THE VERY REV. DR. WATTERS IN DUNDALK.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 32, 10 August 1899, Page 24

THE VERY REV. DR. WATTERS IN DUNDALK.

Til's annual reunion of past and present students of St. Mary's College, Dundalk, was held on June 6. At the dinner, which took place in the evening (reports the local Examiner') the Very Rev. Father Keogh, S.M., President of the College, presided, and he was surrounded by several distinguished past students of St. Mary's, prominent amongst them being Very Rev. Dr. Watters, Rector of St. Patrick's College, Wellington, New Zealand. The very rev. chairman proposed the toast of the past stuoeuts of St. Mary's, and coupled with it the name of Dr. Watters, Rector of St. Patrick's College, Wellington, which St. Mary's looked on with maternal pride. Tn replying to the toast. Dr. Watters, who on rising was enthusiastically applauded, said the high honour was thrust on him by the very rev. president— an honour he was deeply sensible of, and he would, add, grateful for — of replying for the past pupils — the old boys — of St Mary's College. The President had eloquently and flatteringly alluded to the work done by him (Dr. Watters) in New Zealand, and to the progress and success in that distant country of the institution he had the honour to preside over. He would in all candour and sincerity disclaim all tribute as not being his personal dve — bnt in the same spirit he would with truth admit and confess the good work done, the high standard reached, the eacoesa (■cored in the Antipodes by St. Patrick's College. That success in a fresh, new country, be it remembered, was largely due, under Providence, to the unswerving fidelity of our people, to the faith and to the ability, the consistent loyalty and untiring energy of the 1 colleagues associated with him in the enterprise. Dr. Watters then proceeded to say that it was to him a great solace, a great joy, and a great reward after some years of active service under the Southern Cross to be summoned by his first superiors to the old land — a land dear to him where'er his lines were cast — to enjoy e?en for a time the society of those dear to him, to visit the old haunts consecrated by the sweetest memories, to look on the fair fields and green hilla of his own country, and to be the guest of those devoted confreres who rule the destinies of St. Mary's College. He was grateful to a kindly Providence that he met here once more in his native town the friends he loved so well, though some chairs were vacant, and that it was given to him to rest awhile amongst his own people, drinking in the sweet, fresh breezes of his native land. He could claim to speak for the ' old boys' of the College, for in the autumn of 1861, he (Dr. Watters) formed one of a group of youths who on the opening day composed the embryo of what is now the flourishing College of St. Mary, which has sent her sons to all parts of the world. New Zealand owes her a deep debt. In Australia, America — wherever he (Dr. Watters) had been and he had travelled in many countries — he had met with past pupils of St. Mary's. In the city of Chicago he had the great honour of being entertained by Mr. E. J. M'Ardle, Mr. Joseph Hughes, Mr. Grennan, and Rev. Father Mackin — all loyal subjects of St. Mary's.

The institution it had been his fortune to found and establish and rule owes to St. ilary's the masters that wrought out its destiny. Foremost amODg*t a noble band — soldiers of the Cioss with no purpose to serve but the greater good of their fellows — of princely mien and cultured part*>. of soft and kindly nature, a master in his profession, a patriot of highest type, a bard of singular ability, who for nine years gave high prestige to St Patrick's College, was a Dundalk man, taught and trained in St. Mary's — the Rev. Nicholas Carolan, S M., of bweet and saintly memory. In conclusion, Dr. Watters addressed a word of counsel to the present students, insisting that while life was a battlefield, and education a course as long as life, the man on leaving his school must depend in large part on the sum of book lore stored up during his days on the benches.