WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 29, 17 November 1893, Page 4

W ELLINGTON.

(From our own Correspondent.)

November 11, 1893. Thb devotion of the Forty Hoars' Adoration commenced at Buckle street on the last Sunday of October and ended on Tuesday, the eve of All Stints. High Mass was sung each day and devotions and •ermon on Sunday and Monday evenings. Large numbers of worshippers attended, and a goodly number of communicants approached the altar each morning. The Rev Father Goggan, S.M., that talented and popular young priest, who is associated with the Very Rev Father Devoy, V.G., as assistant in the Te Aro parish, delivered last Sunday at the 9.30 Mass at Buckle street, a stirring address on the duties of Catholic parents towards their children, and of the duties of Catholics of both sexes at the present crisis. In a few brief and burning sentences he demonstrated the inalienable right, as well as the absolute necessity, to the Church of control of the education of the Catholic youth from their earliest years. He said—" As the twig is bent so will the tree be inclined," and if a Catholic child is allowed to attend a godlew •chool the parent would assuredly live to bitterly repent it. Father Goggan went into statistics to prove that a large percentage of the State school children failed to pass the required standards last year. Consequently the training was not what it ought to be; he aleo demonstrated that children who had passed did so at an expense to the State of something like £6 per capita ; a great deal more useful information on thiß important subject did the rev gentleman impart, and wound up an impassioned and eloquent address by saying that although the puJpit was not the place for politic*, still the education qaettion was of snch vital importance to the best interests of the Church that he felt it to be a sacred duty to remind his hearers of their obligation at the present time. His advice was to make do promise nor give a pledge, but to wait until the programmes of the ▼arioui candidates were revealed ; in the meantime to unite in solid phalanx, and when the time came he had no doubt but that the

Wellington Catholics wou'd show an example worthy of imita ion to their brethren all over New Zealand. Steadily and surely King Death is claiming his subjects among the early arrivals in New Zealand, to whose energy, ability, and perseverance the rising generation owe their possession of the most livable (if I might be allowed to coin a word to suit the occasion) country in the Southern Ocean. The latest of this heroic band in Wellington to go to his reward was Mr Mortimer Corliss, who died at his house in Nairn street on Monday last Mr Corliss was an Irishman and a Catholic. Having joined the Royal Artillery, he, in 1853, left with his regiment for New Zealand. The vessel in which he sailed, the Polar Btar, was burned at sea, all on board being rescued •nd conveyed to St Helena, and from thence back to England. The next attempt to reach New Zealand waa successful. When the British troops left this Colony for Home Mr Corliss remained behind and has resided in or close to the Empire City ever since. He was the first drill instructor of the D Battery N.Z. Artillery, of which 6ir Patrick Buckley was the first captaiD, and a high state of efficiency of that corps was the result, and efficiency for which it is Btill distinguished. He was keeper of the Wellington magazine, but perhaps be was beat known as having charge of the Wellington Quarantine Station, Somes Island. These positions he filled with great credit. The immediate ca.se of death was dropsy. The deceased leaves a widow, five sons and three daughters. The funeral took pluce on Thursday morning from 8t Mary of the Angels Churcb, and, by order of the Colonial Secretary, Sir P. Buckley, it was a military one. The coffin was covered by a Union Jack and borne upon a gun carriage. lhere was a large attendance of sorrowing relatives and friends in the cortege. The Bey Father Goggan was the officiating clergyman, and a party of the Permanent Artillery fired a salute over the grave, which is in the new cemetery at Karori, some two miles from town. A very pretty wedding took place on Wednesday afternooo at St Mary of the Angels, Boulcott street, where Miss Sarah Baobel Ooffey, daughter of Mr Paul Coffey of Oriental Bay, was united to Mr James Bod of the firm of Rod Brothers, Wellington and Johnßonille, The bride was becomingly attired in cream satin with the

usual wreath and veil and Orange bloaaoms, and wore a diamond brooch, the gift of the bridegroom. The bride was given away by her father and was accompanied by her two younger sisters as bride*, maids, who were prettily dressed in pink with bronze velvet aaU and gloves and shoes to mateb. Mr H. Bod, brother of the bridegroom, officiated as best man. The ceremony which was performed by the Very Bey Father Devoy, V,G., waa witnessed by a large nnmber of person?, principally ladies, who seemed to take an absorbing interest in the proceedings. At the conclusion of the ceremony the bridal party drove to Mr Ooffey's house in Oriental Bay. In the field of politic*, like unto that of war, victory inclines to the bold and energetic. The great Napoleon, it is written, won his battles by rapid marches and big battalions, and these were the tactics by which the Germans in the war of 1870-72 won their teriei of battles against La helle France, culminating in the surrender of the French Emperor at Sedan. Now the tactics of Premier Beddon are much the same as those of the first Napoleon, though applied to the peaceful field of politics ; for since the dissolution of Parliament his movements from one political centre to another have been rapid , and he has used his heavy artillery with much effect. One week's record of his work will prove what I say. The Nen Zealand Times of last Tuesday says : " During last week the Premier travelled five hundred miles by road and rail, made four speeches, received twenty* eight deputations, and replied to several hundred telegrams, and letters, had a banquet thrown in over and ab^ve, and was back last night in Wellington as fresh as paint." The Nen Zealand rimes, the Government organ in Wellington, edited by that well-known Catoolic gentleman and able journalist, B. A. Loughnao, Eeq, has under its new management become a first* class powerfully-written newspaper. It spares neither pains nor expense in catering for its patrons, and its London letter is a special feature. The correspondent is a clever and versatile w.iter, and hii description of the late /ram* in the House of Commons would delight a Home Buler's heart. This gentleman picks up some amusing items, the gist of one of which I take the liberty to reproduce for your readers' benefit. Among the visitors at the principal hotel of a Ger-

man watering-place were two English ladies (one young, the other elderly), wbo kept very much aloof from everybody. In the hotel register their names were entered as Mesdames Milward. Popular opinion in the smoking-room inclined to the belief that the younger lady was an actress or singer, some even declaring that they had seen her scores of times. One of the young gentlemen got terribly smitten by the charma of the fair incognito. He sought in vain for an opportunity to address her, and the more empreste he grew the more fidgety became the elder lady. The younger Miss Wilward seemed kindly disposed, her eyes twinklingjwith amusement when they met bis, and she bowed graciously when he saluted her. Finally he ventured to send her a basket of flowers. A few hours later Mr X (he wm a clerk in the Colonial Office) received a polite message from Mise Wilward to visit their sitting-room. The elder lady was there alone and on the table by her side stood the unfortunate basket of flowers' She bowed stiffly, Baying : " You oblige me, sir, by your intrusive and' ill-bred behaviour to betray our incognito. The lady whom you have taken the liberty of addressmg is the Princess Maude of Wales.' 1 Tableau ! Bland Holt and hia fine company have jmt concluded a most successful season of three weeks at the Wellington Opera House. It speaks well for the hearty dramatic instinct of the public here that Mr Holt should be so lavishly patronised as he is when he visits Wellington, for his repertoire is remarkable for dramas of a strictly moral and elevating tone, and, if sometimes his representations smack of melodrama, they are Btrictly up to date. Nothing has been produced in Wellington of late yearß that has created such enthusiasm as "A Million of Money," in the production of which Bland Holt excelled himself. The fifty-second anniversary of the Prince of Wales birth wm celebrated in the usual manner in Wellington. The weather was fine with a strong wind blowing. The Friondly Societies, in which marched the Hibernians, went in procession to the number of 3,600 through the city to the Basin Reserve, where the customary iportf weie held.