CHRISTCHRUCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 15, 3 August 1888, Page 7

CHRISTCHRUCH.

(From our own Correspondent.) After a long spell of fine weather the sunshine has departed at last, and our city is drenched with rain and enveloped in for On these damp misty days Christchurcb, with its bare, brown treis. and eloppyWe ts. is one of the dreariest places Imaginable. At this season the river loses all its beauty, and becomes a mudrfy commonplace stream, totally unworthy of its name. The willows wh°ch fringe the banks have just been subjected to a severe course of pruning, and the white wounds which remain where the branches have been lopped off, give a patchy and unsightly appearance to the trees Since tbe removal of the mill-dam the river has fallen a couple ™£ th M ?* i' C ° V f r6d With dead brown vegetable matfe up to the old water level. Altogether the Avon at present i. not a thing of beauty and visitors who expect to see in the Avon a mien J ficent, wide, winding river, are apt to be very much disappointed. At the best of times the Avon is only a stwam, but on Summer even \Jb when the drooping branches of the willows sweep the water and the moon gleams through the foliage overhead, it is a very beautiful and fairyhke stream indeed. Our level city is delightful m the summer Sfh l^ mr n '• "V " gMb ° f br ° Wn ftnd^ reT . »nd faded green?and with its chnging fogs, penetrating damp, and biting south-west winds it is by no means an ideal town. B winas, Mr. Alfred Saunders has, as I predicted, been once more defeated He went very near getting in for Ashley, bat the fates inThe shaps of the Catholic vote was again against him, and I am glad to say once more relegated the would-be member to the shades of obscority S which all narrow-minded bigots should be kept. Mr. Saunders since his last publio appearance, hasjevidently lost none of his ofd true E spirit of intolerance and injustice to Catholics. He was just as deter" mined as ever to refuse all aid to Catholic schools. Therefore there is poetic justice in the death blow to his ambi.ioas hopes being dealt to him time after time by Catholics. When Mr. Saunders! profiting by experience, learns to expand bis ideas and, taking a wider view of matters, cultivates a etricter sense of justice, and fair play towards h°s fellow-colonists than that by which he is animated at present, and in short drops his old puritanical ideas and realises that he is living ° the nineteenth century, then he may hope to achieve his great amb ° turn and write M.H.B. after his name. Until he does that he may as E! h?£ f* ?? e f T Dtry the Coßt of his Bhare *» elevens of tbe {Si m nee of ever Beeing hiß name at the - hea<i The staff at the Lyttelton orphanage is evidently not a happy family. Between the master and matron and the staff including the governesses and the cook, what may be called strained relations have apparently existed for »ome time. In fact a kind of domestic volcano has raged in the institution for months past. At last the disturbance SSSSi"? c Wal 9° f the 01 P hana g e - ** Rot to the ears of tSe committee A semi-private enquiry and then a public enquiry was held. The committee took sides, six were in favour of the staff and of the dismissal of the master and matron, and seven were of the opinion that the institution wa. not established for tbe staff, bat for the children, and tbatMr.andMrsßrownlee having atfc nded to the interests of the latter were entitled toretaintheir places. While all this wrangling been going on between the staff and the master and matron, who are evidently unfitted for their position, the poor children suffer, and have frequently been supplied with food of a most disgusting kind Instances Use this cause one to contrast the cold official charity of the State with the genuine chanty which is practised i n Catholic institutions of the kind, and one ceases to wonder that, in the way of reformation the Sta c effecis so little,and the Catholic Church soluch LJE U f S\ ° the .r te 7 8t of BO2iet y' ™* for the welfare of its poor waife, if all juvenile reformatories were handed over to tbe wise and Loving care of some of the gentle disinterested Sisterhoods of the Catholic Church The poor little children would then grow up knowing something of human love and affection. This they will never learn with the State for their foster mother and with people hke the Brownlees for their nurses. The pupils attending the ambulance lectures were on Friday evening afforded a striking and dramatic illustration of the u.e of the ambulance liter. While the class was attending the lecture in the City Council Hall, one of the litters was carried aero "the Worcester-street Bridge on the way to the hospital. The occupant of the litter proved to be an old resident of Canterbury, namedTr Potts who arrived here in one of the historical " first four ships " th« ofi,?r, rry \° 83y that the AmbulaQ ce ball, which was gUen on the 26ih, was not a great success from a pecuniary point. This is to be regretted. The Society is an admirable one, and does a vast amount of good in teaching people to render aid to each other fn case of accident Again and again there is not the slightest doubt taowWge" &h kCkOf difl »»««o'*litse practical The rehearsals of the " Mikado" go steadily od, and as there is no professional company in Chriatchurch just now the performance/ which are to be given on the seventh, eighth, tenth, and eleventh 3 August, are sure to be largely attended. eictentn »{ Mr. K. Lonargan, the president of the Catholic Literary Society has been endeavouring to stimulate the young men of the Soc c v to study the National question. Mr. Lonargan has offered prSsfS the fiist second, aad third best papers upon the Home Rule question Those papers are to be read before the Society on Thursday evening when it is to be hoped that the competitors will show thlt thS possess an intelligent acquaintance with their subject. Mr Lonarea* deserves very great credit indeed, for thus endeavouring to induce the young men of the Society to study the question of Home Rule though it is to be hoped for their own sakes that no such induce ment was necessary to cause them to study a question so frouehl with JlJTr^H hewe ' f " eßo£ their country/ I have been told that the St fTi? "^ a P°P alar ° D « for discussion with the members of the Literary Soaety. However, literary they may be and if they had|the literature of every couutry on the globe at their

fingers ends' I do not think that they need consider the subieat of Irish pol.tics at all unworthy of their consideration pXcs may not perhaps come strictly within the province of a Literary SUSS adered a very HI informed perion indeed. If the youZ members of hSI hH 6 \ ? lOl Ot u [9h \° leave th °™°l™ opea to tS ?biy Thl " h * ke themßel '«^ taestudy of the Irish qaestion S once There may be s;,me excuss for a yoang Irishman not being Vbl? to ocate a quotation from Dante, Mihonf Cervantes, or Sneer bu? there is no excuse whatever if he is able to read for his ignorant in regard to a subject which is so nearly associated with the Sniel of his own couutry. Should the members of tbe Canterbury Oaffite Literary Society imagine that Home Rul. is a question breath their dignity to discuss, perhaps it might ckange their opinions toSwauS their minds that the Dialectical Society, the debating cub o f the Canterbury College, last year debated the question m a most vigorous manner when the advocates for Home Rule, nearly all Bng'shmen majority ' *" * £aVOUr ° f Home Bale by a lS ge i,- J th l n } thafc the a P athy which is displayed by people of Irish KhJfS^T? IS thl , 8 Clty ia regard to rißh ma " c « « largely dne to the fact that the clergy here do not endeavour to nonuiarisp national stud.es. . The people take their tone in this respeSt Tom the clergy, as m the case of the Literary Society and t£ result is that there is a marked decadence of that strong national feeling which, among Irish people, does » m£hto promote that ardent enthuaiasm in the cause of religion, wh?ch h» worked such wondeis elsewhere. Where the national feeinTis weak among Irish people there will not be found that royal-hearted Join handed generosity which has studded the world with some of ss" npb est eclipses When Irish people take on the " SaxT graft of civilization,'' and become Anglicised, they begin to defioD a thoroughly Anglican love for threepenny bits. I? this, and 5 other* colonies it will be generally fouad that where the natioail filing is strongest there the Ohurch is in the most flourishing condition In Otago, upon the West Coast, and in soma other plaSsT the Irish 1325 a f re H dlßtxn guißhg uiBh , ed for their strong sympathieswit^ *the sacred Island of Sorrows, and m no part of New Zealand do the Catholica so freely and generously respond to the call of religion, and no where are they more devoiedy attached to their clergy. The obvious inference » that in the cause of rehgion it is not & on the part of those who can prevent it, to let the old, warm, generous M,f "plrit ! spencer 8 ° be preparad f ° r * he ConOn Sunday Father Halbwacha announced that after vesDers a meeting of the men of the parish would be held for tbe purpose of forming a branch of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. pur Po9eP 09e ot Father Halbwachs referred, evidently very' reluotaatlv tn another parish matter, that is, the subject of the Sunday cSntribS tions. These are very small, and are not at all adequate to the inoport of the mission. This is to be regretted. Instead o f th 9 eoS tnbutions failing off there is a very great neceashy ?or them ?o? o increase. The wants of the parish are manifold. Father Halbwachs justly remarked that charity should begin at home, and l soit should It will need to stay there, too, for a considerable tirn^ , betow all our wants are removed. A very great and long-sustained effort will nave to be made by the people before this parish is put upon » health y footing. It is true that in so far as possessing a Magdalen Asv urn we are in advance of every orher paruh in New Zealand fbu tin other respects we are lamentably behind. Oar church is bal on? schools are worse the house accommoda- ion for the Brothers is deplorable, and the Blßhop'aB 18 hop' a residence is quite unworthy of him 111 SatTdo 8 T^ aPPaUiDg ' b f ifc i 8 U " e - T^'ore H will hi seTn that I do not exaggerate when I state that both Bishop and Deoole have a stiff task before them to get this parish into shi? Sfpe? and that charity will have to make a very prolonged a 'ay in the region of the southern end of Barbaioes street before she Jill have si U° factonly accomplished her work w^^hf ar , dinal an ha 8 had, or was to have another interview with his Holiness before proceeding to Ireland. No doubt his Eminence will again seek to set poor Ireland right with the Pope int*ir Tw i nte ,™? fc many V^soub are awaiting the expected spoke f^the nn^ rC ff bMIBb MlBM 18b ff ° P ,^ ed r od hfts P ut a Particularly Song spoke in the Duke of Norfolk's wheel. In view of what I think I ?SiS I h°. p 6 P eTt °P id declamations recently made in New sss; h^^Stot;^ 6 least that the irißh peopie aQd co -