CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 12, 13 July 1888, Page 25

CHRISTCHURCH.

(From oar own Correspondent.) The mission which Father Cammings opened in the Oharoh of the Blessed Sacrament last Sunday week, is proving a great success. The services have been exceedingly well attended. Crowds throng the church in the evenings, and at the early Masses there kave been many worshippers, notwithstanding the intense cold occasioned by the heavy frosts, which whitened the streets of the city every morning last week. Father Oummings is working most indefatigably, indeed it is to be feared that he is working too much. The mental and physical strain involved in conducting a mission single-handed, in a largo parish like this, must be simply enormous. However, there is no doubt but Father Oummings feels himself well repaid for his labour in witnessing the numbers of people who come to avail themselves of his ministrations. On Tuesday night, Father Cummings preached upon death. As is his usual custom he did not indulge in any flights of imagination. He does not protest to attempt to pleas* the ears of lovers of floe language. Earnestly and impressively he described the unexpected manner in which death loves to call poor mortals away from their earthly haunts. He related his own experience of death-bed scenes, where little or no preparation had been made until the sudden summons came. With instances of this kind Father (Jammings contrasted others in which the pluck at the sleeve came not unawares. Without being in the least sensational he preached a sermon which must kave made a powerful impression upon hia hearers. Thursday was devoted to what the Bedemptorists used to term the first great solemnity of the mission, that is, to paying especial homage to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. In the evening at Benediction the altar was profusely decorated with flowers and innumerable wax candl«B. Within the sanctuary the scene was very brilliant. The church was crowded to excess. The sermon, of course, was upon the Blessed Sacrament, and waß most eloquent and comprehensive. On Sunday morning, at nine o'clock Mass, the Confraternities received Holy Communion. On Sunday next tte children will make their firat communion, and after eleven o'clock Mass the Sacrament of Confirmation will be administered by the Bishop. la the evening the mission will be brought to a close by the ceremony of the renewal of the baptismal vowb. During the past weak the suddtm death of an old and much* respected member of this congregation (Mr. J. O'Niel, of Woolston) caused a profound feeling of sadness in all those who were acquainted with the deceased. On Sunday Mr. O'Niel was at the opening of the mission ; on Monday night he was dead. He had bean in town on Monday, returned home, and appeared to be in his usual health. He played chess with his family, and seemed to be in excellent spirits. (Shortly after retiring to rest, he was seized with a somewhat violent fit of coughing. He arose, and went to the kitchen for a drink. His wife followed him. Upon reaching the kitohen he sank exhausted on to a chair. He told his wife that he was dying, and asked her to pray for him. A few minutes later his soul had fled, Hia death was attributed to cessatioa of tke heart's action. Mr. O'Niel had been a resident of Christchvuck for over twenty-five years. Daring that time he has been an active supporter and faithful member of the church here. His many good qualities earned for him tke respect ef every one with whoa he came in contact. The deepest sympathy is felt for his widow and his family in their sudden bereavement. — On Wednesday morning a Solemn liequiem Mass was celebrated for the soul of Mr. O'Niel. His immediate rolatires and a great number of the congregation attended the mournful ceremonies. On Thursday afternoon the remains of the deceased were borne to their last resting place in the cemetery in Barbadoes street. The funeral was the largest ever seen in Onristcaurch. The cortege, which seemed to be interminable, must have reached from the church to the cemetery, a distance of quite three-quarters of a mile. The funeral service was read by Father Halbwachs. Mr. O'Niel was a good specimen of the upright, clear-headed, industrious, persevering Irishman. His life was honest and honourable, and upon his death the tribute of respect which such qualities merit was liberally paid to kirn by his fellow-men. Apparently it is to be a real case of skinning the lamb in regard to the unfortunate Civil servants, whose salaries are to be submitted anew to the shearing process. This time the small salaries are to be attacked as well aa the large ones. To endeavojui to screw an extra hundred thousand pounds ont of the already well-picked bones of the Service look.B very much as if the employees of the Govermment are to be obliged to contribute several onnces over and above the pound of .flesh which, it appears, it is now the duty of every member of the State to subscribe towards the fattening-up of our very lean Treasury. Mr. W. P. Beeves must abandon, for the present, the hope of prefixing the title of hon. to his name. The Premier has most effectually nipped that hope in the bud. St. Albans must be content for the present to be represented by a private member. Mr. Perceval has been making a bid for fame by asking the Government to place twenty-five pounds upon the estimates for the purchase of mulberry seed for destributing among the Canterbury farmers. Bir Harry did not see hia way to grant the request. Possibly he deems that this is not the time to invest even a small amount of capital in any undertaking which does not guarantee capital its legitimate returns. Sericulture in Canterbury would hardly do that. However ardent some of ue may be i i the cause of protection, I think just at present we mnat remain sa lbfied with letting some other country do the Bilk growing for us. The times are not prosperous enough to justify the waste even of twenty-five pounds upon a fad, at least so the Premier appears to think. Enthusiastic amateur sericulturists may endeaveur to produce silk if they please » but they must pay for their own mulberry seed. Mr. Percival must

discover some other method of upholding the honour of united Canterbury.

The death of Mr. Pearson leaves the ABhley seat to be wrangled over by candidates who were disappointed at the last election. Mr. Rolleston is spoken of as the probable successor of Mr. Pearson. Some persons imagine tnat Mr. Ivess, who has taken up his res deuce in fOhristchurch, would nave a very fair chance for the seat. The constituency is a Conservative one, and I fancy Mr. Rolleston ha 9 the better chance. If Mr. Uolleston stands and is again defeated he will never recover it. It is s^.id that, like the stag of Jacques, the tears have never ceased to course down Mr. Ralleston's " innocent noss " since the night up>n which the returning officer declared Mr. Baxter dulyelec ci to thd disgust of Mi-. Rolleston. lam nob sure that I should be greatly grieved if the wells in the sad eyes of this ponierou3 and iolemn gentleman were caused to overfl >w afresh by another defeat. Mr. Kolleston is an unbending Conservative of the old school, he regards the people as oanaile, or, tj use his favourite quotation, as the " hert." It serves him right when tie " herd " exerci-es its functions and kicks. Whoever miy be the next member for Ashley, he is not likely to excel Mr. Pearson in popularity. The dead young member was unassuming, he was pleasant in manner, bright of intellect, was as much liked in the House as out of it, and by all classes in Canterbury his early death is deeply deplored.

The Shakespeare Club in Chriatchurch is a most flourishing Society. It is only about a year old, but has, in that time, done some very good work in the way of studying the writings of Shakespeare. Professor Brown, who is President, occupied the chair on Monday night. Tne Professor is not a believer in the celebrated " Cryptogram." He ia firmly convinced toat Shakespeare, and he alone, wrote the plays. His anti- Baconian belief, among other reasons, is founded upon the fact that Shakespeare, in many of his plays, openly ridicules the Purltans. This, the Professor maintains, would not have been done by Bacon. The great Elizabethan philosopher sympathised with the Puritans, and would never have lashed a system in which he believed as its stiff, piggish formalism is lashed iv the character of Malvolio. This difference between the opinions professed by Bacon and the opinioas in Shakespeare's plays, I should scarcely imagine to be so conclusive a proof of the Shakespearian authorship as Professor Brown makes it out to be. A large«minded man, such as Bacon was, must have been quite capable of seeing through the shams of Puritanism. May he not have chosen the light vehicle of the drama as a means whereby to convey his real opinions to the ear of the world. What really seems to throw much more doubt upon the Shakespearian authorship than the intricate " Cryptogram " is — how could a man with shakespeare'B limited education have written these plays at all? In them are reflected more of the miad of the philosopher and polished courtier lhau that uf the poacher and strolling player. Apropos of literary matters there is a book in the market just cow of the kiud upoa which English people, no doubt, largely form their opinions in reference to Irish matters. I have read a great many books in my time, and have psrused innumerable 'printed lies about Ireland, but I think I have never read a grosser or more brutal tissue of falsehoods between two covers, than those contained in " Farnell and His Island." The book is not as one would suppose, a saiire. To be satirical, polish and wit are necessiry. There is neither in this book. There is nothing humorous about it. There is not one fliah of wu, or one single indication of literary merit from cover to cover. It is a dead, heavy, savage attack upon the whole Insn nation. I first pickei it up upon a drawing-room table ia Can.stchurch, and was asbured by its o^uer that every word in the book was perfectly true. " I can vouch for ita truth," said the speaker, " became I have been in Ireland myself." Pictures of the vilest and most revolting kind are giveu of the Iristi peasantry, who are represented as uaviag entirely lost all moral sense and as living the life of bemi-biutahsed saviges. "The graft of civilization," he bj.j b, '' which the Anglo-S .xon has lor seven hundred years striven to b.udupoutie is aud, has never caught. ' The Celt ot the present day is described as a •' savage emmeutly fitted for cattl«-hft ng, but lil-suited to ply the industry of tanning." Pictures are given of the Irish puriot and the Irish priest. The latter is credited with sanctioning murder, in order t > get his dues. The following is a delicate picture of a Parnelhte member. He is cunning, selfish, cruel, his blood is ihm with centuries of poverty, damp hovels, potatoes, and servility. His passions are dull and sullen as an instinct. And thiß naif lamed amm.il walks out of Eustoa Square into Lmdon, and makeß his debdt in the House of Commons. He is described as making up for centuries of fasting by making a terrible onslaught upon English beef and pudding. The description given of the service in an liish chapel is &jch a description as ouly a person lost to all sense of decency and delicacy could give. Such a man is the writjr. In every 6 wage insult which he flings at the Irish people, there is the unrm^taktable reflex of a brutalise 1 mind. Over aud over he asserts that the Irish peasant has beeu left behind wuile the rest of the world advanced. " The Irish peasant, ' he says, "will ouly be able totake his placd as an equal beaide his Saxon neighoour when he has contrive J to rid himself uf ceuturies of inherited filth and idlene.-s, suppl mented by ten j ears of the mo-t lmfainous nural teaching which it is po-sible to conceive." Ihi infamous teacrung of course i.the teachiag ot tle La-id League, whosj doctrines, asbe asseits, are ' murder and repudiation ot dib.." Not content with attacking all Iri9h institutions an 1 declaring ut le st in eff ct, that the soa.ier nature steps iv, applies the positive check, and extinguishes the Irish, the better it would bj. Tais writer does what I believe no o her writer has hitherto done. He grossly slanders the morality of Irish women. In these vulgar catumnie* and impure imaginings is thorougnly revealed theb.se mind of the writer whose paniahty for revelling in the foulness of a toul miud tai exceeds he la^e tor object. ye uucieanuead whieu he attnbutes to Hie Irish people.

I'bu worst feature iv ivg d rd to publications of this kind is that r English, people, blind with pn judice, read these vile effusions and upon thtni tuna their opinions in regaid to Ireland an 1 the In-h. However capable ot t zeroising fair play in regard to other matters v c English mind may be, it is incapable of being fair where Ireland

is concerne I. No matter how false or how bratal the lies may b* which are told ia regard to IreHnd, these are swallowed as gospel. Looking at " Parnell and His Island " ia the windows of the bookseller, and knowing how the S«on reader will btlieve every word of it, one realises how almost hopeless is the expectation that the two countries will ever understand each other, or that the old feuds will erer pass away •