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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 35, 28 December 1883, Page 15

The mission of the Redemptorist Fathers at St. Joseph's Church, Dunedin, which was to have terminated last Sunday has been pro. longed during the week— owing to the numbers of people still taking advantage of it.— -The work has been incessant, and the labours of the missionaries have been a subject of astonishment to everyone. Their attendance in the confessional alone, indeed, would seem sufficient to exhaust all their strength, not to speak of the instructions and other duties performed by them. As throughout the mission, there has been each day Mass with instruction at 6 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. and the Rosary, a sermon, and Benediction of the Most Holj Sacrament at 7 p.m. On Friday evening the second great function took place, consisting in the Way of the Cross, one of the clergy of the church making the circuit of the stations with the acolytes, while Father O'Parrell standing upon the platform preached on the passion of our Lord. The sermon was a very powerful one, and deeply affected the crowds who filled the church. On Sunday, at the 11 a.m. Mass Father Hegarty preached on the danger of deferring conversion, and in the evening after the Rosary, delivered a most impressive sermon on the last Judgment, and, on the evening of Christmas-day, Father O'Farrell preached on the occasions of sin. On the morning of St. Stephen's Day an instruction was given to the unmarried women one having been given already to the married women and the men respec tively, and last evening.the third great function took place in the consecration to the Blessed Virgin of all those who had profited by the mission, or who had not been kept away from it by their own fault. All the services have been remarkably well attended, and, in the evening the church has been packed in every part— avea the Dominican nuns' choir, the sanctuary, and the vestry- room being occupied by the congregation. It has, moreover been a most edifying sight to see the people flocking to the church from every part of the town and it B surroundings from early morning till sunset, and it must be most consoling Jto the rev. missionaries to find how fully appreciated their labours have been. Indeed, Father O'Farrell stated on Christmas evening that he and his fellow labourers had hardly ever known of a mission's being better attended anywhere, and that they were very" much pleased with its success. The rev. Fathers will conclude their labours in Dunedin on Sunday, and Oamaru will be the next town visited by them.

On Christmas day the celebration of Masses at St. Joseph's Church, Dunedin, was begun at 6 a.m., and concluded with Ponti. fical High Mass at 11 a.m.— the Bishop pontificating, with the Bey? Fathers Walsh and Lynch as deacon and. subdoacon, respectively ;* the Very Rev. Father Vaughan, C.SS.R., being priest assistant, and the Rev. Father Burke master of ceremonies. A touching sermon on the Nativity was preached by Father Vaughan.

In connection with the mission of the Redemptorist Fathers the Sacrament of Confirmation was administered in St. Joseph's Church Dunedin, last Sunday at 3 p.m. The recipients were adults who from one cause or another, had hitherto remained unconfirmed, and who had been under instruction since the commencement of the mission. There were 68 males and 85 females. The Bishop/preparatory to administering the sacrament, addressed the candidates, explaining to them the nature of the gift that was about to be conferred upon them, and the duties and preparations required of those who received it, insisting especially on the necessity of faith. On the termination of the'eeremony His Lordship also made a brief address referring in

feeling terms to the work of the rev. missionaries. The past two weeks, he said, had been a time of extraordinary blessing. No mission of the kind had ever before been given in Dunedin, and he feared a very long period must elapse before another took place here. No greater blessing could.be conferred upon them than the Mission conducted by the holy men who were now amoDg them, and he had been greatly consoled at seeing the manner in which their ministrations had been responded to. It was, however, a subject on which he feared to speak, lest his feelings might overpower him. He had no words to express his joy and thankfulness at what had been done. His Lordship concluded by reminding his people that they should never cease to pray for the good men who had done [so much for them. Owing to our being obliged to go to press this week far in advance of our usual time we are unable to insert several articles forwarded to us for publication, and we have to beg the indulgence of our readers for any shortcomings they may otherwise notice in our columns. A meeting convened by Mr. V. Pyke, M.H.R., was held in Dunedin on Wednesday for the pnrpose of taking steps in aid of the funds of the Benevolent Institution. Mr. Pyke* gave a very deplorable account of the present need ia which the Institution stands, and said that, unless something could be done immediately to remedy it, the inmates must be turned out into the streets. The meeting was of opinion that Government should give a subsidy of £2 for every £1 otherwise subscribed, and a committee was appointed to carry out the object for which it had been convened. The cause, it is almost superfluous to add, is one that must commend itself to every man of humane feeling, and it will, we have no doubt, be felt a disgrace to the community at large that the Institution in question has been allowed to approach so near to a complete failure. It will be the imperative duty, then, of everyone who is called upon to second the efforts of the committee, and do in this matter all that charity and humanity demand of them. As_ Dunedin, however, is a city where the claims of those in want are never pleaded in vain, there is good reason for us to believe that the present instance will prove no exception to the rule, but that all which is necessary will speedily be done to mend matters. Apbopos of a paragraph from some Australian newspaper — the Melbourne Argus if we recollect aright, which was quoted the other day by one of our contemporaries, and which, in criticising the various ecclesiastics reported to have been appointed to the Archbishopric of Sydney, asserted that the Very Rev. Prior Vaughan had proved a failure as the superior of the' Benedictine monastery at Fort Augustus, it is interesting to fiad that, on the contrary, Prior Vaughan's fete on October 25th was made the occasion of a marked celebration of his great success, and of warm congratulations to him upon it. Prior Vaughan has accomplished a great work under extreme difficulties, and is as widely separated from a failure as any man need desire to be. As to Dr. Tynan, mentioned also in the paragraph we allude to, whether or not his connection with the late Cardinal Cullen was an honorable distinction will be decided by the opinions of those discussing the matter, and the worth of their de. cisions will be various. For those, however, who had any true acquaintanceship with the Cardinal, it will be recognised as highly creditable to any man of any calling to have been his trusted friend as Dr. Tynan was. We have forgotten what the paragraph contained concerning other ecclesiastics with whose names as Archbishop Vaughan's successors rumour has been busy, but so much we may assume that it was, as Mr. Toots would say, of no consequence whatever. What we remember, as may be seen, was partly falsehood, partly stupidity, and wholly rubbish. Mb. Stottt, according to a report in the daily papers, is quite delighted at the progress the world has made since the days of Peter the Hermit. "We had here the privilege of speaking our minds, and that was a grand privilege," he said, in a reported address, " when it was taken into consideration that at the time of Peter the Hermit in the Middle Ages the diversity of opinion was the cause of much bloodshed all over the world." But why was Mr. Stout forced to go back to Peter the Hermit for an epoch in which diversity of opinion caused bloodshed. Surely there has been a good deal of bloodshed since Peter's time, and for the most part, indeed almost without exception, diversity of opinion caused it. People that are agreed on all points very seldom cut one another's throats. In any case we are at a loss to know why Peter the Hermit has been made Mr. Stout's particular example. Why did he not give us something more modern, and which would better have marked the progress of the century? There, for example, were the Freethinkers of the great Revolution, who, according to M. Tame, guillotined by the hundred and imprisoned by the thousand men who dared to speak out their minds. But, perhaps, Mr. Stout knows he could not fairly have claimed much progress in this connection. Many things, at least, have lately occurred to show us that extreme Freethinkers have made but little progress in liberality since the days of the Revolution, and that so far as it is in their power they are still ready to deprive those who differ from them of the privilege of speaking out

their minds. Mr. Stout, perhaps, is wise to. choose Turks and OJms. tians as his example of mended manners, for "Freethinkers have evidently improved but very little, if at all.

The Nation of November 3 gives ua the following suggestive paragraph :— « A movement which promises to bear some good fruit in England was started on Tuesday night in St. James's Hall, London The scene was a curious one. There in the very heart of powerful England, under the auspices of an English organisation, stood an Irish agitator denouncing in strong and trenchant sentences, which were received enthusiastically, the land laws of England. Michael Davitt, the founder of the Land League and the bitter enemy of landlordism, was there preaching> new crusade against land monopoly in Great Britain. Amongst those who attended to hear the gospel of the "Land for the Pe op le " preached were Mr. Passmore Edwards, M.P., the proprietor the Eclio, Mr. Storey, M.P Mr Wm. Baundera of the Central ems, Miss Helen Taylor, and Mr. j' L. Joynes, whose experiences of the Coercion Act in Ireland, with Mr. Henry George, were not of the most pleasant character! The majority of those present were English Radicals, and French and Italian workingmen also put in an appearance. It is with deep regret we have to announce the immediate departure fromDanedin of the Rev. Father O'Malley, S.J., which takes place to-day by the s.s. Waihora, for Melbourne. He is removed by the decision of his Superior in Australia who doubtless has sufficient reasons for the step. It would be vain for us to enter upoii an explanation of the services which during hie stay among us have been rendered to religion and education in New Zealand by Father O'Malley. The work done by him at St. Aloysius' College alone has been great, and its effects will endure ; but many other blessings have also resulted to the Catholic community, and their grief at the loss which now overtakes them is a proof that they have not been ungrateful. Indeed, there are not a few who are inclined to mnrmur at the fiat that has been pronounced, and the Very Rev. Father Superior with whom it has originated is for the moment an ecclesiastic whose popularity among the Catholics of Dunedin is, to say the least, questionable. The consideration, however, that more important interests require Father O'Malley 's presence elsewhere should serve to overcome all selfish repining among us here. It is certain that he is capable of infinitely more than was required of him in the College at Waikari, and we cannot blame his Superior for removing him to a place where his distinguished talents may be fully exercised and hiß invaluable services more widely availed of in the cause of religion and education. Nevertheless, so far as a selfish regret is allowable, we shall continue to entertain it without dissimulation. We are requested by the Christian Brothers to state in reference to the prize list of their schools that their pupil Frank Hall's having failed to reach the percentage obtained by him last year is not to be taken as a mark of idleness or retrogression. Had he been as successful in Arithmetic in the Scholarship Examination as in the " Preparatory " one in October, his percentage would have been 93£ per cent, and he usually makes 100 per cent in this subject. His failure therefore was exceptional, and by no means discreditable. The fraction in his percentage this year, as well as in that of Daniel Hartnett, should be five-sixths instead of three-fourths as printed in another column—and Thomas Buckley's fraction should be four-sevenths. Owing to ade ficiency in type we were obliged to be inexact, but we tried to come as near the true figures as possible.

All persons who have still in their possession blocks in connection with the Oamaru art union are requested to forward them at once to the Dominican Convent, as the drawing will be held within the course of a month.

We learn that notwithstanding the departure of the Rev. Father O'Malley, there is a prospect of the continuance of St. Aloysiua' College.— Thoroughly competent gentlemen have offered their services to conduct it, and all that is needed for them to gain the necessary permission is the probability of adequate support. We have to request those parents, therefore, whose intention it was that their boys should return to the college after the holidays, or who meant to send them there for the first time, to communicate with the editor of this newspaper, by whom their proposals will be submitted to the proper authority.