Occasional Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 336, 26 September 1879, Page 14

Occasional Notes .

We record this week with much regret the death of Mr. James Martin, ajgentleman well-known and universally respected in Dunedin, which occurred, after a long and painful illness borne with all the resignation of a sincere Christian, on Saturday morning last. During last year Mr. Martin filled the place of a director of the New Zealand Tablet Company, whose duties he fulfilled with his accustomed ability and conscientiousness. — JR.I.P.

The usual committee meeting of the Dunedin Catholic Association was held on last Monday evening, the vice-president in the chair. It was announced that an evening's entertainment in the shape of essays, readings and recitations would take place on next Friday evening the 3rd proximo.

We have been requested to acknowledge, on the part of the Dominican Sisters, the receipt, per the Misses Potter, of £3 Bs. in aid of their bazaar fund. Arrangements for the art-union are now nearly completed, several very beautiful prizes are already in hand, in the course of preparation, or ordered from England. The most atti active articles on the list will be two tables of mosaic, similar to those which are now attracting so much attention in the Italian Court at the Sydney Exhibition. One of these tables is intended to form a chess board, every alternate square being a piece from some different description of rare marble. The other is a beautiful work in inlaid marbles also, with a picture of the colosseum in the midst. There will also be a picture of the Holy Family in exquisite needle-work, designed by a German artist ; St. Joseph stands by the side of the Blessed Virgin, who sits with the Divine Infant in her arms, while an angel kneels in front singing to the music of a lyre. The figures are of a peculiar grace and beauty, and the design is quite original. There are several other beautiful prizes, and the tickets would now at once be issued, since there is already quite a sufficient store on hand to justify this, but the Sisters are anxious that their present undertaking should prove as satisfactory to their friends and patrons as did the last, and therefore they are still delaying the printing of the tickets u.itil an opportunity has been offorded to all those who are dcsiious of helping them to send in such contributions to the prize lihl as it may suit them to bestow. They are requested, therefore, to do so, in order that the good work mny be pushed ahead, and all prepared for the drawing in June nex t. A special art-union will be

held again in connection with the general one, at which everyone who has disposed of £5 worth of tickets will be entitled to draw. It is hoped, then, that all friends of the Dominican Convent will no I kindly exert themselves in its cause, so as to facilitate the carrying ' out of this undertaking with all speed, smoothness, and success.

Elsewhere will be found a paragraph from the Evening Tribune testifying, on the authority of two of our Dunedin editors, to some of the marvellous cures performed by Professor Wallenberg and Dr. Grant. The visit of these gentlemen to Dunedin bids fair, we perceive, to prove a boon to numbers of our afflicted fellow- colonists.