(By telegraph from our special reporter.) INVERCARGILL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 14, 5 April 1900, Page 18

(By telegraph from our special reporter.) INVERCARGILL.

His Lordship Bishop Verdon was met at the Inveroargill railway station by the Very Rev. Dean Burke, and Rev. Fathers O'Neill, ODea and Hearne and a considerable number of the Catholio body, when the following address was read by Mr. M. Carr :—: — May it please your Lordship, We hasten to offer to your Lordship a eincere and hearty welcome on your return from Europe. We are plenseil to see you once more amongst us, and to have this opportunity to t> siit'y our respect and reverence for you, the Chief Pastor of ill 1 T>iocv->.', come back sifely to your flock. Allow us to express our irroteiu! acknowledgement of your successful efforts whilst in the Hume Land-, n behalf of your distant diocese. It pave us much b.iti-t.iciion to luitn that you ha 1 secured in the old Irish Colleges the serviros of young clergymen, highly recommended by their SSjpeiiors — young Ecclesiastics reared up far from contact with irrehgion and the evil influences of an un-Catholic atmosphere, and deeply imbued with the strong, untarnished faith, supernatural principle?, and pure traditions of an ancient Catholio nation. We were gratified to learn that, in the few privileged moments of your audience with tbe Supreme Pontiff, you did not forget to tell him of the zeal of your clergy, and of the faith, devotion, and generosity of your people, and to ask him to bestow his Apostolio Benediction on each and every member of your flock. We were pleased, too, to know that all through your journeys in Europe and America and amid the grand religious solemnities of the Eternal City, our interest?, temporal and spiritual, were first in your thoughts, prayers, and efforts. Joyful that, on the day of your landing, we have had this opportunity to thank you and to give you a thousand welcomes, We are your Lordship's most obedient children, William Burke (Dean). John Maher, J.P. J. W. Forde, J.P. GORE. The Rev. Fathers O'Donnell and McGrath, a number of the Catholic body and the school children welcomed his Lordship at the Gore railway station. MILTON. At Milton, as at Balclutha, his Lordship's entry into the station was announced by a volley of fog-signals. On the platform he was met by Very Rev. Father O'Neill, Father Keenan, the school* children, and a concourse of adult Catholic residents, and conducted in procession to the presbytery, his Lordship and the clergy in carriages, the children and residents marching on foot, headed by a beautiful banner of St. Patrick. Flags were flying about the church buildings and other places in the town. A formal welcome was tendered to his Lordship in the Catholic school when a number of choruses, etc., were admirably rendered and the following address of welcome was read by Master John Moroney :—: — Most Rev. Father, — During last week we received notice that we were to be honored with a visit, en pasxant, from your Lordship. Knowing that few and precious are the minutes of your Lordship's stay with us, our words and greetings must be in aocordance. Therefore we Bhall simply say : We welcome you, beloved Bishop, with all the respect and affection of our young hearts. We rejoice in your Lordship's safe and speedy return, fresh with the

fragrance of recent visits to saintly and heroic lands, especially time-honoured Erin. On your Lordship's arrival in your loved Dunedin and the various parts of your promising dioceae, addresses and welcomes couched in choicest language, probably await you, and enhanced perhaps by costly souvenirs ; yet none we can truly Bay will be enriched with more gladness and devotion than that which is offered you to-day by the hearts of your Children of St. Joseph's School, Dominican Convent, Milton. To the various addresses his Lordship made appropriate but necessarily brief replies.