CELEBRATION OF THE BISHOP OF DUNEDIN'S TWENTY-THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF CONSECRATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 314, 25 April 1879, Page 15

CELEBRATION OF THE BISHOP OF DUNEDIN'S TWENTY-THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF CONSECRATION.

On Sunday last, the Boys attending the Christian Brothers' Schools in Dunedin presented an address of congratulation to his Lordship the Bishop of the Diocese. The Address, which was presented on behalf of the pupils by Masters A. Court, C. Masterton and F. Walker in one of the school halls, some time before the commencement, at 11 a.m., of the Pontifical High Mass, was read by Master Frederick Walker, and ran as follows : — •' My Lord, — We, the pupils of the Christian Brothers' Schools, Dunedin, respectfully approach your Lordship, to testify to you our filial love, and to join our young hearts in the cordial felicitations offered to you by your loving people on this happy day, the twentythird anniversary of your episcopal consecration. My Lord, we are yet too young to fnlly appreciate the sterling good wrought in our midst by the untiring efforts you have made, and are daily making, in the cause of our holy religion. But we are not too young to value the good of the priceless system of Christian education which your zealous efforts have provided for us. We have heard from our parents, and the goo'l Brothers who instruct us, the great sacrifices made by your Lordship and your excellent Clergy to secure this great boon for us. For this, and for the many personal acts of kindness we have received from your Lordship, we beg to offer you our heartfelt thanks. We trust that our career in after life will repay to some extent the labours you have undertaken for our welfare, and that we will ever show ourselves worthy children of Holy Church, and zealous defenders of her Faith. In conclusion, we pray that God, who in His gracious Providence has ordained you to be our chief pastor, may continue to bless you and strengthen j'ou in your arduous duties, until it shall please His Divine Will to call you to Himself, and give you the reward reserved for those who have zealously laboured in His service. This, my Lord, shall ever be the earnest prayer of your humble and devoted children — the pupils of the Christian Brothers." In reply his Lordship said (we ta^e the report of this address from the Daily Times') i— lw My children, this address that you have presented to me gives me the greatest satisfaction and pleasure. It is to me a source of great consolation to be enabled to come here today to see so many children assembled in this school-rojm. This is the object for which I labour, and it is the first object that I have in view. Without a Christian education there is very little hope for any one in this world or in the next, and if you are deprived of such an education your lot will he very deplorable indeed. So far as I am concerned in this great work, too much credit has been given to me. Personally I can do very little indeed, and if you now enjoy the great blessing of Christian education, this is clue principally to the good Brothers who instruct yon, and to your own open-handed, generous parents, who contribute so largely for the maintenance of these schools. My work is an easy one. I have only to suggest, to direct, and to guide, but the great labour devolves upon others, and, as you know well, that labour has not been grudged. My reward for the little I have done is already very great, and that reward consists in seeing you here assembled in such large numbers, and already beginning to set a proper value on the blessings that have been vouchsafed to you. If you continue as you are going on,' and be. as I have no doubt you will be, zealous Catholics and good members of society, I shall be more than amply rewarded. I shall •say no more now to you, as I shall have to reply to another address in the course of the day, and the only other remark with which I will trouble you is this : that it is for your own interest in time and in eternity to co-operate zealously with those who are placed over you in these schools. Be attentive here, labour to profit by the instructions that you receive ; in the playground act with charity and as little Christian gentlemen. While going to and from school let your conduct bu marked by the greatest propriety ; and in your homes prove by your obedience and docility, and the gentleness of your demeanour to yenr parents, and all others that may know you, that you have leceived true and solid lessons in these schools, and profited largely by them. I impress upon you most earnestly to take mj r advice, as I have no doubt you will. Depend upon it, by-and-bye when you arrive at mauhood,^you will be filled with the greatest giatitudc for the innumerable Dencfits of which these schools have been the source, and to the good Brothers who so devotedly attended to your education. God bless you 1 "