INTERCOLONIAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 32, 10 August 1899, Page 20

INTERCOLONIAL.

The estimated population of New South Wales on June 30 was 1,357,050.

A Royal Commission on sweatfng in shops has been appointed in Melbourne.

The weather is intensely cold in Victoria. Light Bnow fell in Melbourne on Monday for the first time fo twenty years.

The Adelaide Ileghter says ' Archbishop O'Reily is a financial genius, and the wonderful work he has accomplishel in four yean bears ample testimony to this fact.'

fbe Victorian Agricultural department reports that experiments in cotton-growing at Mildura have been attended with suo* cess, but similar experiments at Djokie were failures.

The death is reported in Sydney of Mr. John Healey — an ex-sub-inspector of police. The deceaeed, who was a devout Catholic, joined the New South Waleß* force in 1855, and after 32 years of service retired tome time ago on a pension. At St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, on Tuesday morning, July 18, peacefully expired after an illness of six months, Mr. P. J. McElliott, J.P. The deceased was a native of County Kerry, Ireland, but spent the greater part of his long and honourable life in the colony of New South Wales.

When Mr. Holman, M.P., of New South Wales, was addressing' a meeting at the Temperance Hall, Sydney, recently, os the subject of tLe Commonwealth Bill, a bored Celt called out, ' Tell us some* thing about Ireland.' ' Ireland,' retorted the speaker, 'is a country which federated in rather too much of a hurry with a certain other country.'

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Melbourne, had lh.eir annual breakfast recently. The report stated that daring the past year the conference had relieved 621 families, comprising 15QS V individuals. The members bad made 5578 visits to the homes of the poor, and an average of nine weeks' relief had been given to each of the families. The receipts amounted to £1205 12s lljd, and the amount expended in relieving the poor was £1007 lls lid.

Writing of the new edition just published of the Rev. Father Ourran's Geology of Sydney ana the Blue JLountaint.the Pydjiey Morning He raid says : — 'Australians are rightly proud of the Rev. J. Milne Curran aud of his work. The second edition of this valuable book is now before the public — an edition whicn ,1s made the more valuable by the two maps and the 83 illustrations which it contains. With regard to this new edition, we can only repeat in other words what we baid when the first edition appeared — that Mr. Curran is the most admirable guide that any geological student can require for the interpretation of the hieroglyphics of Nature.'

His Grace the Archbishop of Adelaide, in issuing his fourth report on the liabilities of the archdiocese, says :—ln: — In the opening of my report of last year I drew attention to the significance in one particular of the figures furnished. Our debt in March, 1895 (the date at which our struggles commenced), amounted in gross to £5G, %s 13s tid. Our receipts for the three years ending March 31, 189 S. reached the sum of £59,540 10s 2d. by an effort, therefore, of barely ihree years' duration we bad raised a Bum equal to the total of our original liabilities, and a sum of £2,571 16s 8d beyond. The fact was undoubtedly gratifying. Of a still more gratifying fact it is my privilege to make record now. Our receipt! up to March 31 of the present year stood at £82,922 12s. My conclusion last year (a conclusion which I am sure you cordially endorsed) was the undoubted solvency of our position. The margin now is, or rather was, in March last (for it has considerably increased since) £25,953 18a 6d. With such a margin of income over indebtedness as the reeult of but four years' short work, he who questioned either the ability or the willingness of the Catholics of the archdiocese to meet their nnanaial responsibilities was either impervious to reason or stubbornly resolved that no argument should convince.

The Right Rev. Dr. Higgins bad a splendid reoeption en his arrival in Rockhampton. Several hundreds of people met him at the North Rockhampton Railway Station and escorted hiß Lordship to the Grosvenor Hotel. Here a public welcome was tendered his Lordship. The Mayor of Rockhampton presided, &nd proposed the health of Dr. Higgins in an appreciative speech. Bishop Biggins, in reply, said it was no small gratification to him that the first doty which devolved upon him on his arrival at his future home wtii to acknowledge a compliment from a gentleman *ho occupied to distinguibhed and prominent a place in the community. The compliment was a manifestation of the good will of the community towards himself — a compliment which was all the more gratifying as it came from a gentleman who belonged to another religious denomination. He concluded from this that there existed a spirit of harmony and brotherly goodwill amongst the Various members of the community, and he would say without hesitation that no aotj of his should ever be intentionally done to disturb the harmony of those relations. On the day following his arrival Dr. Higgim wu inducted as Bishop of Rockhampton in St. Joseph's Church, in the presence of a large congregation, the church being s bea.utifully decorated. Iv the course of the proceedings addresses were presented by the priest* of the diocese, the congregation of St. Josh's parish, the ilibenuau Society, aud the Catholic Young Men's Society.