GENERAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 14, 6 April 1899, Page 9

GENERAL.

The Temperance Movement in Ireland— Lord Montcagle presided at the annual meeting of the Irish assneia'ion for the prevention of intemperance, which was held, during February, in the Rotunda, Dublin. The chairman said that this year a special effort was to be made to pasa the Sunday Cloing and Early Saturday Closing Bill. Lord Dufferin had taken the n.oveinpnt under hi» special care ant protection, and he hoped thu Bill would be passed, as he believed it was of the greattst possible importance to the community that it should be. The Very Rev. Father Nicholas, O.S.F.C, congratulated them on the number of temperance sodalities now in existence and on the growth of the movement. The Father Matthew Hall in Dublin was increa-ing the temperance ranks at the rate of r>oo a year, and in the temperance work the number of thobe who attended the hall was estimated at 6,."i00.

St. Brigid Of Kildaie.— A correspondent of the Irish, Catholic writes:— The firrit of this month (February) was the Feast of St. Brigid, or Bride, of Kildare, and I was reminded of a fact that often occurred to me before, viz. — how few spell the name of our national patr 'ness correctly. In baptismal and matrimonial registers, on the walls of the convent and monastic schools, as well as in the copy-books of school children, I find it spelled ■ Bridget.' St. Bridget, whose name occurs in the Iloly Rosary, was a Swede, not an Irishwoman. Even such a good Irish Catholic as Mr. T. D. Sullivan, M.P., fell into this mistake not long ago in his valuable notes in your paper. I often wonder attention has not been called to this before now, with the air so full of the Gaelic revival.

The Irish and English Bars.— A joint committee of the English Inns of Court have just arrived at an important decision very favourably affecting the position of Irish barristers desirous of gaining admission to the English Bar. It has recommended that so long as the regulations affecting the call to the Bar in Ireland remain substantially as at present, any member of the Irish Bar, being a British subject, and of three years' standing at the Bar, may, upon presentation of a certificate fr .m an Iri^h law officer that he is a fit and proper person to be called to the English Bar, become a member of an Inn of Court, and be so called upon keeping three terms without submitting to any examination.

Important Pronouncements by Conservatives.— As an evidence of the altered change in the opinions of leading Conservatives in Ireland during th<* past few years, the following expressions on the University question will be of interest : — Lord Bandon, who for some years has been chairman of the Bandon Board of Guardians, is seeking election on the Bandon District Council as representative of Ballymodan Division. In his address to the electors, he said : ' I shall give my best and most cordial support to the establishment and proper endowment of a Roman Catholic University for Ireland.' The Very Rev. Dr. Mai one, V.G., Kilrush, received a letter from Mr. Hector S. Vandeleur, D.L., who is a Protestant and Conservative, and the largest landed propiietnr in the County of Clare, in favour of a Catholic University. In this letter Mr. Vandeleur says : ' Having thought over the matter, I have come to the conclusion that in consequence of the dislike of the Catholics to be admitted for university education at Trinity College, chiefly on account of the theological atmosphere that exists, there is no other course open.'

A Oonnaught Festival in Glasgow.— The Connaughtj exiles in Glasgow held a reunion in February, which was a very successful affair, upwards of 2000 persons being present. Bishop Lyster presided, and on the platform were a number of clergy and prominent business men. His Grace Archbishop Eyre and his Lordship Bishop Maguire sent apologies for non-attendance. Speeches were delivered by Bishop Lyster, and Messrs. M. J. Connell, T. McTernan and others. The reunion, which is an annual affair, is looked upon as the most enjoyable of its kind held in Glasgow, and grows in popularity every year.

Improved Prospects in Ireland— The Very Rev. Father Hennebery, on his return to Tasmania, after a twelve mouths' lour in Europe, said, in speaking of Ireland, that he was agreeably surprised to find the country improving so much. The people were gradually acquiring ownership of the land they cultivated. On the occasion of a viiit to one parish near Kilkenny, he was informed that all the land in one of the most fertile parts of the country was owned by the tillers of the soil ; and while in America he saw a statement in one of the papers that in the County Tipperary a very large number of the tenant farmers were in treaty with the landlords to become owners of the soil, and that the majority had actually secured that right. Though the people were generally very poor, yet if this movement continues, he believed it would not only enable them to ' turn the corner,' but would lay the foundation for solid and enduring prosperity.

Primary Education.— ln the course of an interview Very Rev. Father Hennebery, of Tasmania, who had been in Ireland recently, said, regarding primary ed ication, that he only wished they, in Tasmania, enjoyed half the advantages tendered by the Government in Ireland. Catholic teachers were trained at Government expense under the Christian Brothers of La Salle and Protestant teachers under other instructors, whilst the schools wore built in part by the State, the Government contributing two-thirds. and local bodies by labour or material finding the rett. These schools were in charge of Catholic teachers under management generally of the several parish priests. In the case_ of secular teachers, he found they received salaries according to their classification as well as payment by results after examination of the schools. In the case of religious teachers, if they qualified like the seculars, they received the same salaries ; otherwise they were paid a capitation fee for all the children attending a certain number of days and also further payment by results. The fees consequently in large centres of the population were often very considerable, and the State certainly deserved praise for the generous provision thus accorded to the Primary Schools.