"When the building of a new church begins, it is customary to celebrate a rite to ask God's blessing on the work which is to be undertaken. In accordance with liturgical tradition, this rite consists of the blessing of the site of the new church and the blessing and laying of the foundation stone." Irish Episcopal Commission for Liturgy 1994. The Place of Worship.

There is no known record of a foundation stone, or similar, being placed in the 1842 wood chapel.

Bishop Viard laid the foundation stone of the stone church on 1 March 1846. Its fate, when the building was demolished in 1905, is unknown.

The foundation stone for the 1884 nave and tower addition to the stone church can be found on the southwest buttress of the Cathedral nave.

The stone was set on 4 May 1884 and its contents were well described in a New Zealand Herald article published the next day:

"With this his Lordship marked the sign of the Cross on each face and the top of the stone, and read the following translation of the Latin scroll, which with other documents, coins, and medals was placed in the cavity of the stone:

To the Honour and glory of God Almighty, one in the Nature and three in Person, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, to the glorification of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in honour also of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of St. Joseph and of St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, and of all the saints this foundation stone of St Patrick's Cathedral, from the design of Messrs Edward Mahoney and Son, Architects, Messrs Morris and Co. being the builders, was blessed and duly laid this 4th day of May, 1884, being the third Sunday after Easter and Feast of of the Patronage of St Joseph, by the Right Reverend John Edmund Luck, O.S.B., D.D., Bishop of Auckland in the presence of nearly all the Reverend Clergy of the diocese, and of a large concourse of the people, in the seventh year of the Pontificate of our most Holy Father Pope Leo XIII, in the second year of the episcopate of the Right Rev. John Edmund Luck, O.S.B., in the 47th year of the reign of Her Gracious Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and Empress of India, Sir William Jervois being Governor General of New Zealand, and W.R. Waddel, Esq., being Mayor of the city of Auckland.

With this were placed copies of the New Zealand Herald, Evening Star, New Zealand Tablet, Freeman's Journal, and London Tablet, together with coins, etc."

• Bishop's Chair (cathedra)
• Bust of Bishop Pompallier
• Lenihan Plaque
• Tabernacle Stand
• Tapestry
• Tower Bells