin.
[5] Thomas Prescott died in 1962 and, in 1972, at the urgings of his widow so as to put into partial effect the couple's hope for the establishment of an agricultural college, a farm cadet scheme began.
[1] From its foundation the monastery has provided for itself, carried out its charitable works and fulfilled its obligations of hospitality through the Guest House from mixed farming: dairying, beef, sheep, pigs and potatoes.
Other subsidiary enterprises have been: cropping, the grafting of root stock for orchardists, growing carrots (for the Rabbit Board), strawberry plants and orchids.
They are Christians, married or single, who reside at the abbey and live out the monastery's spirituality as fully as possible whilst remaining members of the laity.