NEW ZEALAND : GENERAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 37, 14 September 1899, Page 20

NEW ZEALAND : GENERAL.

1 A friend,' Orepuki, has sent us three shillings in stamps for Father Lightheart'e Maori mission. We regret to learn that ex-inspector Hickson of Auckland, and father of the Rev. J. P. Hickson of Napier, is in a critical condition. Referring to a paragraph which appeared in our issue of August 31, an esteemed correspondent informs us that the hiarh altar in the new Catholic church at Petone, was designed by Mr. Raymond P. Collins and ertcted at Ms sole expense. Mr. R. P. Collins is said by our correspo -deut to be a singularly generoas benefactor to the Petone Church. The second number of the Church Circvlar, in connection with St. Patrick's Church, Palmerston North, ia to hand. The Circular is edited and published by the energetic pastor, Rev. Father Patterson, and contains besides matters of local interest well-selected news items from foreign parts. The present number has a very good portrait of his Holiness the Pope. Our Southland correspondent write* : — The wife of Mr. Southorn, of Oraki, Riverton, died last week, after a brief illness. Tbe deceased was only in her nineteenth year. The Very Rev. Father Walsh came from Wrey's Bush to Riverton to perform the last sad offices. — The secretary of the Riverton Liberal Association has received a telegram from Mr. Gilfedder, M.H.R., that the Orepuki-Waiau railway will be commenced shortly.; The total mortgages registered for the financial year in New Zealand amount to £6,710,427. According to districts the amounts were as follows: — Auckland, £845,011; Gisborne, £127,115; Hawke's Bay, £621,703 ; Taranaki, £518,066 ; Wellington, £1,880,281 ; Marlborough, £127,277 ; Nelson, £216,626 ; West land, £21,067 ; Canterbury, £1,455,543 , Otago, £598,928 ; Southland, £298,810. There is a sum of £280 lent in Canterbury at twenty per cent., and another Bum of £182 lent at forty per cent. A recent cable message stated that the Hon. J. G. Ward had paid the English creditors of the Farmers' Association in full, and that in recognition of this action they had presented Mrs. Ward with a landau and valuable piece of plate. To show that his voluntary payment of the large sum involved is quite as highly appreciated in Southland we (Daily News) hear that it is the intention of his supporters in Awarua to also present Mrs. Ward with a handsome pair of horses and set of harness, so that the turn-out \ will be complete. It has been left to Mrs. Ward to choose the colour of the pair, which will be selected by a gojd judge of horseI flesh. Our Hawera correspondent writes traver ing the note of Mr. Oeo. Potts, who had written a denial of oar correspondent's statement that a sum of over £300 had been raided for church purposes in Dannevirke district by Father M'Grath. Our Ffowera correspondent says that he called on Father M'Grath at Pacea and learned that the sum actually raised was within a shilling of £417. ' This magnificent sum,' be continues, ' represents the generosity and self-Baorifioe of Catholics and non-Catholics in Dannevirke, of whom Father M'Grath speaks in the highest terms. No doubt many of the Catholics of Dannevirke are still struggling againßt adverse circumstances, but when your correspondent is a little longer amongst them he will find that their generosity in the cause of their holy religion is gieat enough to surmount many difficulties.'