WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 16, 3 February 1893, Page 6

WELLINGTON.

(From our own Correspondent.) January 28. At the meeting of the Education Board, which waa held here on Wednesday last, amongst other business, was that of an application fr.m Mrs Gallagher, residing at Greytown, asking permission to send her daughter, who had won a Board scholarship, to a cinvent school instead of to the Girls' High School. — Mr W McC irdle, a member of the Board, stated that it was the opinion of the Minister of Education and also the Inspector-General of schools, that there was nothing in the Education Act to prevent the Board adopting this course. Some members of the Board pointed out that a similar question cropped up some years ago, bat that the then members disallowed the application. — Mr McCardle, in answer to this objection, said that the personnel of the Board was different now to what it was then, and he hoped that the members would at least postpone the consideration of the matter until Mrs Gallagher would be present — Another member suggested that out of common courtesy the consileration of the application ought to be deferred until the next meeting. — Mr Young contended that it would be contrary to the spirit of the Act to grant the application. Surely the Inspector-General of schools and the Minister of Education onght to be the best judges of the proper interpretation of the Act. — The Rev J. Patterson maintained that the Board could not frame regulations to meet every case. — Mr Fitzherbert dissented from the views of the previous two speakers

and urged that they should postpone dealing with it until next meet* ing.— Mr MoCardle again urged that it was within the province of the Board to grant the request, and that the plea that any new regulations were required waa beside the question. The only thing the members had to do was to administer the Act in the spirit in which it was framed, and as the highest educational authorities in the land considered it ought to be administered. — This appeal evidently had very little effect, for it was decided evtntnally, on the motion of Mesgra Fraser and Young, that a reply should be cent to the application to the effect that the Board did not see its way to depart from, the regulations. Messrs McCardle and Fitzherbert were the only diesen'ients. The annual retreat of the clergy of the archdioce of Wellington terminated on Tuesday morning. Mass was celebrated by his Grace the Archbishop, who also delivered an allocation to the clergy. The Diocesan Synod was opened io St Mary's Cathedral a little later, under the presidency of his Grace, when Mass wascelebrated by the Very Rev Father Devoy, V.G., the Very Rev Father Kirk being master of Ceremonies, the Bey Father Dawßon adm., secretary ; and the Very Rev Dr Watters, promoter. The Very Rev Father Leterrier, the Very R3v Dr Watten, and the Yen Dr Pestre were appointed theological examiners for the Diocese. After the publication of the Decrees a Te Deum was chanted by the Rev Father Madden, the Rev Father Patterson presiding at the organ. You may tell the ordinary Wellington man that he is the salt of the earth , and he will not try to disprove your statement, or may inform him that the Wellington climate is the finest and most unchangeable in all New Zealaad, and he will swallow the bait, or even you may hazard the story, that you considered Wellington was destined from ages immemorial to be the head centre of the political, intellectual, and commercial life of the colony, and he will be prepared to agree with the assertion ; but if you say to him that the Wellington people are a religious people, then you will hurt hii feelings, and that very severely, for he knowß, to use a colloquialism » that you are getting at him. Various religious teachors, who have done well in other parts of New Zealand, have from time to time pitched their tent in this, the

Empire City, but the results were never such as to induce them to prolong their stay. Christchurch seems to be the happy hunting ground for theologians. I hay* been often trying to explain how it is that the residents of the City of the Plains are so Busceptible to the influences of each new religious quack. A Wellington man attempted to solve the puzzle the other day by a vile pun to the effect, that it was only "flats" who resided in such a level city. A Mr Wortbington, who, I understand, has gathered round him a large congregation in Chrietchurch, has been up here on a mission, accompanied by one of his lieutenants, an ex-Wesleyao Sunday school superintendant. You will remsmber that it is the same man whom a deputation of pious Evangelical ladies interviewed some time ago for the purpose of requesting him to leave Ohristchurch, as his doctrines, they Baid, were improper ; and, worse than that, many stalwart supporters of their little isms had been seduced from their allegiance to the views of their childhood by the pantheistic and nebulous philosophy of the new prophet. But he heeded not their lamentation, and in the most ungallant manner hurled at them "deductions," "corollaries," "apotheosis," " anterior premises,"" antiquated superstitions," " recarnations," and suchlike murderous missiles from the English language, so that they were fain to depart, but not until one zealous Bunday-school teacher, of venerable but uncertain age, and labouring under a fit of hysterical piety, threw herself into his arms and protested that she would not leave her point of vantage until ha gave the required promise. This was too much for him. He fled, and then the pieua females formed a prayer-meeting, and they knelt down in the dining-room, the verandah, the hall, and in the garden, but after an hour of fruitless supplication they departed. One would almost be led to sympathise with these females were it not that they were the very class who get into a state of religious frenzy on the occasion of a visit from your O'Gormans, Clampers, Ohiniquys, et hoc genus omne. The Christchurch modern Mahomet has not struck "ile" in Wellington. His audiences were limited, uninterested, irreverent, and inclined to be argumentative. They came to be amused , not to pray, and remained to laugh. The averaae Wellington man is Dot religious. Dj not accuse him of it; it is uncharitable on your part,

There is no surer way of getting into the graces of a Canterbury man than to tell him that yon are quite delighted with everything in the province, and especially about Ohristchurch, for it is English, you know. The newspaper man asks it of every victim whom he pounces on for an interview, and as the majority of the said victims have been well schooled in the lesson, either by an advance agent or their host, the answer is always most flattering to the vanity of the people. The contagion is spreading, especially amongst the youth of the upper and middle classes, whose infatuations for imitation has led them into adopting fashions and manners unsuited to the colonies, even to tucking up their pants, when the thermometer is 80ieg. in the shade, because they have a hazy idea that it iB raining in London. It is not alone in this direction that we are slavishly trying to imitate British customs.

If many people bad their way we should be the prond possessors of institutions, such as the workhouse, which might be claimed to be indigenous to British soil. The present Government are doing their beat to prevent the tide of pauperism from increasing, by distributing labour to suitable centres all over the Colony, and also by settling the people on the land, and this, too, in the face of determined opposition of those who would wish to see the institutions of the Home country transplanted here, with all their attendant miserits and wretchedness. We have established a Benevolent Home in Wellington, the completion and furnishing of which has been due in a great meaiure to the energy and perseverance of the Bey H. Van Staveren, than who there ia no more unwearied worker on behalf of the poor and needy. The powers that be, however, have decided that the inmates thereof must wear a distinctive dress, or, in other words, a " pauper uniform." Now 1 contend that while there may be something said in favour ot this by reason of cleanliness, that is, nevertheless, a retrograde step. Poverty is not a criminal offence, although many who are so circumstanced owe it to their foolish conduct in their early days, but the moment you put a distinctive dress on an inmate, you mark him other, with the indelible trade mark of pauperism. Many of these old people are poor through no fanlt of their own, they have been the pioneers of civilisation here ; they cut down the bush and hewed out the track on the mountain side ; they have sown the seed, but others have reaped the crop directly or indirectly ; our railways, onr wharves, our public buildings and public works of all kinds have been raited by the assistance of those wrecks of humanity. Are they, then, to be branded as it were with the trade mark of the pauper, co that they may be the fit subject for the jeers of the callous, cane-sucking youth with the collar of abnormal height who sits on an office stool, and

jabbers to his fellows, when the occasion offers, of " culchaw," horses, and barmaids. The plea for uniformed pauperism on the ground of cleanliness does not hold water. I have seen the inmates of a similar institution in another part of New Zealand enjoying nearly all the liberty and comfort and privacy of a home, and yet they were permitted to dress according to their individual tastes. Their little apartments were made comfortable and cheerful by the addition of prints or pictures cut from the illustrated papers, or by little presents of comforts from kind friends or benevolent visitors. Let the old people be treated kindly and generously, and kept clean, by all means, but do not let us adopt the workbousa, in all its hideouaness, in these colonies as yet.

The Hibernian Society, hot* junior and senicr branches, turned out in their numbers at the Friendly Societies' demonstration here the other day, as did also St Patrick's drum and fife band. As I have previously stated, the local branch of the H.A.0.8, Society deserves great credit for the manner in which they have worked up the formation of ihe junior section of their society.

On yesterday week the mortal remains of the late Sergeant Patrick Henry, of H.M. 40th Regiment, were interred in the Henui cemetery, Wanganui, the funeral service being read by the Bey Father McKenna. The soldierly form of the veteran was qaite a land mark, if I may be permitted to use the term, in Wanganui for Borne years. The old man had seen some stirring events in his time, a brief sketch of which is here appended : Patrick Henry was born in the town of Kilkenny ia 1814, and enlisted in the 40th in 1832. He went to India the following year, and was through the Bcindi war, 1839. He went through all the ups and downs of that and the second Afghan war, and was in the garrison at Candahar when the enemy laid siege to that place- — a siege which lasted nearly two years, during which time the troops had to suffer great straits both for food and clothes. After the capture and burning of Cabul in 1842 and the rescue cf the prisoners, the English forces had to fight their way back to India, through the Kyber pass, under the most heartrending circumstances. The wheels of the gun carriages crunched the bones of the skeletons of Elpbinstone's forces that had perished two years previously in that ill-omened pass. He took part in the Mahratta war and received a bronze medal for being present at the battle of Gwalior. On the death of the Duke of Wellington, he was selected with three others to represent his regiment at the Duke's funeral. The regiment being stationed in Melbourne in 1856, be took his discharge, having followed the colours for over 22 years into every

engagement into which they had been taken. Such is naturally a very bare outline of the career of a man who passed through all the phases of that fearful Indian mutiny, a man whose military career was so full of startling incidents— so many hair-breadth escapes not alone by flood and field, but from the very jaws of death— that, had he filled a more exalted social position, his biography would long ago have been spread out over a couple of volumes and given to an admiring public. But the fates willed it otherwise, and so his mortal remains are now consigned to mother earth, which has been the end of the greatest and most distinguUhed soldiers that ever lived,

It is reported that Sir John Hall, in consequence of ill-health, does not intend to enter Parliament after this session, and that his seat will be contested by the leader of the Opposition. Mr Bolleston would have never an opportunity of inflicting his solemn jeremiads on the House of Representatives during the past two years, had the Liberals of Canterbury not elected, foolishly enough, a nobody to fight their battle. As it was the contest was close, and very likely a couple of inflictions, such as Mr Bolleston delivered at Halswell the other day, would help to make him so unpopular, that he would consider bis chances better among the Conservatives of Ellesmere. It is (he combination ot the latter and the Catholics in that constituency, that has returned Sir J. Hall to the House of Bepresentatives for some years, but I do not think that Mr Bolleston would have the slightest chance of the combined support of those two bodies, were he to contest the seat.

Great preparations are being made for the forthcoming bazaar, which is to be opened in the Bink on Monday week, by Hit Worship the Mayor, Mr H. D. Bell. The building is to be very prettily decorated with flags and streamers. The stalls will be laid out in a most artistic and uDique style of architecture, whilst the dresses of the fair damsels who are prepared to extract the last shilling from their victims, will be the most picturesque of their kind ever seen in Wellington. The quantity and quality of the goods is very much snperior to thoße seen at any previous fair, whilst those who come to be amused will find their tastes catered for on the most liberal fashion. A grand may-pole dance will be one of the features of the evenings' entertainment, the children — about two score of them— being industriously practising under the tutorship of Mr B. P. Johnson. The fair will last a week, and will conclude with a grand social entertainment, the whole being on a scale never before attempted by any denomination in Wellington.