Untitled

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 32, 7 December 1883, Page 16

A Branch of the Irish National League was formed at Notown Grey Valley, on the' sth of. November, which to all appearance bids, fair to be a grand success. The meeting was adjourned to the 25th, at which the following gentlemen were unanimously elected for the ensuing six months :— Mr. J. Fiynn, President ; Mr. J. O'Reilly, Yiee-President ; Mr. M. Molone, Treasurer ; and Mr. J. Kerrigan, secretary. After revising rules, and transacting otter business of a routine nature, the meeting was adjourned to February 1. We are glad to learn that the method of paying off the debt on the Dominican Convent at Invercargill by means of weekly subscriptions has been originated and taken up by the people with so much anthustaem that the debt is likely to be wiped out by it, together with such accidental contributions as may come in, in about twelve monthsThiß system of paying church debts, which has worked such wonders elsewhere, with so much ease to the people, cannot but be successful, and aided by the donations of country friends, the fulfilment of promises made, and the holding of a concert, and, perhaps, in about a year, a bazaar, cannot fail to remove the weight that at present oppresses the little community. THB . Melbourne Advocate very pertinently remarks that the Argus has published four or five prominent articles, all to prove that ths Irish- Australian Convention was a deid f.iilure and quite unworthy of notice.' The Australasian a-so, which is an enlarged edition of the Argus, has published several ai tides on the same subject. We gather from a coupla of correspondents -who wtfite to our contemporary the Qraaf Jteinet Advertiser that they take things pretty easy in the South African colonies. These gentlemen have evidently returned there recently from Australia, and give their fellow-colonists the benefits of their experience. The first—Mr. W. O. Parkes— explains that Australia is no better than their own Colony, because people there work -harder to earn higher wages. He

says no one who has been in South Africa for ten years should go to Australia. « Farmers had better, not go, for it. seemed to me the Australian farmers ara the hardest worked and worst paid clasa. Labourers had better not 50, because theycau never stand the work. Mechanics are the best off, they. can generally, get. into something, if not good then reasonable." And as to cleric;?, he describes their condition as one of starvation pure and simple. Of New Zealand this gentleman gives a still paorer opinion. "Though I did not go.th.ere myself," he says,." I spoke to many people who had been there, and from them I gathered that things there are dearer and fiuer^cut in every way. In fact the country is getting over-crowded, and' many people have already come^over from there to Australia to better themselves." The olher correspondent also refers to the hard work done in the colonies. <f You wonder how it is that farmers, "he says, " can pay such wages and still sell produce so cheap. The fact is that when the farmer's wife wants a drink she does not call : .' Kaatje bring me a cup of coffee, or a glass of water.' Neither does the farmer when he wants to light his pipe call : ' Klaas, bring me a stick of fire.' They fetch it themselves. They all work, sir, work ; and that is how they manage it." " The killing of the nun in Belfast," says the Nation of October 20, "is evidently not to be the only deed of its kind to which' Sic Stafford Nerthcote can point as the result of his recent campafcn amongst the Orange fanatics of the North. On Saturday night an attempt was made to barn dow,a ,a Lani League ho,t ,afc Gtor^ayoy, Bridge, county Tyrone, witl\ his occupants.— an old evicted tenant and his wife ; and in all probability the crims of 'murder as well as arson would have been consummated but for the vigilance of the old couple, who detected the fire before it had' tune to burst into .flame In the case of the nun, Sir Stafford Northcote allowed three days to. elapse before he uttered even a halting deprecation of the outrage ; in the case of this second characteristic manifestation of Orange fanaticism, he bids fair not to speak at all. We hope, however, that when Parliament re-assembles he will ba catechised on the subject. He 'and the other firebrands who have lately been striving to fan the flame of Sectarian strife in Belfast and Deny are morally responsible for both crimes, and they .should be shown to be so ia the face of the world. Me J. E. B.edmoot> took the occasion the other day of a lecture given by him at Adelaide to contradict Mr Archibald Porbes's statements concerning him made in the Nbieteenth Century iS He has said," remarked Mr. Redmond, " that when I first citne to Australia I spoke with my usual excitable manner, but that my first lectures were attended by riots, causad by the indignant loyalty of the people of Australia ; that in consequence of that indignant loyalty culminating in riots, I saw fit to alter my tone, and that I therefore actually caused the National Anthem to be sung at every future meeting. These statements may seem to be small matters, bat they are deliberate falsehoods. They cannot, "by any possibility, be mistakes, because Forbes and I went through the colonies together. He knew what pecured at my meetings as well as I knew what occurred at his, and these statements are deliberate falsehoods." Mr Redmond then gave a categorical denial to each statement of Forbes reflecting on him. The Nation says :— The speech of the Marquis of WateTford at the Orange banquet to Sir Stafford Northcote in Belfast must have been something like a bombshell thrown into the midst of the revellers. It contained, of course, the usual Tory denunciations of the National party, but it also contained an emphatic condemnation of the English policy which destroyed the manufactures of Ireland and now banishes the Irish across the ocean instead of finding them employment at home ; and, besides, it was a direct appeal to England to help in re-establishing the manufactures of Ireland and trying the experiment of a peasant proprietary. That is to say, it was a speech of the sort the English Tory leader, who would announce no policy for Ireland, least liked to hear. We would not give much for the marquis's chance of a "post in the next Tory administration. A Tory with ideas harmonising to any extent with Irish popular opinion ia" a marked man" amongst the members of the compiling ring. x - - Ma. John Murdoch is bringing the " unaided Word," in G^lic and English, to bear on the land question in Scotland with good effect. He has compiled a leaflet for circulation containing several texts supporting the doctrine of the land for the people, — and which it is calculated will prove a- two-edged sword in the hands of the Highlanders. " The minister and people of a district visited in advance of the Royal Commission by Mr. Murdoch," says the Nation's correspondent, " were assembled together in the church to receive instruction and assistance in preparing a statement of their case in English. As a preparatory exercise the minister read an extract from the first chapter of Nehemiah, after which Mr. Murdoch turned to the fifth chapter of the same book and read from toe first to the thirteenth verses, evidently to the discomfort of the parson and- the •onsolation of the people, the peremptory orders given to the Jews to restore to the people 'their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses '—an order which the Jews instantly obeyed." But, as is usual otherwise, it appears that in this matter also

there are "varieties of interpretation, and every ' one makes the " unaided Word " testify to that what which suits him best. " The 7 Scriptural case againßtthe present system is so put by Mr. Murdoch," adds the correspondent," that the supporters and satellites of landlordism now repudiate the inspired teachings of lawgivers, prophets, and apostles." In another letter he says : " The Royal Commission which resumed its inquiries on the sixth of this month at Lybster Caithness-shire, after a brief holiday, has procured much valuableevidence of the desolation of landlordism in that and the adjoining counties of Sutherland and Boss. Mr. Angus Sutherland submitted on behalf of the crofters of Eelmsdale the moat conclusive and unanswerable statement that has yet been published. A lengthened and severe cross-examination failed to shake his position in the slightest degree. By the aid of a rigorou3 logic he demolished the pleas and sophisms of the Duke of Sutherland's satellites, and demonstrated that the decendants of the burnt-out crofters were paying 33 3d per acre for the worst land in the county, while the fertile glens were let to the big farmers for sevenpence an acre." The Melbourne Advocate of Nov. 24 writes as follows — in connection we conclude with the report published here also that Archbishop Goold had forbiden the uso of Catholic schoolrooms to political meetings and otherwise placed certain restrictions on his piWsts : — " In the distressing circumstances in whioh it is placed, we should not grudge the Argus a little comfort, and therefore it is no pleasure to us to fie obliged to draw from tinder it one of those clumsily constructed and very shaky props on which it has" built its case against the Convention. That journal lias made a great deal of a circular, which it alleged, each priest in the archdiocese had received, instructing him not to attend political meetings, and to refuse the use of the Catholic schools for such a purpose. No circular imposing uncommon restrictions on the discretion of the clergy in charge o districts has been issued. In a few instances long established diocesan Jules hare been brought under the notice of clergymen, but the Argus could not find room in its ; editorial apartment for the number of priests of the archdiocese who have not received any notice on the subject, and among these are dignitaries of the Church. The Argus is welcome to any comfort it can extract from this explanation." We borrow from the Melbourne Advocate the following excellent, instructive, and suggestive note, which we recommend to the Tery attentive consideration of our Irish readers : — According to'the Argus, Irish Australian leaders were absent from the Convention. Who are they, and what constitutes their title to leadership ? IE intellectual calibre, we could name half-a-dozen men who were identified with the Convention, whose superiors are not among the absent. If wealth constitutes leadership the Convention certainly was not deficient in that sense. And if political influence among the Irish people is meant, it was contained in a large measure in the Convention. Is there one of the absent men, who, against the wishes of those men assembled at the Convention, conld secure the votes of their countrymen in any part of Australia? Emphatically, not one. There is not one of these absent me a who to-morrow, on his own merits, and regardless of the good-will and support of the men who eat at that Convention, or were represented there, could hope to win an election with the aid of his countrymen. Ihe absent men got from the men who were present, or from men of their character all they possess in the way of influence or position, and for anything further they may seek, they will have to look to those to whom they are already so much indebted. From their English or Scotch fellowcolonists they never got very much, and in the future they have still less to expect. The political power of tbe Irish in these colonies was represented at that Convention, and the Argus knows it. That power is in the keeping of the branch Leagues throughout these colonies, as some of the absent may yet find out to their cost. At the annual meeting of the Society for the Promotion of Morality held the other evening in Melbourne, the Rev. D. Jones Hamer spoke in reference to the charges lately brought by him against the public schools. The Age repoits him thus :— "He was quite content to accept all the blame that had been cast upon him in connection with this matter, but be had nothing to regret and no«|pog to retract in connection with it. Terrible, awful, and appalling as the bald statement appeared to be, he had had less hesitation in giving publicity to it than he would otherwise have had, because it fell in along parallel lines with what had been communicated to him by a competent authority, a medical man, who ha since repeated his statements, in order to make it clear that there j had been no mistake. It might, Mr. Hamer suggested, be asked why were not the Dames given of the parties concerned, and he supplied the answer by stating that it was to save the heartbroken parents and sorrowing friends from further pain that this information was withheld. He had had a large inroad of correspondence supporting i the general statement as to the immoral practices amongst children, I but the writers in all cases eD joined secrecy."^ We are happy to learn that the fears concerning Father J. T. I Woods, in connection with tbe Java eruptions, have proved ground- I less, he having communicated with his friends in Adelaide. i

The Redemptorist Fathers opened their mission at St. Joseph's - Church, Dunedin, on Sunday, at 11 a.m. The missionaries were met at the door of the Church by the bishop, and conducted by him in procession to the sanctuary. Mass was tnen celebrated by the Rev. Father Lynch, and on the conclusion of the gospel the Very Rev. Father Vaughan ascended the platform, and delivered the opening sermon, explaining the nature of a mission, and exhorting all to attend it diligently and with the proper dispositions. The cbStch was crowded, and such was again the case in the evening, when theRev, Father Hegarty preached. At 3 p.m. the children's mission began, and it baa been continued through the week, with Mass and instruction at 9 a.m., and the Rosary, instruction, and Benediction of the Most Holy Sacrament at 7 p.m., the church being >welMllSd with children. During the week also the" Rey.Father O'FarreU has given a mission at St. Patrick's Church, Soutk Dunedin, for the benefit of those persons who would find themselves unable to attend at St. Joseph's Church. The children's mission Will terminate l with a general communion on Sunday morning, and that to adults will begin with High Mass at 11' a.th. '' ■ . The supplementary bazaar in aid of the Dunedin Cathedral BuildiDg Fund was brought to a conclusion on Saturday 'evening with a sale by auction,— Mr. J. Milnef kindly giving his services for the occasion. There was a gdod attendance and the 'bidding was spirited. The Bazaar, on the whole, siay be considered as rery fairly successful, and ifc will be a satisfaction to the ladies who "worked so hard in its interests to find -that their efforts had not beea^ "made in vain. Apropos of the announcement made at one of the late Luther meetings, to the effect.that the Pope had come over with the Conqueror, we read with interest the following extract from a notice given by the Month of the Leofric Missal, of which an edition was published the other day with an introduction by an Anglican clergyman: " The early ecclesiastical independence of the English Church is a myth dear to many Anglicans, and makes them calch at any shadow of faint outward resemblance between anything in the present Establishment and the Church of former times. The electioa of bishops seems to the editor to afford one of these shadows, and he grasps at it accordingly. ' The mode of election,' he say, 'resembled thafrprevailing in the Anglican rather than in the Roman Church of the present day.' But a few sentences before, he has to make an admission which effectually neutralises any seeming resemblance. Speaking of the Church of England he says :— ' Her archbishops from the very first applied for and wore the pall,' sent to them from Rome as a symbol of jurisdiction given and received. Nothing could show more conclusively the ecclesiastical subjection of the English Church of the period to the One recognised Ruler of the Christian Church, than this act of ecclesiastical submission on the part of the English" Church . The editor has drawn an erroneous conclusioa from not attending to the distinction always made between the noriination, of bishops and the confirmatiori of their election. In the middle r ages the Metropolitan confirmed the election of the bishops while' the Pope confirmed the election of Metropolitans." The reviewer goes on to say that the editor might as well argue that because" French bishops are at present the nominees of President Grevy, therefore, the Church of France is independent of Borne,