Colonial Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 10, 29 June 1888, Page 5

Colonial Notes.

A LITKLT controversy has taken place in the Times of India with regard to certain prayers for the dead introduced into a commemoration service held in the Anglican cath> d^a at Bombay, in honour of the late Emperor William. CousHering tne character of the Church Of England, it is not aptouishiug that her members as a rule should take exception to such prayers, but what sens^ there en be in holding a serv-ce in memory of a deitd man, unless it be for the purpose of praying for his soul, it is difficult to see. ■ hurcbes that reject prayers for the dead and refuse to honour the saints can only with the utmost inconsistency hold such services.

Some consternation has been caused at New Caledonia owing to the death of a convict from the bite if a sea-snake, so far supposed to be harmless. Mr. Layard, the British consul at Noutn-a, who is *n authority on points of natural history ,in a letter to the Neo Caledomen ■tates that these sea-snakes are venomous, and that he hat> often been Surprised to see the native of New Caledonia and the Fijis handle them without being bitten. Our co 'temporary, nevertheless, appears ■till to entertain some doubts, and to suspect that it may have been a •oake imported accidentally from Australia that gave the fatal bitf\ He desires to have the matter thoroughly investigated, and it certainly is one of gome importance.

Tbe decision of the Supreme Court at Sydney as to the illegality •f refusing to permit Chinamen tendering the poll-tax to land has caused some sensation, and a still greater sensation has been caused by Sir Henry Parkes's treatment of it. The pronouncement of the judges is that to prevent a Chinaman under such circumstances from landing is to inflict upon him false imprisonment, from which he is justified in freeing himself even by taking life Sir Henry Parkee says, however, that this is all cant and nonsende, that nobody invited the Chinamen to come here, and noboiy wants to imprison them. All that is required is that that they should take themselves off again which they are welcome to do in the freest manner possible. To this view of the matter he declares he will s>ick in spite of all the judges in the world. And no doubt he will if he fi ,da it pa\ s him to do so. Disbelief in the Chinamen does not necessarily impiv a belief in Sir Henry Parkes.

Tbe stndents at the college of the Jesuit Fathers at Biverview bare distinguished themselves in a rifle match against the students of tb* NewiDgton College. In their annual regatta, the Jesuits' lads have beaten the crew of the Sydney Grammar School.

Decentralisation is all the rage in New South Wales. Bathurst has now_ taken up the cause and established a League to promote it. Sydney is to be left high and dry on her sand' hills, and a crowning vic'ory h be be gained in vindication of that distil ctively colonial jealousy that persuades the miserable remnants of a population left anywhpre in the neighbourhood of a conple of ant-eaten huts and a post office that, only for eomething or another, their township would have be«n the metropolis of the whole continent. Bathurst, of course ii a good deal more than anything of that kind, but possession is nine points of the law, and there are a great many things which go to build up a capital. Once formed it is hard to reduce it.

The South Aust?aJia% Reqitter calculates that the mines at Broken Hill are to day £8,760,u00 less in value that they were two or three months ago. It, nevertheless, essays to give a little comfort by declaring that shares are certain to rise again. It is to be feared however, that the come lation will be but trifling to numbers of people who have been ruined Vy bogus speculations. For numbers of such unfortunates there must certainly be.

It is hardly reassuring to the residents in Melbourne to discover that it is possible for an encounter with revolvers to take place in their streets. Such a contest occurred the other night in Little Bourke street, where a policeman attempted to arrest a couple of men be found in tbe act of committing a robbery. The robbers fired at the policeman, and the policeman fired at the robbers, and for Borne time a veiy spirited fight seems to have bet-n carried on. Fortunately it was at a time wh^n few people were about, for otherwise, as neither policeman nor robbers were hit, stray balls might have found a sensitive billet somewhere else. One of the robbers was eventually arrested.

In the course of a minion just concluded by them at St. Mary's church, West Melbourne, the Ridemptoriet Fathers met with an old French-speaking Chinaman, who proved to be a Catholic. The discovery was made in good time, for in a day or two after he had received Holy Communion he die d suddenly.

Tke Melbourne Age states that the chief sufferers from the collapse of the silver boom will be the straight -going brokers who dealt with the brokers that have Btopped payment, of whom there are several, in addition to two who have" disappeared. The crash, nevertheless, sayß the Age, will be felt generally, and the public themselves are chiefly to blame, owing to their Wild rush to secure shares.

A movement is on foot for the construe ion of a tunnel under the Yarra, which, according to its advocates, would result in many advantages.