ROMAN CATHOLIC EDUCATION.

Auckland Star, Volume IX, Issue 2608, 16 August 1878, Page 3

ROMAN CATHOLIC EDUCATION.

FA'I'HER lIKNNEBERRY'S NEW ',-a_ : aSol-J-ME-;- " ..

[BY TELEGRAPH.I

From Our Special Reporter,]

WELLINGTON, this day. ' I HAVE had a long "and cordial interview with ''Father Herineberry, 'the Father Matthewo.of -New Zealand, and,the introducer of a new financial scheme into this colony for the support of. +he Roman Catholic; Church, schools, and other institutions. Father Hennebeny spent some 30 years in America as a Roman Catholic missionary," and there he had the fullest opportunities of- becoming' thoroughly familiar with a peculiar, system of voluntary aid which has long beeh successfully in operation there, and which he has already transplanted with much advantage into Otago and Canterbury. _ . I found iv Fatheiallenneberry a genial, earnest priest, evidently a man of great force bf character, varied experience-as a traveller; and au enthusiast in his calling. When he. learned-the object of my visit, he received me 'wit-frank cordiality, and chatted without reserve. He informed me in the conversation that the system which obtains in America enables the church to dispense with State aid, and to build and maintain cathedrals, monasteries, nunneries, schools, pay clergy, teachers, &c, andin short lo dis« chargethe whole functions of the Church. The plain; is to assess the pew rents in the churches bu a scale proportionate to the proximity of the seat to the altar, but ample free sittings are reserved for the poor at the back. The rents may be paid in advance, quarterly, half-yearly, or auuually out of -the -first funds. The basement storey of a church is laid down, aud the superstructure sufficiently raised and temporarily roofed to be available for purposes of public worship, educational, and other requirements. This, with the cost of education, &c, may absorb a large portion of the first year's receipts, but out of each- succeeding annual fund additions are made to the building until it is complete; of course all this entails a careful estimate of the financial resources of the congregation, upon which plans and operations must be based and conducted. Father Henueberry will visit Auckland about October, and will initiate the new scheme there.

There was a nice little fable revived in the "New Zealand Times" the other day from Hans Andersen, about an Eastern potentate who paraded in a state of nudity at the head of a procession, followed by his courtiers who lavished much eloquence ou the Emperor's mythical fine raiment, and actually succeeded iv deluding him into the hallucination that he . was gorgeously attired. The spell was broken, and the scales fell from the Emperor's eyes when a boy—it is presumed one of the larrikins of that period— ha wled'out, "Twig him; why he's got nothingou," at which all the people took heart of grace and bawled in chorus. But the Emperor whispered that itj would " never do to give it up so," aud ordered the farce to proceed.^ The " Times" of course here means the Emperor to be Sir George Grey and the mythical clothes his policy. But I have heard another version of this story, and it is as follows :—There was an Emperor named Atkinson, who was got up " regardless of expense " in velvet and fine linen, and who was followed by his colleagues all bearing other gorgeous suits and full purses, and crying out "Condemn the expense, you are not half dressed ;" and Emperor Atkinson ouly realised his extravagance when a boy in the crowd named Grey called out, " Why, what does that wasteful fellow want with all those clothes ? and why is he allowed to throw away our money in such riotous living?" And then the people took up the cry, and beheaded the reckless emperor and all his debauched courtiers, and they all lived very happily for ever afterwards.

Mr Cutten, one of the new Otago members, is a very eld member of the House. He tells me that iv 1554 when he was in Parliament he was six weeks in a sailing vessel coming from Dunedin to Wellington, and was kept away from liis home for a period of seven months, including the voyages to and fro, and when he got back he found an increase in the family. Those were the days in which mails between Otago and Auckland were despatched by way of Sydney. .LAPP.