WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 45, 9 March 1894, Page 15

WELLINGTON.

(From our own Correspo.dent.)

March 3,1894. The name of Mother Mary Jjseph Aubert is well kuown iv New Zealand, for her fame has spread far beyond her conventual retreat at tha settlement called Jerusalem, on the Wanganui river. The Sister is loved and trusted by the uaiive race, to whom, working in cod junction with Father Soulas of the Marist Order, she has brought many blessings and innumerable and much-needed reforms in their ordinary every day life. She has extended her field of usefulnees, and that of tbe good Sißtera of her convent, by taking in homeless and neglected children and caring for them, and in tbat religious and sylvan retreat her lit tie proteges must be accounted the luckiest of waifs, their lives being shielded from all outside bid influences, not even an echo from the outer world piercing those peaceful shades, while, at :ne same time, they drink in all that is good aDd pare. What will just now turn the attention of many of the general public who read the newspapers to Mother Mary Joseph, U she is familiarly called, and to her life and work, is tbe fact that ■be has just won an important case in the Supreme Court at Wellington, by wbich KemptDorn Prosper and Co., the eminent firm of wholesale druggiato, has had to pay to her tbe large sum of £210 and cobU>, for breach of contract in connection with the well-known herbal medicines of which Mother Mary J eepb was the discoverer. Mr Skerrett, the clever Catholic lawyer, who appealed in support of the claim, elicited the facts that not only did tic big drug firm fail to keep to the terms of their contract, but tbat through their treatment they practically lessened the virtues of the remedies. Mother Mary Joseph and her able lawyer are to be congratulated on their well-won victory.

The Wellington Hospital is an institution which each and every member of the community, whatever be bis sect, race, or creed, can conscientiously support. A gardeo. party was held In the hospital grounds oh the 21st ultimo, in aid of furnishing the new wing just completed, and was the unqualified success which it deserved to be. The Bey Father Goggan, who so ably administered the affairs of the Te Aro pariah in the absence of the Vicar-General in Christchurch, contributed, in no small degree, to that success by recommending his people to attend tbe fete. The newspapers published glowing accounts of the affair, at which £75 were raised, and as the Government gives a subsidy of £1 Is for each £, the total sum reached was £165. A ball is to be held in the Drillsbed on tbe sth April, the proceeds of which are to be devoted to the Bame good object.

Speakiog at the 9.30 Mbbb at Buckls street last Sunday, Father Goggan, in appealing to his bearers to send their children to the Oatbolic schools, said be wished to remove the impression that existed in the minds of some Catholics, which was, tbat it was necessary to have a State school certificate to enable their children who had passed the sixth standard to enter the Government eervice.

This, he said, was quite a mistake, ac a certificate from the Roman Catholic authorities tbat a youth had passed tbe n quired standard in the Catholic schools bore the same weight and would be accepted by the Government. The rev gentlemin warmly eulogised tho Catholu schools of Wellington, and sta'ed that at the recent Civil Service examinations two pupils of the Manst Brothers and one from tho Dixon street Convent school had been successful in passing ; and a scholarship, the gift of St Mary's Convent, Hill s reet, and open to the whole Colony, had been won by a Newtown young lady.

The memorial to the late lamented Mr Ballaoce, for which subscriptions bave been collected from friends aad sympathisers all over the ColcDy, will soon be nn fait accompli. Designs are pouring in on th» committee from all quarters ; already twenty- hree bave been received. A sub-committee will select four from these designs and submit them to a general committee, who will make the final selection next Friday. Toe design ultimately chosen ought to r fl ct credit on New Zealand, and perpetuate fittingly the memory of the departed statesman.

The Premier, accompanied by bis ptivatc secretary and a special reporter from the staff of the New Zealand limn, left Wellington on

Thursday morning by (rain via Palmerston North, en route to visit the leading Native settlements in the North Island. At Palmerston he was met by the Mayor, the president of the Manawatu Baciog Club, and the Hon Mr Carroll, and he was invited to visit the races which were then proceeding, and the Premier complied. The party continued their journey at 5.30 p.m. Mr Seddon will be out of reach of civilisation for about a week, attending Native meetingi and tangis, holding interviews, etc., and there is no doubt that he will make the rough ways plain, and smooth over difficulties that lie io the path of settlement. When it is considered that the Maoris hold 10 millions of acres of land wbich it is desir ible the Government should acquire for settlement, the impoitacce of the Premier's tour will be Been.

The Vinceotian Fathers, Rev Fathers Haoley, M'Carthy, and Lynch, concluded their mission at the Cathedral last Sunday evening, when the male portion of the congregation renewed their baptismal vows and received the Papal blessing. A great Dumber also joined the League of the Cross. The ctrenoony was solemn and impressive ; the high altar was adorned with innumerable flowers and candles, and ihe whole of the sanctuary was draped in crimson and gold. The good Fathers must indeed bo pleased at the signal success wbich has rewarded their laboars. Tha church haa been thronged at every service, and it was particularly edifying to see the numbers of men who approached the altar on Saturday morning, when Mags was offered for the souls in purgatory, and on Sunday for th« general communion. At the devotions on tha previous Friday night the whole congrega'ion was enrolled in the Sacred Heart Society. The mission for the children of Te Aro parish was opened on Tuesday afternoon by Bey Father Hanley and is still proceeding. It will close on Sunday with the usual ceremonies. The chnrch at tho different devotions is well rilled with children. Next week from Sunday evening at Vespers will be devoted by the good misaioners to the women.

An Indian contemporary says that an order has been issued by the District Magistrate of Bangalore that everybody sneezing in court will have to pay a line of two annas. Beally this man ahould be made an Irish " removeable " when Mr Gladstone retires. India is too hot entirely for him.

Ttuly, tha path of the Labour member is beset with attractions and §eductionc Mr Burns has just been the recipient of a letter from a music-hall agent, offering him £60 a night— £lo to be paid down beforehand— for an half-bour's speech on any subject in a music-hail The app'ication is full of touches of comedy. It begins (says the Westminster Gazette) by basing the appeal on Mr Burn's well-known love of helping the poor — •' knowing that you are alwaya ready to help the poor," Sec, and ends with the emphatic worde— "The only reliable."

The revolt in Sic ly is extending and tha Government seems to be powerless to deal with it. At the same time the straits of the Finance Minio'er are reaching a climax, and some good judges o( such maners believe that the coup >n paid on the I'alian rentes on Monday. January Ist, will be the last that the bondholders will receive in full. Italy, like Greece, will be driven to repudiate, at least ia part, her present obligaMons. Meantime. acLongst other wild proposals for meeting the dt licit, the Italian financiers are talking of a t>x on uncultivated land. Unfurtunnttly for thePucceefl of any inch pr ject, much of the land that has gone out of cultivation hi»s met this fate through the inability of the proprietors to pay tho exia'ing taxes How the further taxation will remedy tbia state of things ia a puzzle.

In a clevpr essay on the Hebrew popul tion in F^anc (says the Jewish World), M. Bernard Lazare defends the Jewa f'om the attacks of M. Dromont and otheis of the anti Semitic party. Briefly pn», M. Laz^re's position is tfaia. Until the RevoluiioD. the Jews were nothing in France. They came in 178' J. and since that period they have distinguished themselves in amassing wealth as merchants and financier?, and in obtaining famo as artists, musicians, snd men of letters. Tneir career in Franco ia that of their kin in other plarea wnere freedom of action has been extended to tbem. But, saya M. Lazare, ihe Jewish element is an element which is absorbed but doei njt absorb. Signs are not wanting to show tbat, free from persecution, the Jews are apt to gradually outgrow their indivi lunlity, and t3 intermarry with Christians, and to become, in short, absorbed.