NEW CONVENT AT MANGAWHARE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 68, 19 March 1908, Page 5

NEW CONVENT AT MANGAWHARE.

DEAN HACK.ETT ON EDIJCATION. The formal opening of the new convent and school of the sisters of St. , Joseph took place at. Manga.whare on Sunday last, the dedication ceremony being performed by the Very Rev. Dean Hackett, of Paeroa, assisted by the Rev. Frs. Westeinde and Smiers. The ceremony was witnessed by about 500 people, and the handsome and substantial ap- ! pearance of the two buildings excited 1 general comment. The schoolroom is 50ft long by 25ft broad, and has an ele--1 vation of 18ft. The room is nicely paint- ! Ed, and the ventilation and light leave ' nothing to be desired. There are 40 ! desks at present. A large porch con- ' tains several lavatory fittings, and also a cloakroom. The convent, which is not ! yet qxiite complete, is a two-storey building, and will have a verandah and bal- ' cony along the front, xne convent will > provide accommodation for 15 boarders. The cost of erecting the buildings was 1 £1500, and a debt of £1200 still remains 1 to be paid off. At the opening ceremony ' the building fund was augmented to the ' extent of £40.

In the course of his remarks, Dean Hackett referred to the prevalence of juvenile crime in New Zealand, and atit to the absence of religion in State schools. The State, he said, had no religion, and secularists were managing the educational system without it. The Ptoman Catholic Church was doing a grand work in the cause of moral education, giving £61,000 worth of sound, secular education to Dominion annually, and getting nothing in return. The Dean held that if they satisfied the State and the inspectors, they were entitled to some payment for their results. They were penalised because they taught religion to their children, but they would never abandon their schools or forsake their principles vrith regard to Catholic senools. Thousands of children, he said, were passing through the public schools with no religious knowledge. It was a blot on the national system, and Sunday teaching was only a makeshift. The fire which has been raging in the swamp for the past month is getting very close to Tc Aroha (says the "News"). I During the past few days it has been extending towards the railway, where every effort is being made to check its progress. The ground is so dry that in some place* the logs Tiave burnt to a depth ol eight or ten feet. Unless heavy and continued rain comes in the near future very serious results will follow. Influenza claimed 93 deaths in London last week. The Federal Senate to admit wire-netting duty free.