Current Topics. AT HOME & ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 275, 9 August 1878, Page 1

Current Topics. AT HOME & ABROAD.

§HE Russians, it would seem, are uneasy at the thoughts of the nations of the East being supplied with arms, and having their thoughts directed to Western conquest. History repeats itselt ; but it would be a grim repetition of the past were we once more to see. vast hordes descending upon civilization, or comparative civilization, and laying all waste before their march. There is a great deal to captivate the gloomy imagination in dwelling on the incursions of the barbarians from the north and east upon the declining strength of the Eoman Empire. It is impossible to contemplate without a certain wild charm the fierce bands of Attila sweeping over Italy and Gaul, and retreating thence with the spoil of ruined countries and cities back into their rough home beyond the Danube, and leaving in their rear whole realms so desolate that the forest springing up covered them, and wild beasts were their sole inhabitants until the monks came in after ages, and by degrees the hermitage became a monastery, and the monastery the centre of a city, and so human society and civilization were restored. The incursions of the barbarians across the Danube, tribe after tribe coming down and requiring room upon the borders of the empire ; the wild Avars swooping at will upon the Greeks who grew more feeble every day, and carrying off their splendid spoils and the treasures of Constantinople to that hurdle-fenced camp amongst the marshes of Hungary, the future conquest of Charlemagne. The atrocious cruelties related of Zingis and Timur, the exterminations, the slaughters marked with monumental towers of human skulls ; all these things engrave upon the north-east of Europe, and away into the regions of Central and Northern Asia, an epic for him who has eyes to read it, that is akin in horror and wierdness to Dante's description of the Inferno. But the crime of those, by whose instrumentality a repetition of such things should occur, would indeed cry to heaven for vengeance. Were it possible by turning the minds of the inhabitants of India or China to conquest, and by facilitating their obtaining a supply of arms, to throw western civilization especially open to their incursions, the guilt of those who would prepare the way for any such things would be beyond expression. But, in fact, the idea seems strangely far-fetched. It appears to be one that could hardly have been seriously entertained by a man worthy of the name of statesman ; and we cannot wonder that the English delegates treated it coldly when proposed to them at Berlin by Count Schouvaloff. The vigorous Europe of to-day, with all her mighty armaments, *s not the region to be over-run by Asiatics, however numerous, far less powerfully armed and totally unable in other respects to cope with her soldiers. If Count Schouvaloff made the remonstrance attributed to him, he must have concealed his true meaning. It is far more probable that what is feared by the Eussians is that the Eastern tribes whom they are now oppressing may be encouraged to resis- „ M? e i or tbat their further advance in Asia may be checked by the V taken by England in preparing to employ her Indian forces ay *ast them. The spirit of the Asiatic tribes may be roused, and they may be found more difficult to keep down or more persevering in resistance, by finding kindred people esteemed capable of confronting and subduing the Eussians at home, backed up by the whole strength of their empire. We do not, indeed, consider the intended employment of Indian troops well-judged ; but this is not because we have any doubt of its paving the way for an independent Eastern descent upon even Eussia, but because we think it unwise for England to have displayed her weakness, or given cause for it to be supposed she was weak, amongst a people and to an army that has already rebelled against her, and that may perhaps again rebel.

In looking through the columns of our contemporaries, we meet with much that is curious. Sometimes we are instructed, sometimes edified ; but occasionally we are amused or disgusted. We confess, however, that it was a combination of amusement and disgust which we experienced in coming across a certain controversial letter in the

columns of our contemporary the Tlutmes Advertiser, and -which purports to be a final clincher for the Church of Eome, and one that makes it as clear as daylight that no man with an ounce of common understanding could possibly belong to her communion. We, who actually do so, are all the merest simpletons ; there is nothing plainer than that her doctrines are a mass of contradiction, her councils,assemblies that give each other the lie, her Popes -opposed to other and to the councils, her saints fools, and her bishops ready to condemn in the most violent and undisguised terms the opinions and interpretations of her Popes. The miracle, in fact, of the prolonged existence and present vigour of the Church is shown to be more remarkable than even we had supposed it to be ; for, if it be difficult for an institution united in itself, and well knit togelher, to bear the storms and adversities of centuries, how much more difficult must it be for such a bedlam, as this strong controversialist to whom we refer asserts the Church to be ? Moreover, another thing he teaches us is that the word of -Christ has failed, for behold a house widely divided against itself, and yet it stands and promises to stand until the end of time. — Let us not forget Lord Macaulay 's New Zealander— and, by the way , let us remind our editorial friends who have helped to make him immortal, we might perhaps, indeed, say eternal, that even him they owe to the Catholic Church, for unless to illustrate the marvellous youth and vigour of this, he would never have been called into existence. But to return, our man up North is vastly erudite ; somewhere or another he has evidently managed to furbish up a volume of printed controversial sermons— by some Irish parson we will be bound, they are the boys who know how to do that sort of thing to perfection— and has gleaned out of it a prodigious list of names and dates ; but all beside the purpose. We know how such things are got up ;by suppressing a bit there, misinterpreting a passage here, mistranslating in another place, and occasionally by the bold assertion of a direct falsehood ; the thing is very simple. The fact is, however, our controversialist has made a grievous mistake ; his point is to prove that the "Apocrypha" was not pronounced canonical until this was done by the Council of Trent in 1546 ; but, alas ! for Ms conclusions, his text-book has not informed him that that portion of Scripture which Protestants consider apocryphal was included among the canonical Scriptures at a Council held 1149 years before thatof Trent— namely, the Third Council of Carthage. And again, that it was clearly defined as canonical at Florence in 1439. So much for his strong point, and the argument by which he has convinced the southern hemisphere that the whole Catholic world are comparable only to " asses." As for his details they are complete nonsense, and most nonsensically stated.

A -weiter who has contributed to the Melbourne Review an able article on colonial literature, amongst other reasons which he assigns for the failure in many instances of colonial authors to attain to the position to which their talents have entitled them, gives that of the jealously which he assumes, and possibly justly assumes, to prevail amongst certain literary men who, having failed to make an independent reputation for themselves, are lost amongst the anonymous crowd that supply with matter the columns of the newspaper Presr, He does not, indeed, in so many words accuse the reviewers to whom he alludes of jealousy ; he deals more delicately with them ; but, nevertheless, his meaning is very plain from the definition he gives of that " Bias of age and experience " which he attributes to the professional journalist. He says, "If he (the professional journalist) has attained to any position he is generally a man past middle life, and worn in the daily service of letters, but from the fact that his voluminous writings are anonymous, and upon ephemeral topics, he receives but scant personal recognition for his labours. Whatever his intellectual ability and requirements may be, so long as he takes refuge under the anonymity of the Press, he is vox, et prceterea nihU. Naturally, it annoys him beyond measure to notice on the title pages of books the names of obtrusive 1 young men — unless they happen to reside on the other side of the equator. He, himself, has not published a sonnet to his mistress' eye-brow these many years, and has not thought of bringing out even a sketchy book of travels for the last quarter of a century. There was a time when he may have attempted odes to Liberty, or love verses to Melinda, but now he devotes his talents to the more practical questions of Underground Sewage and Roll-stuffing. He has outlived the period when literature appears a$

a brilliant mistress, and has learned to regard her as a useful but prosaic wife. What can be more aggravating to him than those pert attempts of his juniors to bring themselves (too often, alas 1 at the expense of the printer) into public notice ; for there is no sin in others, so hideous in our own eyes, as that for which we have a natuial though restrained propensity. This will serve to show what I mean by the bias of age and experience ; and it is only by presupposing the existence of this bias, that we can account for the utterances of local journalists — who are of ten undoubtedly men. of ability — upon colonial books and authors." This we take it is a sufficiently clear definition of jealousy, although the writer has shunned to bring an open accusation of such an unbecoming motive against the journalists of whom he speaks. We are not now, however, especially concerned to examine so far into the matter as to discover whether the charge, which in truth loses nothing of its gravity by being tenderly advanced, is justly founded or not ; suffice it to say that, if it be, a graver vice prevails amongst colonial journalists, than even the puffing which so excited Lord Macaulay's disgust ; for if, according to his illustration, it be an unbecoming action to throw up caps, clap hands, and utter vivas in order to gain the applause of the rabble for an unworthy object, still more disgraceful is it to stand between a man worthy of applause and capable of benefitting his fellow creatures, and the position in which he may enjoy his deserts and exercise his wholesome influence. Verily it is not too much to say that, if such a state of things exist amongst our mediocre men of letters, there is again occasionally heard a voice of evil sound — " k As when those hinds that were transformed to frogs Railed at Latona's twin-boin progeny." We have, however, as we said, no intention of pursuing an enquiry into the justice of the charge in question, and it is, by the way, one much easier to advance than to disprove. But we should feel far more hopeful of its turning out to be false were we not obliged to recognise that jealousy of others who succeed in life is unfortunately a colonial failing generally, and one which all classes of people amongst us would do well to be on their guard against. Certainly there is no where in the world where actual misfortune is sympathised with or a helping hand stretched out to those who need it, more readily, and unquestioningly than in these colonies ; but no less certain is it that the temptation or tendency is very common among us to deprecate all success in which we do not personally share. We do not in the least ascribe this failing to malevolence, although in cases where anything is done to mar such success, as in that of the journalists already alluded to, it would be difficult to repel such a suspicion, but it is perhaps naturally to be expected in a new country that persons, who have not succeeded in raising themselves up to independence, should look upon those who have done so as reproaching them, in a manner, by giving tangible proofs of superior thrift, or cleverness, or whatever it may be ; and that those, who have succeeded in establishing themselves in life, should experience an enhanced sense of contentment by contemplating the falls or failures of others. It heightens the estimation in which they hold themselves to see that some who have had the ability to rise with them, or to their level, have not had the stability to abide there, and that there are many who vainly essay so to raise themselves. By force of contrast too, their position feels all the easier ; much as those fortunate folk who have obtained good places where there is abundance of room, from whence to view a public spectacle, may appreciate their position all the more from seeing how in the crowd below them people are jostled and elbowed about ; and yet all the time there is nothing that seems to prevent their being fully in charity with all men. But, nevertheless, we are confident that this feeling of jealousy is foolish at best, while it tends to lower the tone of the society in which it exists, and ntterly to corrupt the individual who gives way to it. It is one of our colonial failings whose growth it behoves us to resist.

" I am a determined character,"' said Mr. Creakle, " thats what I am." Determination, in short, is the cardinal virtue of the pedagogue, and we rejoice to find that a brilliant example of it is present here amongst us in Dnnedin, for the encouragement of the well disposed and the chastisement of evil doers. Professor Macgregor, a shining light of our University of Otago, or rather alight which it is but civil to suppose would be found to shine if there were anything worth speaking of to reflect its rays, is as firm as a rock. Homer when he wants to illustrate the determination of the great Ajax does not hesitate to compare that hero to a jackass, and, therefore, we trust we shall not be considered to make an improper comparison when we say, in fact, that the Professor is as immovable as a mule. He does not understand why the least concession should be made under any circumstances, and accordingly on the last occasion of his breaking in upon the dulre far nicnte entailed by his professional career, to attend the meeting of that learned body in whose hands the educational interests of the city are centred, he passed a censure on the Government for departing, or seeming to depart, from what, had it any true meaning, would be a grossly oppressive measure, and one that in a country calling itbolf free would openly give the lie to any such

pretence as freedom. The Professor thinks that no system of education can be considcicd national that does not exclude from all participation in public life every native of the country not educated in strict compliance with the rales of that system, for it necessarily follows that, if none but pupils of the public Government schools are to be considered fit for the civil service, none but such ought to be considered eligible to any other public position either. Now there is very much of the spirit of the traditional pedagogue apparent in such an utterance, that is to say, a spirit of peculiar narrowness, smallness of mind, self-opinionativeness, and obstinacy. It is a very small mind, and a very small mind only, that cannot conceive how any one may reasonably object to tread in the one particular pati»chosen and approved by itself ; it requires self opinionativeness to adhere to such views in spite of all representations to the contrary, and obstinacy to maintain this course. All this Professor Macgregor has proved himself amply possessed of. But what may Professor Macgregor's qualifications be to pronounce as to what a national system of education ought to be ? No one who has seen much of the world will jump at the conclusion that because a man has managed to have the title Professor prefixed to his name, he is a man of brilliant talent or even of deep learning. There have been ere now, men who had by some means or other so crammed themselves up for particular examinations as to havetaken fellowships even in European universities by competition, and yet who afterwards had fallen into such sluggish, ways, continually betraying ignorance of even the commonest subjects, as to have become butts for the wit of the undergraduates they essayed to teach. Our conviction is that a man is to be judged, not by what he has been known at one time to have taken in, but by what he has subsequently given out ; and really there is nothing in the world to lead us to suppose that anyone connected with the Otago University is of any remarkable talent, or an authority on any earthly subject but the mere letter of whatever it may be he is engaged to teach. There is no reason, especially, why we should conclude that Professor Macgregor's idea of a national system of education should be anything more exalted than the idea of a system that would provide agreeably for the temporal, and what he believes to be the spiritual, interests of colonists who hail, themselves or their forbears, from North Britain, and which in all its higher branches will continue to afford pleasant refuges for professors that have, it may be, worked hard to qualify themselves for their title, but since its acquisition have been content to rest upon their laurels in the enjoyment of virtual sinecures. But,— God help the school-masters 1 are they indeed to have another Pandora's box opened under their very noses ? Arc they to be required to recommend youths as qualified for Government situations 1 They have up to this been subject enough, heaven knows, to the suspicions and complaints of parents, but now their will be no limit to the matter. They will be the perpetual mark for jealousy and envenomed feelings of every kind ; we pity them. There is, however, another consideration as Well connected with this arrangement : if the recommendation in question is to rest with the committee there will be something to elect committee-men for. When the question of loaves and fishes once steps in the affair becomes interesting ; candidates for the membership of the committee will be seen in quite a different light, and, we doubt not, canvassing and election will be based on quite other grounds. This is a point which we conclude his sagacity has already revealed to Mr. Fish. It is one of that class of small things which lies in his line, and affords a field for the exercise of his peculiar talents. Nevertheless the fact is we have no faith whatever in this high sounding arrangement ; we do not believe there is the least chance of any such regulation being honestly carried out. Whoever recommends the youths or whoever may be the youths recommended, Ministers and Members of Parliament will not forego one iota of their accustomed patronage ; nor can they afford to do it. The idea is chimerical and ridiculous in the extreme. It must have originated with Mr. Stout.

" ilethought I heard a lady's voice Lamenting in the tower." Captive ladies are certainly amongst the most pathetic figt^w in history. It is impossible to refrain from a feeling of pity even for the Greek Helen — guilty though she was, a voluntary prisoner, and the cause of innumerable misfortunes — when Venus spitefully brings home to her the unhappy situation in which she is placed, and threatens to turn all those amongst whom she finds herselt into her implacable enemies if she presumes to contradict the goddess's will. Nor can we help deeply commiserating the sad lot of that unhappy Chinese princess, who, as a historian tells us, in an age anterior to Christianity was married amongst the Tartars — without her consent asked most probably, poor dame — and longed in their wild abode for wings, a common wish of the weary and solitary, to carry her back to the land .of her people ; and, again, the fate of a Christian lady, daughter of Eudes of Aquitaine, who was carried away to Damascus, strikes us as one of the most deplorable events of individual misfortune narrated in the early history of modern Europe. The captive ladies, in short of all countries and ages have ever been objects of interest, and

chivalrous regret to every manly heart. And yet it is a startling fact that such ladies will never perish out of the land ; they are ever present with us, and we are'utterly impotent to deliver them ; in fact, we see no probability whatever of their being at any time or in any manner delivered. We do not now allude to those ladies held captive by a life of single blessedness, of whom, let gallantry flatter as it will, there must be always found a* certain quantity ; still less do we allude to ladies married, but not to their tastes, since for these kindly legislatures have here and there provided the means of deliverance, of which it is, in fact, rumoured they arc by no means slow to avail themselves. But we allude to the tyranny exercised over the sex > universally by fashion, and which rules some who arc willing slaves, and some who no doubt are unwilling, but all universally in a greater or lesser degree. We are reminded of this wonderful truth by a hint that we have somewhere or other seen in a paragraph from a London paper to the effect that a move is now trembling in the balance of feminine fancy. It is, in short, contemplated to depart from the ruling mode and return to that prevalent in its height some fifteen or twenty years ago, and whose chief feature was the crinoline — a generic term used to describe various constructions of cane, steel, horsehair, or goodness knows what, but whose end and object was to stick out the person to astonishing dimensions. Now it is by no means to be supposed that this is an indifferent matter ; no cynic, even of the most dried up and acrid old batchelor class, need try to pass it off as of no consequence, or sueeringly assert that the life of women must of necessity be taken up with some such trifles, and that the peculiar form taken by them signifies in nothing. It does signify very much, for it means no less than a matter 'that will gravely affect the temper, time, and comfort of one-half of civilized mankind, and surely that cannot be said to be a light thing, or of little consequence. But . into this it is not for us to enter deeply ; the affair is one that would fitly occupy the attention of a philosopher, and that we profess not to be. There is, however, an aspect of the matter that meets tho superficial view, on which we do take upon us to remark ; if crinoline pulls down the scale, one half of civilized mankind will require about three times the room it now occupies upon the surface of the carth — it might, by the way, delight an arithmetician to calculate the exact increase of area in square miles necessary to give it standing room — and will in consequence encroach seriously upon the territorial rights of the other half of civilized mankind. There will, in short, ensue an usurpation of a greater extent of territory than has often led to sanguinary wars. But wherein is centred the tyranuy of fashion ; what is it that directs this variation of the female costume and make up ? It is certainly not regulated by a desire to please the sterner sex : that seems well established, for the sterner sex invariably finds the loudest fault with whatever the fashion of the period may be, and all to no purpose. How often have we not heard the " pull back " style of the present day ridiculed and complained of. It has been likened to many kinds of reptiles — " Scorpion, and asp, and amphibbrena dire, Cerastes borncd, bydrus, and clops drear." And, in fact, it does not require a very extensive acquaintance with the Australian bush to recognise that there is a stiikiug resemblance between certain of the costumes prevalent and the shape of the iguana, the dew lizard, or others of the denizens of the woods. It is almost sufficient, in some instances, to qualify the wearers for appearing as representatives of such straitened creatures in masquerades or hcevf gras processions, or occasions of this kind. Nor can the ruling motive of the fashion be the setting off of personal appearance ; all shapes are not alike. Colour, indeed, ma} r be altered to suit individuals ;it is possible to tone down a red rose, or to tone up a pallid cheek. But. cut is inflexible ; what becomes the dumpy will not become the scraggy, and that which displays the graceful will expose the clumsy The thing is a mystery to whose unravelling there is no clue. The tyrant rules with an iron rod, but there is none to explain on what his existence depends ;or whence his power directly springs. But why we dwell upon this subject ; is it that we hope in any thing to fluence the matter ? Verily, no ;we arc not so insane, aud had as lief undertake to drain Lake Wakatip with a porringer, or bridge Cook's Straits with oyster shells. The matter is a current topic of importance ; it treats of the comfort, circumference, and appearance of one half of civilized mankind, and we feel that it would be disrespectful to overlook it. That is all.

Apeopos of criticism, on which our thoughts have been turned by the article from the Melbourne Ileclcw to which we have already alluded, it strikes us as just barely possible that a certain luckless wight who in his day received a most unmerciful dressing from a hand that, unfortunately for those of whom it fell foul, has immortalized all it touched, may have been in a few instances not quite fairly dealt with. We allude to Mr. Robert Montgomery, whom the world knows now only as the victim of Lord Macaulay's scathing review. As alj the world knows, amongst the weaknesses of the hapless poet pointed

out by his reviewer certainly the most reprehensible are some cases of what seems to be direct plagiarism. These are passages, affirmed to ha stolen from Sir Walter Scott, Campbell, Dryden, and Lord Byron, and sadly marred in the stealing. Now it appears to us that after all there exists a possibility that Montgomery had no intention whatever of making a misuse of his neighbour's goods, but that either lie had unwittingly employed ideas that he had received from the writers in question, forgetting all about the passages referred to, or that such ideas did actually originate also with himself. And we are encouraged in adopting such a charitable belief by finding that here and there in the writings of authors of eminence, and elevated beyond the reach of all suspicion, we find passages in which there are ideas, apparently original, but which bear a close resemblance to others to be found elsewhere in works published before tho3e in which they occur were written. In Tennyson's "Gareth and Lynette," for instance, the hero is described as grasping a spear "— — of grain Storm-strengthened on a windy site." But Agamemnon is described by Homer (11. 11, 256) as having just such a spear. The Laureate evidently in writing had the idea in his mind without suspecting that it was not properly his own. Otherwise, no doubt, he would have acknowledged his indebtedners in a note ; the occasion of his borrowing not being sufficient to require notice in a preface such as Macaulay gives to prepare us, for example, to find Sarpedon's words in the mouth of Horatius, — " To every man upon this earth Death conieth soon or late." But again, in " David Copperfield," amongst a few sentences written by little Em'ly to Ham the following passage occurs :—": — " In another world, if lam forgiven, I may wake a child and come to you." The circumstances under which this was written, no less than the sentiment, strikingly recall to us an exquisite passage in " Guinevere." " Perchance, and so thon purify thy soul, And so thou lean on our fair father Christ, ] lereafter in that world where nil are pure VTo two may meet before high God, aud thou AVilfc spring to me, and claim me thine, aud know I am thy husband " Yet there can be no suspicion that there was any connection batween the origin of the latter utterance and the existence of the former. It is more difficult to believe that the second of those two passages which follow is altogether independent of the first ; for we cannot suppose George Eliot not to be intimately acquainted with, or to be forgetful of, Shakespeare, '• O, my Antonio, I do know of these, That therefore oiOy are reputed wiao For saying nothing ; who, I am very Siirc, If they should speak, would almost damn those e.u's Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fooli." " Comprehensive talkers are apt to be tiresome when we are not alhirst for information, but, to be quite fair, we must admit that superior reticence is a good deal due to the lack of matter. Speech is often barren ; but silence also does not necessarily brood over a full nest. Your still fowl blinking "at you without remark, may all the while bp sitting on one addled nest-egg : and when it takes to cackling, will have nothing to announce but that addled delusion.' 1 (Felix Holt, Chap, xvi.) The illustration is strikingly original but tlie truth it conveys had already found a tongue to utter it. Again, Charles Dickens published " Oliver Twist " some seven or eight years after Carlyle had written " Sartor Resartus," and the former said in his work :—": — " Strip the bishop of his apron, or the beadle of his hat and lace ; what are they 1 Men. Mere men. Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than some people imagine." Carlyle had previously given expression to the same doctrine ; for example, " Much therefore we omit about ' kings wrestling naked on the^grean with carmen' and the kings behig thrown : ' dissect them with scalpels,' says Tcufelsdrockh ; ' the same viscera, tissues, livers, lights, and other live-tackle are there : examine their spiritual mechanism ; the same great need, great greed, and little faculty Whence, then, their so unspeakable difference ? From Clothes.' " But before either Carlyle or Dickens had written, this doctune of theirs had received a rough exemplification, which it may not be out of place here to narrate. It happened in this wise : Sometime about tLe end of the last century there was resident in Dublin a worthy, known as Bully Egan, a man as his name indicates, of repute for duelling, brawling, and all the unfortunate habits at the period deemed becoming in a gentleman. This worthy, then, went one day to take a bath, in a public bathing place, much and fashionably frequented at the time, and pluuging in according to his blustering ways, created a prodigious splash. Whereon an elderly gentleman, already stripped and in the pond, remonstrated, basing his objection to a ducking on the fact that he was the Archbishop of Dublin. The Bully, however, was not inclined to be civil, and therefore retorted, in coarse language — which it is not necessaiy for us to repeat — that, if his Grace wished for courteous treatment while in a state of nudity, it would be advisable for him to have his mitre painted in a conspicuous position on the arcttiepiscopal

person. We do not suppose that either Carlyle or Dickens ever heard this anecdote, and yet. it certainly suggests the philosophy they teach. Thus we see that there is much to bo found in the writings of great authors which has not been in substance, originated by them, and, therefore, we think it but natural to expect to find in the publications of small writers much that we have already heard, it may be even in detail. When reading the terrible critique, then, on poor Robert Montgomery, we are led to hope that, although, he certainly was wonderfully silly, he may be absolved from the accusation of wilful plagiarism. But what has this to do with Current Topics, under which heading we write 1 so much, that an attempt to deal ■^charitably with all men ought always to pass current ; and that the extracts we have given are at all times worthy of perusal.

While so much is being done by men in public life to injure and repress the Catholic Church amongst us, it is encouraging to find that the private enterprise of Catholics is everywhere offering a barrier which it is impossible for our enemies to overcome. However small or insignificant the Catholic community may be, everywhere the same energy is remarkable, and the good will with which they go to work, and the perseverance of their efforts more than atone for their fewness in numbers or moderate possession of means. Amongst the most deserving of such communities in New Zealand, it is gratifying for us to have to record tho name of the Catholics of Wanganui. It is not long since, few as they are in number and limited in wealth, they completed a Church in which the Divine Mysteries maybe becomingly celebrated, and now we learn that they are rapidly completing the erection of a Presbytery, which will serve for long years to come for the residence of the clergymen to whom the mission amongst them is entrusted. No doubt a good deal of the credit of such undertakings, and their successful results, depends upon the priest who inaugurates them ; but it is none the less true that, unless such a priest has a willing people to work amongst, his task becomes difficult of accomplishment, and wearisome in the extreme. The Rev. Father Kirk, then, has been most fortunate in finding himself placed over a congregation that have always been anxious to second his efforts for the establishment of the Church on a proper footing amongst them, and willing to make any sacrifices which such an effort demanded. The Presbytery now approaching completion is built in the upright Gothic style ; it is a two-storied house, the ground floor containing a hall, six feet in breath ; on the left of which is a reception room lift, x 12ft., and on the right a large apartment capable of being divided into two by means of folding doors, and tho dimensions of which are 21ft. x loft. • the height of both rooms being 12f fc. To the back of these lie the servants' room, kitchen, and scullery. The rooms over head are 10ft. in height, and consist of a large apartment, which, like that immediately beneath, is constructed so as to be divided at will by folding doors, and which it is contemplated to make use of as a bedroom and study. Opposite to this and over the reception room are two bedrooms, which with a bathroom, complete the floor. The building will have a remarkably good appearance from the outside, and when the laying out of the grounds, already to soms extent carried on, has been accomplished, the effect will bo extremely goo-l. The contractors for the Presbytery are Messrs. Corcoran, Anderson and Gray.