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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 43, 13 February 1885, Page 16

A conference of the clergy of tbe diocese has been held in Dunedin during the week. We shall publish in our next issue the Lenten Pastoral of his Lordship the Bishop of Wellington. The subscription lists in connection with the Dunedin Cathedral to be found in another column will be seen to speak volumes for the generosity and Catholic zeal of the congregation of the Yen. Archdeacon Coleman at Oamaru. The Strasburg Clock still continues to form an attraction for sight-seers in Dunedin, many people finding it worthy of more than one visit. We clip the following paragraph from the Nation of December 27 :— Mr. Michael Davitt left Dublin for London on Monday morning. He will not return to Ireland for something like two years. In that time he will travel through Europe, India, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and South America. This much needed rest has been well earned by the founder of the Land League, and we cordially wish him a pleasant and advantageous JDurney. He may with certainty anticipate a warm and generous Irish welcome from his exiled fellow-countrymen whom he will meet " all the world around.' We share fully in the sorrow occasioned by the news of General Gordon's fate. The tragic nature of his death has been much enhanced by the fact that it was those very Egyptians whom he went to rescue, and without whose safety he refused to save himself, that betrayed him. So far the expedition, managed with all the ability of Lord Wolpeley, had been brilliantly successful in the midst of almost insuperable difficulties, and it is sad to think that thedilatoriness of the Government rendered its chief object vain. Lord Wolseley on setting out is reported to have said that U was too 3 ate. The Dunedin Catholic Literary Society held their usual meeting on Friday last, Mr. Hayes acting as chairman. The members, who were appointed to take steps to organise a concert in aid of a wing to tbe Christian Brothers' School, submitted a rough programme for the approval of the Society, which, after some discussion was approved, and Messrs. Dunne, Hayes, Harris, Carolin,— with permission to add the name of Mr, Callan, who was not present — were appointed to carry out the affair. The names were (submitted for membership, one being Mr. Guiifedder from Invercargill, who, no doubt, will prove an acquisition to the Society. Mr. Bagar gave another instalment of his lectnre on " Telegraphy," which proved fairly interesting, though it met with a little adverse criticism. Mr. R. A. Danne read a description of a tramp of the old type by Dickens, which gave rise to a lively discussion. The next meeting tak«s takes place on February 20. We have to congratulate our Presbyterian friends at Westport on the broth of a boy they have for their parson. This elegant sprig of Scottish Christianity gave some jolly proofs of the spirit that is in tiira the other day at a meeting of the local school committee, where the nomination to the chairmanship of Mr. James a Catholic wtJ made. Reverendissimus Monroe who acted as temporary chairman supported Mr. Haselden the other candidate and in doing so kicked up a shindy that would have entranced Sandy-row, or thrown the Glasgow Gallow-gate into convulsions of delight. He actually blazed with indignation because a Catholic was proposed to the office and fired away helter-skelter like a wild man of the woods, or the gutter, perhaps, more properly. Still when one of the gentlemen present corrected another of the gentlemen for using the word "pious " in describing Reyendissimus Monroe's address and the other gentleman withdrew the term, we hold that an injustice was done. Reverendissi.

mas certainly spoke with extreme piety — the piety of a party that must be strong at Westport, for if our broth of a parson reasons from Mr. James to tbe nature of the persons who elected him to the committee, we also must judge of Reverendissimus Monroe's flock by the exhibition made of himself by their evangelist — and, if, again, as this expounder of the Gospel roars out, the Catholic members of his committee are " puppets drawn by a string " it is a thousand pities the parson himself is not also set on wires held in control by some decent hand. While Sandy row or the Gallow-gate pull the strings we shall no doubt continue to witness queer antics on the part of this broth of a boy at Westport.