General News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 258, 12 April 1878, Page 13

General News.

We have already learned by cable that the Irish Amendment to the Queen's Speech was moved by Mitchell Henry and -was heavily defeated, the following was the Amendment :— " We also think it right humbly to represent to your Majesty that, while we are glad to observe that the questions of the Grand jury laws and intermediate education in > Ireland are to be brought before Parliament, and while we await information as to the nature and scope of the proposals which maybe submitted to Parliament, we humbly assure your Majesty that we shall regard it as the duty of Parliament in the present condition of public affairs on the earliest opportunity to consider in a wise and conciliatory spirit the demands which the Irish people have repeatedly raised." The Irish members propose to give parliament some trouble this year, judging from the number of motions handed in, which are at present more than enough to occupy the entire attention of Parliament for two or three years to come. — Pilot. Some misconceptions have prevailed even among certain Catholics as to the importance and real effects of the last rites oE the sick ; and the eloquent Jesuit Father Magnire, in his sermon at the Mission in St. Mary's (Jlnm-h, Boston, recently, declared that physicians too commonly deceive their patients, and act as if the service of a priest would disturb them. So far from this fear being well founded, he pointed out lhat Extreme Uncfcion is for the benefit of the body as well as the soul, and proved, from statistics published in Europe, that more than half the patients, after being annointc I recovered. — Pilot. That the Irish are a healthy aud long-lived people is proved by ? statistics in this country and Ireland. The Registrar-General of Great • 1 Britain and Ireland has just issued his quarterly report, from which we learn that the Irish are longer-lived than che English or Scotch. The report shows that whereas in England only 23-3 per cent; of the persons who died in the quarter under review had reached or passed the age of 60, the number was 37'S per cent, in Ireland. The Irish registers for the quarter record the deaths of twelve persons stated to be 100 years old or upwards, and in three of these instances the local registers declare the age well authenticated. The registrar of Kilshannig, Mallow, adds that there is in his district a man of at least 102 years old, who is able to walk to Cork, which is seventeen miles from his house, and who planted his own potatoes in 1877 entirely himself. The Irish death-rate is also materially lower than that of England and Scotland. In England the death rate for the year was 17-7 ; in Scotland 17-9 : and in Ireland only 14*3 per 1,000 persons The birth-rate was proportionally favourable to Ireland.— Pilot " Ido not see why ajpremium should be placed Jupon drunkenness. I therefore decided to open a school for the children of the most frngal and well-conducted among the poorest of the poor Irish such children as would inevitably become mere waifs and strays of the streets. After a time I saw that the day would. come when these children would pass from us, and be sent to earn a living without help or guidance. I therefore established, in connection with, the school a place where the girls might be trained as domestic servants!* some as housemaids, some to wait at table, and others of the more intelligent kind to go out as lady's maids. A kind hearted lady has given us great assistance, and I can assure you that the servants we turn out are far above the average. They know how to do their work properly. When they go out to service they return us a little of their savings in return for the money they have cost us— but, of course, I could not go on with even this limited experiment without heln "— Mgr. Capel. *' Dr. Livingstone, in his « Missionary Travels in South Africa," eh. vi., p. 117 : " This place has been what the monasteries of Europe are said to have been when pure. The monks did not disdain to hold the plough, they introduced fruit trees, flowers and vegetables, in addition to teaching and emancipating the serfs, Their monasteries were mission stations, which resembled ours in being dispensaries for the sick, alms-houses for the poor, and nurseries of learning. Can we learn nothing from them in their prosperity as the school of Europe and see nought in their history but the pollution and laziness of their decay ? Can our wise men tell us why the former mission stations (primitive monasteries) were self-supporting, rich and flourishing, as pioneers of civilization and agriculture, from which we even now reapbenefits, and modem missions are mere pauper establishments without that permanence or ability to be self-supporting which they possessed ? J v That was a brave lad who found himself suddenly adrift in a dilapidated schooner off Atlantic City, N.J., the other day. He was a little fellow, but when he saw the surf boat which had put out to his assistance turn back to shore, the cruel crew probably concluding that it wasn't worth while to make much of an effort for only a boy, and when he fully realized the peril of his position, he didn't drop down and sob, he didn't despair, nor did he lose his head. But he set resolutely to work and prepared his crazy craft as best he could for the struggle with the waves. The first night out, he says in his homely narrative, " a heavy sea broke over the vessel and rolled me over th» wheel. The rigging and deck were covered with ice, and it was with difficulty I kept myself from freezing." T^e next day he thought he was near the Gulf Stream. " Thevp was about a foot of water in the hold, and a heavy sea rolling. The pumps gave out, and I was forced to bale her out with a bucket." At about ten o'clock the next night he was hailed by a barque, which, cleared the schooner by only about ten feet. But the barque sailed away, though the 'little fellow promptly hung out a signal light ; and his struggle continued. The next morning the plucky lad sighted land near Beach Haven. "After beating about all day," he says, "I headed up abreast Absecom Light. The sea was very rough, and, failiug to bring the vessel into the inlet, and as the water was up to the cabin floor, I beached her on Little Brigantme Shoals, where I was taken off after having been without sleep for four days and three nights." Forty-five millions is the estimate of the St. Louis ltonuhlicam. for the population of the model republic in 1880.