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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 45, 7 March 1884, Page 16

The following item which appeared in the Nation of January 12 will interest our readers :— A telegram from San Francisco on Thursday says :— Mr. J. E. Redmond, M.P., and his brother, Mr. Wm. Eedtnond, M.P., have arrived here from Australia, where they have been engaged for some time in carrying on a campaign in behalf of the Irish Nationalist cause. They will remain in the United States for about four months, and in the course of their stay will address a number of meetings. < •> " OUT of a population of 16,333,276 in Spain, 11,978,16S can neither read nor write." So speaks a paragraph which we find in one of our contemporaries.— But certain statistics taken from the German educational organs by the London Times in March, 1880, gave us the following information ■which is probably the more reliable :— " England with 34,000,000 inhabitants has 58,000 schools, attended by 3,000,000 scholars. . . . Spain with 17,000,000 people has 20,000 schools and 1,600,000 scholars." The Melbourne Advocate of Feb 23 has the following : — One of the earliest missionaries in Australia — the Very Rev. Dr. Monsignor Lynch — died on Sunday last at Cambelltown, New South. Wales. The deceased dignitary arrived at Sydney in July, 1838, in company with the Very Key. Dr. Fitzpatrick, V.G-., Melbourne ; the Rev. Father Murphy, afterwards the first Bishop of Adelaide ; the Yen . Archdeacon Rigney, now of Parramata, New South Wales ; the late Very Rev. Dean Slattery, of Warnatnbool, Victoria , the Rev. Edward Mahony, afterwards the first Dean of Maitland, and the Rev. Michael Reilly. Neither Dean Slattery nor Monsignor Lynch were in priest's orders when the party arrived in Australia. During his missionary career in New South Wales Monsignor Lynch was Dean of Maitland and Administrator of Armidale and for many year 3 prior to his death he had charge of the Campbelltown mission. The only survivers of the party of which Moasigaor Lynch was one, and which arrived in Sydney, in 1838, are Dean Rigney and Dr. Fitzpatrick. The former administered the "last sacraments to his old friend and fellow labourer. After his first arrival in Australia Monsignor Lynch paid two visits to Europe. He was created a Monsignor by His Holiness the lute Pope Pius IX. Monsignor Lynch took part in the second Provincial Council of Australia, which was held in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, in 1869. The deceased clergyman was about 68 years of age at the time of his death. At St. Patrick's Cathedral, on Sunday, prayers were asked for the repose of t c venerable missionary's soul. Monsignor Lynch was remarkable for his aelf • sacrificing zeal in the cause of religion and his generous hospitality Id him the diocese of Sydney has lo9t a good and experienced priest, and the Church in New South Wales a prudent counsellor. May he rest in peace. Wb clip the following paragraph from the Nation of Jan. 19 :—: — The funeral of the unfortunate young man, Samuel Griffin, of Porta-

down, who died from the effect of the bayonet wound inflicted on him at Dromore, took place on Friday week, and it supplied additional evidence that if Orange demonstrations were attended only by the brethren of the district in which those demonstrations were held they would be contemptibly insignificant. It would have been thought after the violent language and wrathful protests of the Orange party that followed G-iffin's death that the lodges would have appeared in overwhelming strength at the funeral obsequies. And yet what was the fact 1 Why, that not more than 250 brethren of the order put in an appearance. " They gave but scant evidence of their sympathy with the relatives of the boy whose life had been forfeited in their cause " is the admission which even one of their own organs, the Irish Times, is compelled to make. And, moreover it was found necessary in bringing together these 250 " loyalists " to appeal for assistance to other towns. Armagh sent a contingent, so did Lurgan, and Belfast and Dungannon were also drawn upon for recruits. It can be easily guessed, therefore, that the Orangemen of Portadown itself made a very poor muster on the occasion. Another fact which has transpired is that the unfortunate young man did not belong to the Orange Society at all, and that he simply went to Dro • more because he was paid, and because he wanted to enjoy a day's outing. This, says the Advocate, is how the Baltimore Catholic Mirror handles the " great and good man " who did so mtich work for the devil here in Australia some time ago :—": — " Since Chiniquy, the apostate Canadian priest, announced a week or so back, through the columns of the New York Weekly Witness, that he was going to publish an expose of ' Romanism,' we have been quietly investigating the history of that rev. scoundrel, and when he comes out with his expose", we will come out with an expose" of him. We now charge him as a fraud, who collected money ; under false pretences, and who ought to be in prison therefor instead of being allowed to publish his infamous and lying book. We purposely refrain from details at present. We would be greatly rejoiced to have him, or the Witness, deny the charge, so that " when particulars are brought out they could be doubly crushed. On the whole, the vile crew which the Witness has under its wing is a credit to Protestantism." In view of the probability of hostilities breaking out between France and China, some particulars we find in the Moniteur de Rome concerning the standing of the Catholic Church in the Empire alluded to are of interest — may they not ere long prove to be of a melancholy interest to us ! There are many valuable lives and important undertakings endangered. Annam and Tonkin, then, possess four bishoprics or vicariates-apostolic — two filled by Spanish Dominicans and two by French missionaries. China, exclusive of Mantchuria, Mongolia, Thibet, and the Oorea, owns twenty-five bishoprics or vicariates-apostolic— half of which are occupied by French prelates. In Pekin, again, there is a fine convent of the Lazarist Fathers, two seminaries, one for European, the other for Chinese students, two printing establishments, a large hospital served by the Sisters of Charity, two orphanages, and a convent of Chinese nuns called Josephines, and devo'ed to teaching. The expulsion of the Trappists, moreover, from France has led to the under* taking by the order of a foundation in a tract of country to the north of the city, and which is thus described. — It is an immense property, intersected by hill and dale, and growing wild apricot trees. The religious will try to cultivate this virgin soil, where the rigorous winters and dry springs render the harvests very uncertain. The misery round about is such that neither bread, wine, rice, nor meat is known there. The Catholic interests, then, that a war between France and China mast more or less compromise are very extensive and important. The Holy Father has issued a brief especially recommending the recitatioa of the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which he appoints to be said daily in the principal church of each diocese. The Pope exhorts the faithful to persist religiously and constantly in its daily use, a3 in the times when no Christian family would suffer a day to pass without reciting it. He further decrees that in the Litanies of Loretto, after the invocation, " Regina sine labe con,' cepta" there shall bs added the suffrage, •' Regina Sacratissimi Rosarii, ova pro noois" We are requested by the Rev. Father Newport, Messrs. Burk and Morkane, and the other members of the committee tp express their gratitude to the kind friends who helped them so generously and actively in the art-union in aid of the Port Chalmers Presbytery Building Fund, which, owing to their efforts has proved successful. We learn, however, that the needs of the mission are not yet fully provided for, as it will be necessary, in order to protect from injury that portion of the church already built, to complete it at an early ' date. A bazaar, therefore, will be held for the purpose in question, and it is to be hoped that charitable people will kindly assist in providing the things necessary for it. A list of the winning numbers in the art-union will be found elsewhere. I The decision of the Otago Land Board in the Strath Taieri dumtnyism cases has given general satisfaction. — It has not, however, by any means allayed the irritation caused by the unexpected

leniency shown towards Messrs. Orbell, Borthwick and Hertslett. which has, on the contrary, been brought into bolder lelief by the contrast. The effect produced upon the public mind has been too strong to be affected by a sop thrown to Cerberus, and it will be content with nothing short of a full conviction that dummyism is a thing of the past — perhaps to be answered for in due season by all the dummies— and an assurance that bona fide settlement only shall prevail in the future. The decision in the Strath Taieri cases, which, however, has been appealed against, has been a step in this direction, and will cause would-be monopolists to take more thought henceforth before they act. But it is plain that the law on the matter requires to be simplified, so that detection may be unavoidable, and not only prevention but punishment completely certain. And it will depend on the people themselves as to whether this is to be brought about or not. A temporary uproar followed by indifference, will not be sufficient to effect what is desirable. A meeting to discuss the subject will be held in Dnnedin on Monday, and afterwards we shall be better able to judge as to what turn events are likely to take. A cock-and-bull cablegram to the effect that three unknown Americans were suspected by the London police of being the guilty parties in the dynamite cases has enabled our contemporary the /Dunedin Morning Herald to declare thus :•— " As we expected, tb c dynamite outrages' in London are proved to be the work Of Americans." The .ease with which our contemporary jumps to con. elusions is truly marvellous, and indicates a most guileless and unworldly nature. Our contemporary, however, would be more consistent in the display of his uuilelessness were he to refrain from making, accusations, which, if he knows anything at all, be must know to be false, and for making which, if be knowa nothing at all, ignorance cannot excuse him. It is not true, as he says, that " the Irish-American newspapers have long prophesied an impending plot to frighten the • hateful English..' " We ourselves, probably receive more Irish-American newspapers than anyone else in the Colony, and *n not one of themjhave we found a hint of any such thing — but only horror and condemnation of every such practice. There is, neverthe. less, a worthless paper or two — interested to support the lunatic ravings of O'Dono van Rossa.and his clique, but it is agross and cruel exaggeration to confound all Irish- American papers with anything of the kind. It is.,. Mirther, as unfair as it is mischievous and insidious for our contempo-"j rary to discuss the matter as if it were one popular among respectable Home Bulers, and it is a deed worthy of an incendiary only to endeavour to rouse suspicion against all Irishmen in America, and, of course as a necessary consequence, elsewhere. We regret, in flue, to find such an article in our contemporary the Morning Herald, and the more so since it is vain to avoid seeing that under a hypocritical pretence of favouring Home Rule, an unnecessary, premature, and scandalous appeal has been made to the passions of a bigoted anti-Irish majority. The Pall Mall Gazette, which is as liberal in its opinions as most newspapers need be is still staggered by the extremes of Mr. Henry George's propaganda. It draws the line at dismissing the landlords without compensation, and disagrees altogether with his views as to the mischief done by resompensing the West Indian slave-holdera. "We refuse," it says, "to regard theft as an open question. We have no objection to Socialism, but it must be Socialism plus the Ten Commandments. And until Mr. George and MrGeorge's disciples modify their views as to the heinousness of compensating private individuals for the arbitrary appropriation of their private property by the State, there can be nothing between us and them but open war. The pick-pockets may be quite right. All private property may be theft ; but that is not a principle that we are prepared to accept. Land nationalisation minus compensation is simply wholesale robbery plus cant."— But for our own part, we doubt as to whether— even with compensation— it may not prove to be an attempt that is wholly impracticable and somewhat ridiculous to bring back the world into a state of nature, where, in fact it never was before, if a bull may be permitted to us. v J T « B P ° ets Of the Oxford Catholic Movement, 1827-45," a paper by Mr. O. E. Haughton, will form the subject of this evening's meeting of the Dunedin Catholic Literary Society. Mr Eagar's original poem, -'Thoughts suggested by a moonlight walk on the beach near St. Clair," will be recited by Mr. Fitzpatrick after Mr. ' Haughton's paper.