NAPIER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 41, 3 February 1888, Page 31

NAPIER.

(From an occasional Correspondent.) Tmb branch of the National League recently formed here held its second meeting on tbe 21th January. There was a large attendance, comfortably filling the schoolroom of the Marist Brothers in which the meetings are held, and those present were most enthosiastic. The subscription had been fixed at tbe previous meeting as 5s entrance fee and Is monthly contribution, and many now paid this, making the sum in hand about £30. A spirited discussion ensued on a motion by Mr. Murphy to name the branch the " Gladstone " branch of the Irish National League. An amendment was proposed that it be named the " Wilfrid Blunt " branch, but a further amendment introduced in a terse address by Mr. Hoben in favour of honouring Mr. William O'Brien, was finally carried by a large majority. A committee of five was then nominated and declared elected, this completing the list of officers, which is as follows : — President, Rev. Father Grogan ; vicepresident, Mr. T. Connors; treasurer, Rev. Father Prendergast ; secretary, Mr. O'Snllivan ; committee, Messrs. Barry, Roach, Begg, Bowes and Murphy. Mr. Roach read with excellent effect, an address of the president of the American League while the subscriptions were being handed in. The meetings are for the future to be held on the first Tuesday in the month, and on the next occasion papers upon national subjects are to be read by the Rev. Father Prendergast an i Mr. Murphy, Altogether the branch is to be congratulated upon its strength, and the interest shown augurs well for f«ture success.

The town of Napier lost a good citizen and the Catholic congregation a valuable member in the death last week from consumption of Mr. James Moore St. CMr. Deceased was very well known as a member of the firm of Brooking and St. Clair, commission agents, and was generally esteemed. He presented the rare spectacle of a man without a single enemy, and one who as husband, father, citizen, and churchman led a blameless and useful lffe. Mr. St. Clair was a convert to the Church, and like so many worthy converts from the Anglican communion he had thought deeply and read widely on Church history and doctrine, and was therefore in a position to repute quietly and calmly many of tbe calumnies which all who mix in the world find often levelled at the Catholic Church by those whose knowledge of her is not equal to their worldly wisdom. At both services on Sunday the death was referred to at length and deceased described in laudatory terms, and at the High Mass of Requiem celebrated prior to the fnneral on Monday, Father Grogan delivered a panegyric on the departed soul . Another blow to the Catholic community has been felt in the sudden promotion of the Rev. Brother Joseph, superior of the Marist Brother's school heie, to the directorship at Christchurch . Brother Joseph has been for 8 years resident in Napier and his great ability as a teacher, his suavity, kindliness, and good humour, his deep knowledge of human nature, and his ever-ready sympathy have all proclaimed him a remarkable man and one whose place it will be extremely difficult to fill. However, 'tis an ill-wind that blows nobody good, and I suppose we must hug our sorrow and congratulate Canterbury upon its acquisition. Brother Joseph was, much more than any of the religious here, popular outside as well as within the Church, and what tbe general public thought of him is well put in the following paragraph clipped from the Hawke's Bay Herald :—: — "We learn that Brother Joseph, the popular head of the Marist Brothers' school in Napier, has received intimation that he has been appointed director of the Order at Christchurch, and is to proceed South to-morrow to assume charge. We must congratulate Brother Joseph upon his well-deserved promotion, but the news wul be received with genuine regret by everyone in the community with whom he has come im contact, for to them it will mean the severance of^a connection with a large-hearted, genial, charitable, and remarkaoV intelligent man. The gjod deeds of Brother Joseph are not noised abroad in the highways and public places, but they are writ deep and indelibly in the hearts of very many residents of Napier who will sorely mi.-s the friend and countellei- who has lightened their burthens and sootbed their borrows by kindly sympathy aud shrewd common beuse dunug the patat eight years." Each of the evening papers had loug notices iv the same strain.

A very painful bat edifying death was that which closed the career of a Napier resident— Mr. Pyne— a few days since. ? ; Mr. Pyne was a Protestant married to a Catholic and was recently afflicted with that terrible ailment, cancer in the throat. • Death from literal starvation was the fact before him, and to that the sufferer resigned himself, but first, while in the full possession of all his faculties, he embraced the Catholic faith and died a sincere and suffering son of the Church. A second Hawke's Bay Branch of the League was formed at Hastings, an important townßhip 12 miles up the railway line, on the 17th inst. The meeting was well attended and proceedings enthusiastic. The officers for the year are :— President, Father Smythe ; vice-president, Mr. Cullen ; secretary, Mr. MacNamara ; Treasurer, Mr. McCarty; committee, Messrs. Kelly, O'Neil, McMahon, Barry, and Lynn ; auditors, Messrs. Greene and Nichol, Meetings are to be held in the Oddfellow Hall, Hastings, on the third Monday in each month.