Correspondence.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 10, 5 July 1895, Page 18

Co rrespondence.

. [We gro not responsible for the opinions expressed by our Correspondents.] +. RE THAT "CORRECTION." TO THE EDITOR N Z. TABLET. Sir, — I regret that lam compelled to ask for a little of your space owing to that '' correction ' by your " Arrow " correspondent, who, as tre people rf this place know, haa not resided here for some years and who dwella at present a goo 1 way cff. This geatleman, in a very unwarrinUUe w*y, m ikes a stalking h r*e of me to Bhoot hia slanders at the Ui_v Fd.her Burke, I must declare my nnwillingneßa to be 60 utilised. Beside?, the Catholic people of Arrowtown are indignint ovtr bis Btatsrcents acd unwilling that they should pass unnoticed. He calls the Arrowtown presby'try, purchased some years ago by the Eev Father Burke, a " cabin ' ! Wei l , ihis ''ctbin." is the best residence in the town and the beet pretbytery, as the clergy acknowledge, in the diocese of Danedin, the Bishop's house alone excepted. lid refers to a section of land " secured by Father Mackay some years ago." True, this sdctim was "secured by the Rev Blather Msickaj so far back aa Jinuary, 3881; but the R^v Father Burke had to p>y almost the emiro pu cuse money for it ia 1891 1 In fact, on taking charge of this mission in Much, 1890, the Rev Father Burke found the echool building erected so long ago as 1883 still to a great extent unpaid for, and the taxes and interest duß upon the little church property t,hat existed, togeiher with a portion of the teacher's talary for 1889, paid by an overdraft on tha Colonial Bank 1 In other word?, be found the congregation lapsing into insolvency. Your sc-calUd "Arrow" correspondent refers to the little churcb. Thn church had been seventeen years in building and in getting pai 1 for ; yet an expenditure of £200 is required to complete it and to make it look decent. If a large resp3otable church, like St Joseph's Cattiedral or St Patrick'^, £oulh Dunedin, took, in propor*

tion, timt to build and get paii for, the work would rival, as to procrastinatioo, the Catbedial of ■Cologne 1 On making some inquiries as to the state of things in Qaeenstown I find that, though the district was rapidly diclining in jprosperity, the Bey Father Burke raised ia 90 and '91, mostly by weekly house to house collections, the sum of £450— a great part of which went to pay the debt remaining on St Joseph's wooden school-church, built bo far back us 1883. I find, too, that this congregation was also lapßing into insolvency — the previous pastor being compelled to exact from the nans of the little local community £30 a year (on one occasion, £50j for the priest's support. Ttas annual tribute tha Rev Father Burke remitted, finding it unneceaary and an anomaly in the relations of the parochial clergy with the cjnvents of this diocese I heard our late venerated Bishop, on being told of th 3 enhventd generosity of the people of Queenstovn an! Arrowtown, siy, " Oar poor people are wonderfully generous when they are properly instructed ; when they Bee quiet, steady, earnest work done ; particularly when they find their priests daily in the schools, among their children, helping on the work, especially the grand work of catechetical instruction." Regretting, Sir, that your so-called " Arrow " correspondent has compelled me to intrude so far upon your space, — I am, etc, Arrowtown Presbytery, June 29. James Lynch.