THE CANTERBURY CATHOLIC LITERARY SOCIETY AND THE CANTERBURY IRISH RIFLES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 8, 12 June 1885, Page 17

THE CANTERBURY CATHOLIC LITERARY SOCIETY AND THE CANTERBURY IRISH RIFLES.

Strange combination, but nevertheless a real one. Owing to a. considerable number of tbe members of the O.C.L.S. having been seized with a sudden and violent attack of that latest development of Colonial epidemics which might not inaptly be termed "Bellicosities," and from which nothing but the presence of a Russian cruiser in the waters of Port Lyttelton would cure them, the meeting nights of tbe society have been adjourned from Mondays to Tuesdays, in order to allow those who have joined the newly-formed regiment of Canterbury Irish Rifles, who practice on Monday nights, the time to learn their drill. It was about the loss of the contract for the uniforms of this regiment that one of your manufacturing firms put a most desponding wail in a late number of the Dunedin Star, and from which it was copied into the papers here. The fact is, the members of the C.I.R. require their clothes to fit them properly, and to be cut and made in a true military Btyle, and that could scarcely be done by a factory about two hundred miles away from them ; indeed the particular uniform this regiment is to clothe themselves with, in preparation for the enemy, is not yet decided upon. That it ought to be green all admit, but unfortunately green in this Colony has a great variety of shades, upon which there may be just as many shades of opinion. This reminds me of the manner in which the dress of one of our Volunteer regiments here was decided upon just lately. On the notice board at the white Hart Hotel was an official order to the Christchurch Rifles which ran thus — " Church Parade. — Members are requested to assemble at tbe Drill shed at 9. 30. a.m. on Sunday, with gloves and side arms only." The Italics are mine. Your Punedin readers may think that this was a rather cool dress for a winter's day, but then they must remember that we are much nearer to the sun than they are. We are not so far from the Equator by about 200 miles or more. Going back to the C.I.R. I may be permitted to say that a finer lot of big-chested, broad-shouldered fellows, perhaps never enrolled themselves under the flag of England for the defence of one of her Colonies than the men I saw go through their military exercises on last Monday evening. The Irishman seems to take to this sort of thing as naturally aa a duck does to water. But what has all this to do with the Canterbury Literary Society ? Nothing whatever, but that it cropped up in quits a natural way, and whenever I get a fair start I seldom know where to stop. Revenons a nos numtons. Where is it that I left off ? At the adjourned meetings. The programme for the night of the 25 th inst. consisted of the third and concluding part of Mr. Nolan's lecture on the Romans. Tbe first part of this lecture was devoted to the consideration of the wealth, power and civilization of the ancient Romans, to their unexampled prosperity and boundless wealth. Rome, in the golden age of theCaesars, was described with her multitudinous temples, shrines, altars, basilicas and theatres in graphic and appropriate language. The Capitol, the Forum, the Circus Maximus, the Campus Martius, the Baths, the Aqueducts, and the ever interesting Coloseum, were each in turn described and commented on ; the gods that were brought to Rome by all the conquered nations and the devotees that trooped after them, the wealth that continually poured into it from the four corners of the world, and the luxuries which even the meanest of her citizens might enjoy. As the consequences of such wealth were dilated upon at considerable length, while a description of the palace of Plautius Lateranis, on the occasion of the festive gathering as Sts. Peter and Mark entered it on their mission of peace, closed the first evening's lecture. The second evening was devoted to the unparalleled crimes of the Romans, and was taken up with the festivities and games held in honour of their gods, with descriptions of the Lupercalia, the gladiatorial shows, the games of the Circus and the Amphitheatre, also of the atrocities of the Spoliarium, the treatment of the slaves, and of the treatment of women and children among the ancients and finished by showing what paganism had reduced the world to at the coming of our Blessed Lord. The third and concluding lecture was taken up with the conclusions which the lecturer had arrived at after the consideration of those things, and of this I will send you a rcsumi for your next issue. At the conclusion of it the lecturer was complimented by the chairman and by Mr. Leahy in very warm terms, and a vote of thanks was proposeiTto him by the Rev. Father Bowers, who said that he would be glad if Mr. Nolan could see his way clear to continue his lectures on those and kindred subjectp, as there was no doubt whatever but the effect of them would be good. A lecture on Christian morality, for instance, treated in the style of the one they had just heard should prove interesting and edifying to the members. Mr. Kennedy seconded the vote of thanks. This brought the meeting to a close.