Occasional Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 345, 28 November 1879, Page 14

Occasional Notes.

His Lordship the Bishop of the Diocese returned to Dunedin on Tuesday last.

The exercises of the Jubilee will be conducted in Dunedin during the approaching holy season of Advent.J

A Catholic school was opened last Monday at Halswell, near Christchurch. There was a large attendance.

Mr. Moeoney, who so creditably filled for a considerable time the position of Catholic teacher at Oamaru, has been appointed master of the Catholic school at Leeston.

Although it is hardly worth while to allude to the vulgar scolding administered the other night at the Princess Theatre, Dunedin, to the editor of our contemporary the Saturday Advertiser, we may remark that in scoffing at his abilities the vituperative candidate insulted also the literary judgment of pretty nearly every editor in New Zealand. We rarely pass a week without finding in one or more of our exchanges, collected from all parts of the colony, copious extracts from the pen of the gentleman to whom we allude.

"The Old Identities," by an old identity, published by Messrs. Mills, Dick & Co., Dunedin, is a work relating to the early times of Otago and its first settlers. It contains a great deal of information likely to be valuable to those who take an interest in the inauguration and progress of colonial settlement ; its chief charm, however, will be for those who have witnessed the scenes, and personally known the people commemorated in it. It will doubtless afford to such many a thoughtful hour amongst the memories of the past. The book is illustrated with portraits, and sketches, amongst the former of which we find some faces full of manliness and intellect; but the latter are chiefly of a humourous nature, and admonish us that, although " beauty is but skin deep," it is just as well that the " human countenance divine " has gained in grace here as the settlement has progressed. Certainly none of the "identities" thus represented, if the likenesses be true, could ever have felt much pleasure in making " mouths in a glass." The work is well printed, and tastefully turned out, but coming as it does from the firm of Messrs. Mills & Co. no less could possibly have been expected.

We are requested to acknowledge with thanks on the part of the Dominican Sisters the receipt of the following donations towards the approaching bazaar : — Fancy goods, Mesdames Haggarty, Lennon, Heggarty, Horn, and Miss M. Slynes ; handsome dress material, Mrs. Lennon ; meerschaum pipe, Mr. Wm. Cantwell ; pair of bronze shoes, Mr. J. Moroney, Oamara. Block of art-union tickets, Messrs. E. Capel, and Galvin, Waimate. The holders of bazaar collecting listo, who have not already returned them to the convent, are requested to do so without further delay.

The bazaar in aid of the Dominican Convent building fund, Dunedin, will be opened in the Garrison Hall on Tuesday next, 2nd December, at 2 p.m., by his Lordship the Bishop of the Diocese. The undertaking promises to be most successful ; nothing can equal the energy with which the ladies engaged in promoting it have worked, and arrangements have teen made by which a variety of excellent musical entertainments ■will be kept up almost without intermission. One or two of our leading band-masters, and Mr. A. H. Norman, who is now universally acknowledged to be already one of the most accomplished musicians in this city, have most kindly promised to assist. The hall will be prepared under the supervision of Mr. F. "W. Petre, the distinguished architect. A New Zealand Punch, entitled Sunshine, put in an appearance at Dunedin last week. It is a humourous publication, giving promise of better things. We beg to direct the attention of our readers to the list of prizes won in the late Art-union in aid of the Sisteis of Mercy at Wellington. We are requested, further, to return thanks, on the part of the community in question, to the friends who have so kindly helped them in their late undertaking. Oub critique of the late concert in aid of the Dunedin Catholic Association has unfortunately been crowded out this week, J

A preliminary examination was held on Friday, Oct. 21st., in the Roman Catholic School, Ahaura. The local clergy and some of the laity acted as examiners. The senior class contested a valuable prize. It was won by Master Frank M'lvor, nephew to the late Mr. Hayden, he having answered ninety per cent, of the whole within a ■trict examination of twenty minutes. Master Thomas Kinsella, a boy nine years old, was awarded a second prize for his answering. PThe examinations having been resumed in the afternoon, Master Kercy Ryan distinguished himself in the Latin declension of nouns and adjectives, and Robert Boylen in the extraction of cubic roots. The answering, on the whole, was most satisfactory. Both the efficiency and discipline reflect great credit on the teacher, Mr. Timothy O'Brien, late of Cnristchurch.