DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 37, 14 September 1899, Page 6

DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND.

(From our own correspondent). September 7. Rev. Father Croke has arranged for a quartet of singers from Auckland to assist at several church concerts throughout his wide parish. The Auckland Catholic Literary Society intends to re-produce, in St. Benedict's Hall, in about three weeks, the entertainment lately given with such marked success in the Catholic Institute. The Rev. Father Gillan, at St. Benedict's, explained very f ally the recent Papal Encyclical. The Rev. Father impressed upon the congregation the absolute necessity of carrying out in their entirety the wishes of our Holy Father. Mr. John Campbell, of Point Erin, Ponsonby, one of our best known Catholics, and vice-president of the local branch of the Irish National Federation, is, I deeply regret to say, dangerously ill. Widespread wishes are evinced for his recovery. The Very. Rev. Dean O'Reilly, last Sunday evening, at St. Patrick's, delivered another fine sermon (one of a series) on the Supremacy of the Pope. The church was filled in all parts. The usual monthly procession of the Most Holy Sacrament took place before Benediction. Last Monday I had occasion to visit the Very Rev. Monsignor M'Donald Ut Panmure. His parish church and school and cemetery are admirably kept. The venerable and popular soggarth aroon looked remarkably well, and still possesses a bright and keen memory, evincing a lively interest in all around him. The Triduum, preparatory to the consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, commences throughout the Auckland diocese tomorrow, Friday Bth, concluding with the Solemn Act on Sunday evening. At the various churches last Sunday leaflets were distri-

buted containing the authorisation by his Holiness, the Litany of the Sacred Heart, and the Act of Consecration. The division as to whether the next A.M. meeting should be held in Dunedin was very close at the recent District Board meeting of the H.A.0.8. Society. Fourteen voted against, and 13 fo-. The two Wellington delegates who had given in an important notice o' motion, no doubt in view of,the meeting in Dunedin, voted against going there. The statistics just published by Mr. Coghlan, Government Sta'istician, N.8.W., on the spread of divorce and decease of the birth rate in Australasia, has been commented upon in terms of despair in the local Press. The comments go all round the subject like coopers round a cask, but they fight entirely shy of the real causes — viz., the abolition of the sanctity of the marriage tie, and the banishment from our schools of the name of God. Years ago the late revered Bishop Moran of Dunedin warned our rulers, and his warnings have been proved to the letter. Speaking of Miss Lorrigan's (Auckland's leading soprano) performance in the oratorio ' The Creation,' at Palmerston North the Manawatu Standard says: 'Miss Lorrigan, who sang the soprano parts, had been highly eulogised by the Auckland Press, and therefore a very classical performance was expected from her, and it is only just to her that we should say Bhe satisfied the demands of the most exacting. For purity and Bweetness of tone her voice is the nearest approach we have heard to that of Miss Amy Sherwin, and its high degree of culture was exhibited in everything she sang. All through she may be said to have rendered her music with artistic taste and ability.' It is pleasing to record the success of Catholic talent. On the way down she sang in the church at New Plymouth and assisted Father Patterson at Palmerston North.