REVIEW.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 21, 20 September 1895, Page 8

REVIEW.

History of the Catholic Church in Australasia, By Patrick Francis Cardinal Moran. Vol 11. The Oceanic Printing Company, Sydney and Wellington. The second volume begins with the history of the Chnrch in South Australia. Settlement here had commenced under circumstances very different from ihoae that had marked its commencement in New South Wales. A model colony, admitting only people of respectable character, and possessing some means, had been planned. " Papists and Pagans were to be excluded from it ; there was to be no State Ohurch." A principal advocate of the scheme was Dr Whately, Protestant Archbishop of Dublin. Papists, nevertheless, made their way into the colony, and a few years after its fonodation Dr Ullatbome found at Adelaide some fifty of them— to whom, under some difficulties, he ministered. The growth of Catholicism in the colony, however, was comparatively Blow, but, in 1842, Adelaide was raised to the dignity of an episcopal See and the Bight Bey Dr Murphy was appointed Bishop. Of Dr Murphy's early life and the training he had received in England to encounter more than ordinary difficulties in his career as priest and bishop an interesting sketch is given, Dr Murphy was succeeded by Df Geogheghan and he again by Dr Shiel, who, like his predecessor, was a member of the Ordir of St Francis The later years of Dr Shiel's episcopate, as possibly some of oar readers may remember, were times of trouble. The Cardinal quotas the decisions arrived at by the Bishops of Hobart and Bathurst, who had been deputed by the Hoy Sac to inquire into the matter. Dt Beynolds, who succeeded Dr Shiel and who subsequently became Archbishop, had, for Borne time previous, been administrator of the diocese. His earlier years in the epiecopacy continued to b 3 years of more than ordinary labour. He writes in July, H76. " 1 have visited twenty districts since Easter, and in eleven of them gave little missions or triduums, single-handed, as there was no other way for the poor people to satisfy Easter duty or to gain the Jubilee."— The diocose of Port August* is included in the territory united to South Australia.' It Uas Bishop of this diocese that the Most Bey Dr O'Raily, now Archbishop of Adelaide, is spoken of. " For eighteen yean," we are told, "he laboured with the zeU of an Apostle in the diocese of Perth, having the charge of the Freemantle district, and being for a considerable time the editor, and, very often too, the printer of the excellent Oatholiu newspaper, the West Australian Record, which has rendered in ibe past, and still continues to render, most valuable services to religion throughout the Western Colony." Of the growth of the Ohurch in Western Australia, we may take as an illustration two extremes. The one is the pathetic pioture given us of the first Catholic settler in the colony— Mr Thomas Mooney, an Irish Catholic, settled at A bany, and si ll living there. " Nothing could exceed the desolation of the settlement in those early days, and Mr Mooney relates that ha was accustomed on Sundays to climb to the sumaiit of Mount C arence, reciting the Rosary and shedding bitter tears at the thought that there was not a priest, or altar, or Holy Saerifba within a thousand miles of him ; and, turning towards the West, he would unite in spirit with his distant countrymen, and pray fervently to Gjd that he might not be left always in such desolation." To-Jay the aborigines themselves are better provided for. The other ex'reme of which we have spoken is the mission of New Norcia. "The Spanish aboriginal mission of New Norci ," writes Governor Sir Frederick Broome, " is one cf the most interesting establishments of the sort in the world. It is presided over by the good and reverend Bishop Salvado, assisted by a number of Benedictine Brethren, reverend and lay. Here yon may ccc a medieval monastery with its religions and laborious life in chapel aud in field Wheat, grapes, olives, figs, and all manner of produce are cultivated on the extensive farms. Australian natives not only sing in church, or study In school, but are engaged side by sMe with the monks in agriculture and various iodustrie?, besides playing the vio'in and otr.er instruments in the mission band, and cricket in the mission eleven, which visit Perth for an occasional match, and are generally victorious. . . . The Australian is a dffi-ult and, unless caught very young, is generally considered a hopeless subject for the missionary ; but the good Biehop and his Boned ictines persevere, and succeed too, in their devoted and admir^b c work. ... I have known a full-blooded low-type savage gj out from the mission into civilized life, not only a good CaristiaD, but an expert telegraphist." Not the least interesting chapter in the volume is that which treats of the Church in Qieensland, ani narrates the life and career of its first Bishop, the Bight Bey Dr O'Quinn. «• Toe late Bishop of Brisbinc," writes the Cardinal, " was a man of noble presence, of grave and courtly manner, in the trueßenseof the word a gentleman, and every inch a Churchman. His faculty of observation was wonderful indeed. Once seen, nothing was forgotten— names, faces, pl.ces. He seemed to know everybody and everything in his diocese.

The children were not forgotten, and with them he was little short of an idol. One of his greatest pleasures was to see and hear them at work in the schoo's. He was equally at home in all circles— with the humblest workers as with the highest in the land. Everywhere he was a prince among men. He was a brilliant conversationist and a very effective speaker -not an orator, but a man *ho had something to say and knew how to say it, and what he did say wax solid, practical, and pertinent. Better than all— better for himself and better for his people— he was a man of most exemplary life, of deep and earnest but not ostentatious piety. Aa experier ced missionary, who spent some time in the diocese of Brisbane, and bad good opportunities of obserration, said of the Bishop : • You can see at once that he is a man of God." " Of the work done by tbe Bishop personally and of the advancement of religion generally in bis diocese a very full and interesting account is given. Of his Eminence's immediate predecessor in the Archbishopric of Sydney, the Most Rev Dr Vaughan, the Cardinal writes with a very high appreciation. The chapter in which Dr Vaughan's memory is dealt with will be found cf a very particular charm, both because of tbe elevation and beauty of the subject and the manner in which it is treated by the illustrious writer. -The history of the Church in Victoria is also very ably narrated. To tba great question of education tbe Cardinal devotes a separate chapter, exercising on it a master-hand. His Eminence then enters upon the history of the Church ia New Zealand. Tha Cardinal gives a preliminary glance at the early explorers and the discovery of the country. He devotes less than a page to tbe Protestant missions— in & few pithy remarks, strengthened by a quotation from the late Dr Lang, exposing their nature. Further on the writer quotes testimony to an attempt vainly made by tht Wesleyan and Church of England missionaries to egg the Maories on to exterminate the newly-arrived Catholic missionaries. But it seems strange to consider that it is now only about five years since the first Catholic settler in this Colony was gathered to bis rest. " The first Catholic setter in New Zealand w*s an Irishman named Thomas Poynton, a respectable dealer in timber, who arrived in Sydney in 1822, and pioceedid thence to Hokianga in 1828 " From this banning the C rdinal traces the history of Catholicism in tbe Colony down to our own times— almost, indeed, to the present day. This is a portion of the volume we need hardly say that the Ctholics of New Zealand will most desire to read. Nor will they be disappointed in their highest expectations. The details of the missions are set forth with the utmost fulness and fidelity, and in every case in which honour is due it is generously paid. Here at last, for example, the late Tery Rev Dr Mac Donald obtains the tribute owtd to his great apostleehip among the Maoris. The latest evt-nt chroniclei is the dedication by Archbishop Redwood, m April 1891, of a church erected at Ohaa. for the natives of the Ngatirakawa iribe, by th? Rev Father Melu, B.M. Mr Poynton bad vainly songht to obtain missionary ai i from Archbishop Polding, who himself was too short of bands to accede to hie request. The Cardi L al traces the journey and voyage of the Marist missionaries from its outset, their pilgrimage to consrerate thf mselves and their undertaking to Our Lady of Fourv!<ire, until their arrival on Wednesday, January 10, 1838, at Hokianga. The history of the various missions, tbe erect'on tf tbe Se< s, and finally the raising of the See of Wellington to an archbishopric— all are graphically dealt with. The exactnesp, and, in many instances, tbe minuteness of the details given is proof potitive of a very keen and painstaking research. His Eminence, we may add, has done uh tbe hoLour of making two quotations from the columns of the New Zealand Tablet. The volume closes with a chapter on tl c rdigi us communities of nuns in Australia. There are, besides, some additional notts. Of the manner in which the woik has been published we have already Bpoken. It only remains for us to arid tbat, in tbe second volume also, the illustrations are numerous and excellent. The fron'ispiece is a full-length portrait— a cliromo-litb( grapb, of the Archbishop of Melbourne. In every respect, we bay again, the woik is most creditable to all who were engaged in ita production.