A CORRECTION AND EXPLANATION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVI, Issue LVI, 26 October 1908, Page 5

A CORRECTION AND EXPLANATION.

CIo the iJditor.3 I Sir,— ln phQ few brief extracts from Father Power's letter contributed : by; me in Saturday's issue a very glaring and ridiculous error (typographical on , otherwise) occurs, which, apart from, * the fact that it conveys the impression of irreverence, or levity, in the treat* ment of a sacred ceremony, renders the ' whole communication ludicrous in the . extreme, and unintelligible. I allude to the sentence relating to the nuns; the word "concert" being erroneously, / printed for the word "convent." This ' sentence should have read: VTfie nuns, have their 'convent' close to the town," J etc. This error forcibly reminds me ofi the old adage that "there is only a re* move fiom tb.© sublime to the ridicu* v lous." To the uninitiated it may be well to state that these monks and nuns referred to by Father Power "as exiles from Solesmes" (France), belong to' the religious' order of St. Benedict/ an order so distinguished in the work' done by its monks (Benedictines) fon the restoration of the genuine melodies of ' the Roman Catholio Church, and especially , by the members of the French congregation, and of the Moa-< "astery of Solesmes, that the reigning Pontiff, Pius X., in recognition of iheiif work, willed by Decrees that the edit* ing of the parts of the Gregorian: melodies, known as the "Gregorian Qhant," be entrusted particularly to*. ' the monks of the French congregation* and to the Monastery of Solesmef* Father Power was so enraptured* he' says, with "the divine song— divinely? sung at Mass and Vespers," by these 1 monks and nuns, that he eloquently expressed himself thus: "Would that the world could heart The praises of l$A saintly composers and of its saintly «*• ponents would mingle then with! thoflf of God."— l am, etc., "\ . A HAWERA RESIDENT*' Ootober 26. \ ,