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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 34, 21 December 1883, Page 16

Ok Thursday evening, 13th inst., a very beautiful and edifying ceremony took place, in connection with the mission of the Redemptorist Fathers, at St. Joseph's Church, Dunedin. The occasion was an act of reparation made to the Blessed Sacrament with peculiar solemnity. The decorations of the altar were extremely fine, and nothing so beautiful had ever before been seen in the church. The Bosary of the Blessed Virgin was followed by Exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament, but while the sermon was being delivered a veil, formed of a banner of the Sacred. Heart, was placed before the remonstrance. The Eev. Father O'Farrell was the preacher, and his sermon was not only eloquent and fervent but powerfully argumentative, dealing with the doctrine of the real Presence in a controversial as well as a devotional strain. On its conclusion he called upon his Catholic hearers to stand up and publicly profess their faith in the great mystery, and this they did with enthusiasm. The Rev. Missionary then bade them kneel, and poured out a prayer of burning eloquence to the God of the Eucharist, by which he stirred the hearts of the congregation to their very cores. The crowd in the church was enormous. On Sunday at 11 a.m. Mass a magnificent sermon on faith was preached by the Very Rev. Father Vaughan. The Rev. Missionary is a preacher of wonderful power ; strength, fervour, culture, and every quality that cau be combined to form a sacred orator of the highest class are to be found in his deliveries. The Rev. Father Hegarty is also a preacber of exceptional abilities. But to criticise the powers of these rev. missionaries seems to us, for the present, a kind of profanity, and therefore we refrain. As to the rest, we have only to speak of crowded attendances, of the precincts of the confessional thronged morning, noon, and night, — from dawn to mid-night we might almost say — of missionaries who never weary, or if they weary bear their weariness without flinching. And for the immense good done we have to thank Almighty God. The sad news of the death of the Eev. Father Moreau bas been reseived in Dunedin with especial sorrow. — There are etill in th's city numbers of Catholics to whom the venerable priest ministered for years, and who remember him with warm affection. On those of U3, moreover, who had not the pleasure of being personally acquainted with him, the frequent mention made of him, and the various recollections repeated to us of all his amiability and good, ness, seemed to confer an intimate knowledge of his character. We recognised in him the devoted pastor, the holy missionary who, in the true spirit of his calling, had sacrificed all that was earthly, and know no interests or engagements but those tb at were heavenly. Even from the lips of many who were not of bis flock we have as •well received testimony to the beauty and sanctity of the dead priest's life.— On the arrival of the Most Rev. Dr! Moran in Dunedin, Father Moreau, who belonged to the diocese of Wellington, was

removed to the north, and ever since he had been engaged in the work of the mission there. — Some few months ago he went from the Manawatu district, in which he had passed several years, to the upper part of the Wanganui River where his perfect knowledge of the Maori language made his labours desirable. But about a month since finding his health failing, he came down to Wan.?anui where he died on Wednesday mdrning.— There are very many iv New Zealand who regret the holy missionary's death, but there are n one of them who do not recognise in it the passing away to Ms reward o£ a lifelong and devoted servant of Christ," one who for forty years of a missionary's life in New Zealand had fought the good fight without faltering, and who has been followed to the Judgment Seat by an abundance of good works.- -JR.LP. The Caledonian Society of Otago have allotted the handsome dam of £410 to be contested for in the various events to take place at at their annual gathering on January 1, 2, and 5. The programme is an interesting and well-chosen one, and the sports this year are likely to prove more exciting even than usual because of the. presence at them of Donald Diunie, the famous athlete, who has jest arrived from San Francisco. The Show of the Dunedin Horticultural Society, held in the Garrison Hall last week was a pronounced success. The display of floweiWo and plants was very fine and of much beauty, and a particular proof Wall given that the laudable effects made by the Society to encourage a taste for the refining and civilising art of floriculture have not been by any means lost. Among the principal exhibitors were Messrs. W. Reid, Gebbie, Law, Somner and Co., Martin and Son, Thomson, Purdie, Martin, Mackerras, Chapman, and Hitchcock ; but there also were numerous others for whose names we are unable to find space. The news from the old country confirms our suggestion made last week that the American lawyers expressed dissatisfaction with the manner in which O'Donnell's trial was conducted. We are told, for example, that General Pryor has stated his conviction that the unfortunate man acted in self-defence. Our confidence, moreover, in the strict justice with which- the trials of suspected Irishmen are conducted is by no means strengthened from our finding the following telegraph in reference to the underground railway explosions : "A correspondent in one of the leading English journals, which attributes these explosions to American dynamiters, suggests that some of the Irish leaders should be taken as hostages and executed after every explosion." There are evidently very respectable people, then, whose proposals leading English newspapers are not ashamed to publish, or, perhaps, endorse, and who are only anxious for vengeance in whatever way it may be obtained. Nay who desire to see outrages that have probably been committed by enemies of the Irish party visited on the Irish leaders. And who can say that such a spirit does not preponderate among all those who conduct the trials of Irishmen, or, at least, among the majority of them ? The unusual haste, moreover, with which O'Donnell's sentence was carried out bespeaks an uneasy mind on the part of Government, The Saturday Review, referring to what he calls a " legend among political gossips," that Sir Stafford Northcote had remonstrated with Mr. Parnell on the career he was about to follow, writes thus : "It might well seem sad to a good-natured and experienced Statesman that an English gentleman, almost of the whole blood, with the full advantages of an English education, and with others sufficient to enable him to lead aa independent and honourable political career, with evident abilities and an uncommon aptitude for parliamentary life, should not find some better part to play than to aim at the leadership of a gang of adventurers seeking a ruinous end by disreputable means." In the opinion the Saturday Review pronounces with regard to the Irish party, their object, their method, or their ends, we are but little concerned. It is the opinion of a violent partisan incapable of reasoning on this matter, but as capable of adopting any discreditable means of maintaining the iniquitous oppression of Ireland, as were, for example, the authorities in India to uphold British rule there, even by supporting the atrocious rites of Juggurnaut. What we are concerned with is the high testimony borne by the Review, a bitter enemy, and therefore borne per force, to the abilities of Mr. Parnell, and the brilliant career that lay open to him had he chosen to apply those abilities to the acquisition of selfish ends. And this is a point useful for us to consider now-a-days v->v -> when interested or stupH people ar«s desirous of making it appear that Mr. Parnell has profited by his advocacy of Irish rights, to befool the liish people into enriching him all undeservedly. The national tribute paid to him, then, splendid as it was, has been but a trifling set-off against all that he had already sacrificed without a thought of recompense. A successful parliamentary career, for which the Review admits Mr. Parnell has exceptional aptitudes, may lead to anything, and the man who casts it away,in order to adopt a feeble and detested canss, for the amelioration of a suffering people, in which he can hardly hope to be successful before his life, time is well nigh spent, can not be truthfully accused of a devotion to self-interest. — That he should |be accused again in calumnies that had been already amply refuted, savours of dishonesty in the man, or stupidity in the journalist, who makes the accusation.

We present to our subscribers with onr present issue a neat almanac for 1881, containing, as well, the dates of the various festivals and days of devotion during the year. The Masses celebrated in St. Joseph's Church, Duncdio, yesterday morning were all of them Masses of Requiem, offered for tlie repose of the soul of the Rev. Father Moreau, S.M. The Rev. Dr. Stuart rarely opens his mouth but he says something pleasant, and that was a very pleasant utterance oi his the other day when at the distribution of prizes at the High School he spoke of our " scholastic institutions," damning their expense, in effect of course, since he trusted they were about to make the colony " a model colony, a Christian colony of brave men and good women." But the doctor evidently bas firm faith in the " lucus a nan lucendo? Still perhaps, there are forms 'of Christianity' of which the less a boy learns the better Christian he is sore to turn out, and if it were so that to which the doctor belongs is we should say the most fitted of all to serve for an example, Tt may happen then that by the exclusion of the shorter catechism, and the Westminister confession and all that belongs to them, the cause of Christianity will be promoted, but we Bhonld hardly have expected a venerable minister of the sect nourished on these things to proclaim that is was so. — There is a story told of a towa-bred lady whom circumstances obliged to take charge of a Sprm-house with its surroundings, and who on seeing a turkey-hen hatching a clutch of duck-eggs was desirous to know how soon the young turkeys would come out. The Rev. Dr. Stuart would not however fall into such a mistake as that ; he would on the contrary err in an opposite extreme, for in whatever degree the lower creation may abide by the instincts of their species the, human creature will follow the system by which he has been hatched ot fostered. We shall find but poor Christians turned out by our expensive " scholastic institutions." We clip the following from the Auckland Freeman's Journal of the 14th inst: — By the mail steamer Zealandia, which left on Tuesday last, J. E. Bedmcnd, Esq., M.P. for New Ross, Ireland, accompanie by his lady (a colonial of whom we all may feel proud), his brothed W. IS.. Redmond, Esq*, M. P. for Wexford, and Mr J. Dalton (brother of Mis Redmond), were passengers to America en route to Ireland. They were met at the wharf by a number of Auckland friends, in accordance with their wish, in a private manner, and as the steamer was notified to sail at 5 p.m., only a very short time was at their disposal. They called on the Very Rev. Father Walter McDonald (Administrator St. Patrick's Cathedral), and the Rev. Mother and Sisters of Mercy at the Convent Schools, Hobson-street. The Very Bey. Father Walter McDonald and Rev. Father Lenihan accompanied them to the steamer. Previous to leaving a number of presents were made to Mrs Redmond on board the steamer, among which was a beautiful mottled kauri book of New Zealand ferns, exquisitely mounted, by Messrs Flynn and JPurey, a beautifully worked and ornamented native flax basket, by Mr M. Lennan, and a host of other articles, including floral gifts, which were highly prized and suitably acknowledged. The steamer left amidst the cheers of friends, who all join in wishing them a pleasant and prosperous voyage, and A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year. The fashionable person who does London correspondence for our contemporary the Evening Star has furnished our contemporary with the details of a most horrid plot to assassinate that excellent nobleman Lord Lansdowne. — Probably the same plot whose existence we find contradicted by a recent number of the Dublin Freeman. But our fashionable friend pronounces the plot to be a most reasonable one. Lansdowne, he says, is an excellent man, and of course one who moves in the highest society must know all about his Lordship most familiarly. Lord Lansdowne, then, we learn is an excellent man of the highest rank, and his chief offence, according to this fashionable and highly-situated person, is that, following his noble father's example, he " endeavoured to elevate the lives and homes of his tenantry." — Well, we do not know about the lives unless it be that in an endeavour to elevate their lires a good many poor people were sent to heaven, for, no doubt, a good many did go straight to heaven, having endured tneir purgatory in the sufferings Lord Lansdowne, father and son, inflicted on them, and especially those suffered in the famous Landsdowne ward at New York, whose memory re wains with us-^and that a life in heaven Is an elevated life "we cannot but agree •^oh this fashionable party, if that be what he means. A t any rate no one can deny that a very elevated home would be that under the open air with no roof but the sky, and that is the sort of au elevation it pleased my Lord Lansdowne, father and son, to confer upon his tenantry in veiy considerable numbers. The " overcrowding of blood relations," it will be seen, was not at all likely to obtain under such circumstances as these and Lord Lansdowne's remedy was a perfect one. But as to our fashionable correspondent's calumnies reap cting the Parnellites, are they not as much the paraphernalia necessary to his peculiar existence as were her surroundings to Mrs. Boffin, for example, when she first, on attaining to wealth, went in for fashion ? Must he not, as well as be cbd, ape the manners and deserve the approbation of the lean vwnde, such as he understands it

to be. — He is more, perhaps, to be pitied than blamed, but he certainly ridiculous. — High life and correspondence for the Evening Sta* go admirably together, don't they now ? ■' YESIBBDA.Y, at the Norfolk Quarter Session," says the London Times of October 19, "the Earl of Kimberley, referring to the inadequate accommodation existing for prisoners in Norwich Castle, said he regretted the prisons had been handed over to the Government. A worse measure, he believed, had never been passed. Many people regretted it, and none more than the Home Office authorities.' The Home Secretary was strongly of opinion that the prisons could not be properly administered without the assistance of visitiDg justices, who could exercise, if not absolute authority, at any rate considerable supervision. He was anxious that increased interest should be taken in prisons on the spot, otherwise their administration would degenerate into mere bureaucratic management. He had the greatest possible respect for Sir E. Da Cane and other members of the Prisons Commission, but unless there was very close and vigilant watch kept over all the proceedings of Government officials they were almost sure to go to sleep, and leave many things undone which ought to be done. That being so, he hoped the Court would take all measures in their power, not only to preserve Norwich Castle as an ancient monument, but also to secuie the efficiency of the prisons." — In New Zealand, nevertheless, we have reason to believe, the opinion of the Home Secretary about this matter would be considered very erroneous. Here, there is no desire at all that any interest shall be taken in prisons "on the spot." On the contrary, it is considered most desirable that nothing at all may be known about them, and that the bureaucratic management may be unquestioned. Government officers in New Zealand are quite above all nped of being watched, and it may even be suspected that the bare idea of being watched makes them highly indignant. They have so great an inner consciousness of their own perfect wakefulness and brilliant unwinking capabilities that they naturally resent the 'slightest imputation cast upon their unequalled powers. VisitiDg Justices, again, may be very necessary at home to counteract the sleepiness of official life, but in New Zealand have we not proved that Visiting Justices are very much in the way and should be got rid of as soon as possible. On the whole, then, New Zealand is to be congratnlated on the acquisition of her Prisons Inspector, who is able to confer upon bureaucratic management a character of absolute perfection. It is well that the Home Secretary waited until the valuable gentleman in question had shaken the dust of English prisons off his feet before he talked in the ridiculous way reported— or would it not have been still better had Captain Hume been there to point out to him how completely he was mistaken ?