NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 66, 1 August 1874, Page 8

NEWS IN BRIEF.

In British Columbia, the Oblate Fathers and the Sisters of St Ann devote themselves to the instruction aud support of the Indians, about twenty thousand of whom are already baptised or under instruction.

For the first timo in the history of the State, the Jesuits are about to open a college and found schools in Minnesota. They are composed mostly of exiles from Italy and Prussia. In this way even persecution scatters the seeds of faith.

Bather Damen, the greatest missionary priest in the United States, has baptised over 4000 converts with his own hands, during his missionary lifs of 32 years, and perhaps as many more were baptised by other priests as the results of his labours. The Charitable Irish. Society of Boston, celebrated its one hundred and thirty-seventh anniversary on last St. Patrick's night. Mr Sherwood, a gentleman well known for his scepticism about matters spiritual, in the sense in which such matters are professed by " spiritualists," has lately given a seance at Newcastle (England), which he most successfully performed every one of tke most important feats attributed by " spiritualists " to supernatural agency. He has undertaken, after one or two seances for charitable purposes, to explain how all the tricks are accomplished. In Oregon alone the Jesuit Fathers have six missions among the Indian tribes, for whoso temporal and spiritual welfare they labor with undying zeal.

It would appear from the following paragraph that Arthur Orton was not altogether the callous, cold-hearted scoundrel ho has baen represented to have been :— " In the ' Gippsland Guardiaa' of June, 1856, appears a list of contributions to the Patriotic Fund, then being canvassed for, to relieve the widows and orphans of the soldiers who fell in the Crimea:— 'Trom the men on Mewburn park, we have among a score of other names that of Arthur Orton, stockman, £2' " Mr Arrow, the proprietor of tha Crown Hotel, Caversham, died quite suddenly on Wednesday. Although deceased had been ailing for some time, his death had not been expected. Intelligence from Mexico announces that many of the Jesuit community who have been exiled irona thence have found an asylum in Texas.

The Greymouth cemetery must be an exceedingly damp place of interment, if the following paragraph from the ' Argus' is to be taken literally:— " Many valuable lives might have been spared in this district, and there would have been fewer records of deaths ly drowning in our cemetery, if tho suggestions which have been made by the local press had been attended to by the Government." England is celebrated for its fogs, France for its frogs, Ireland for Us bogs, Canada for its dogs, Maine for its logs, and Ohio for its hogs. Led by Henare Matua, the Maoris have appointed one of their race to watch the present session of Parliament and report to them all the proceedings that are of any interest to them. His expenses will be paid by subscriptions. A meeting, to be held in Wellington, nae also been called to consider the welfare of their race, and ifc will be attended by delegates from various parts of the colony.