INTERCOLONIAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 45, 8 November 1900, Page 18

INTERCOLONIAL.

Ireland (writes a Melbourne correspondent) still maintains her glorious title ot the ' Island of Saint" and Scholars.' What would Australia have done were it not for the fact that a perennial stream of devoted young Irish Levitt's has never ceased to now from Ireland during the past 50 years and more ! As in her infant yeara she sent out bands or mi-sionanei to all parts of Europe, so now, at this the close of the nineteenth century, her prolific seminaries are giving of their best and noblest to the Australian missionary field. The Orunt liner. Ophir, which berthed at this port the other dayj had no fewtr than 21 priests on board for Austialian dioceses. For Melbourne and Ballarat : Rev. Fathers J. Norris, Lenuon, O'Dwyer, L'nehiin, J. Hurley, Power. A. Waldran. and Kerin. For Sydney • Rev. Fathers T. Barry, M. (Aihill, f'ashmun, Colgan, M. Forde, J. Govvcd, T. Ilehir, T. Jones, P. Milligan, F. O'Dwyer, J. 6'Leary, M. Sherin, and J. Rohan.

A number of priests for various parts of Australia arrived recently at Adelaide by one or the mail steamers. Among those who lauded at Adelaide (says the Si>uf/i, ni Crass-) were the Very Rev. P. O Dwyer, 0.C.C., lute I'rior of the Carmelite Order at Kinsale, Ireland, and the Revs. J. (Jog-m and F. O'Reilly, of the same Order. Father O'Dwyer, who comes out as pro-provincial of the Carmelites in Australia, is known in South Australia, having been stationed at Gawler in 15'.), 5. lie subsequently went to Melbourne, and from t hi nee to Rome, and finally to Irelaud, where he was appointed Prior at Kinsale. Father O'Dwyer will remain at Gawler for some time, but his linal destination is Melbourne. Fathers O'Reilly and Cogan, who are visiting Australia for the first time, will be stationed at Gawler. Another passenger by the same steamer was Father Shenn, a nephew of Archbishop O'Reily, whose destination is Sydney.

The foundation-stone of the new convent for the Good Shepherd nuns at Abbotsford, Victoria, will be laid on next Sunday. The contract has been let for something over £2(>,000. The buildings already in use have cost something like £77,000. The convent at Abbotsford, which is beautifully situated at a bend of the Yarra River, is the third largest of its Order in the world, and in fact of

any Order doing similar work. The mother house at Angers in trance has about 1400 inmates, but some r,OO of these would be novices who receive their training there. The principal house in the United States has about i) 00 inmates ; Abb-itsford has about 750 to 800. The nuns of the Good Shepherd arrived in Victoria in ISO 3 and settled down at Abbotsford in a small cottage which is still standing. They had then about 13 acres of land, since increased to .i<). During their residence at Abbotßford they have erected buildings to the value of over £77,000. The principal work of the nuns is to reclaim the fallen, to shelter those whose lot is cast amid temptations, and to provide a home for those poor children whose parents cannot support them, or tor those little orphans left helpless and indigent in the world.

The Right Rev. Dr. Dunne, Bishop of Wilcannia, leaves for Europe in a few days. On the occasion of a recent visit to Deniliquin his Lordship was presented with an address and a purse of sovereigns. The Very Rev. Father Treacey, V.G., in making the presentation, said • When Dr. Dunne was consecrated he came to take possession of the diocpse in a truly apostolic manner, aud without scrip or purse. There was not one penny of an endowment for the bee— except the endowment of £lu.uoO debt— and the Bishop had to look to a few priests, equally ab poor as himself, for the means to help him to carry out the duties of his sacred office. What a contrast between his diocese of to-day and the day of his consecration ihen they had six priests (only one of whom still remains) • to-day there are 1C or IS. There were then about 20 nuns, while to-day there are IJ4. imparting not only secular education, but the Raving knowledge of Jesua Christ to the little lambs of the fold and instructing the ignorant, consoling the afflicted, visiting the sick and acting as mothers to the orphans. On the day of the Bishop's consecration there were a few hundred children in the Catholic schools, and to-day there are Moo. Now every town in the diocese possesses its church, presbytery, convent, and schools. All these changes had been wrought under the Bishop's wise guidance and through the co-operation ot his few devoted priests and the n^ble and never-to-be-forgotten self -sacrifice and generosity of his faithful people.'

The Victorian General Election has practically resulted in the defeat of the McLean Government. Mr. McLean claims that each side has 47 representatives, and has declared his intention of meeting the House. The A ; ,t> says that the new House will consist of It Ministerialists and r>l Oppositionists. The A njn*'> summary is 4,-i Ministerialists, -IS Oppositionists, and two Inel'ependents The following is a summary of the policy put forward by the ' Ministerialists when appealing to the electors — Governor -. salary to be reduced to tT<ot)o. Ministers to be reduced from 10 to >.— to'al salary, <N|(i<) a year. Reduction of members— Assembly fiom ( J"> to Ml; Council, frrm Is to in. Council reform— l] vt i V ratep.-\er qualiliod to s U or vote. Women's suffrage. Old au",- p = ,jsions Stimulation of production and manufacture, promotion o f closer settlement. Encouragem.-nt of workra«-n to pireii^e eoit,M. L ,_ State to advance, part ot the cost. Improvement of ttcilitus to en ible producer^ to reach markets. Gram elevators to be .-r •< ted if le-p^rt is favorable. Agricultural bureau to be e^ablislud Improvement of technical education. Assistance to mining vontilatioa to be improved. Urclassificalion of public and' railway services. _ A public service commissioner to be appointed. -Audit Comniissionsrs to give place to one Au.htoi-G« nen.l F. od arid ])rmk Adulteration Prevention Bill. Courts of arhifr.fi.m for industrial disputes. Referendum on religious instruction to be proposed. \ .gorous aduiim&tration ot all dej .utimuN.

Speaking on the occasion of the laying of the foundation f-tono of a new presbytery at Albury, his Lordship Dr. G ill v-- her « nd nothing ga\e him gre-ater pleasure than the- di-play of faith on th«part of the meinb<rs of the Hibernian >ouetv that mornm^ There was a great need for organisations like the Hi', emmi Sonet^y m preserving aud tottering th" spiritual and moral mteiest of y>ung men. When boys 1, ft school it would be a equable thin" that they could bo indued to become meuibeis ot orgaui-atioiis such as juvenile, cont.ng.-nts. winch tia.l been formal m \anous places. They had ro need to trouble about the girls leavin ' school In fact, in his efforts to ensure the. we lfare- of the youn" he never bothered his head about the girls. 'L heir c il'orts should be (Lreckd in n.aking the young uwn worthy of Ji« m. Organisations siicn as juvenile contingent*, if establi he'd, wouM faf. -niard boys at the most dangc ious stage of hie. and at the same tune act as tenders so to speak, to the larger s< eieties. Austrian la- is were tiouble-ome lads He had lived for 1! or 1-, jtMl,j tMl , a ,non- th m, but on the whole they ha i grand quality of h ud aud he ft. The soft side of them needed apptahr.g to. They would not be ' boss u i T:iat however, was not an undesirable, trait, and if, con.d be utilised to form an independent, vigorous, inuscul,,r. moral backbone He did not wish to see a man a mere shell-hMi. so to speak. Rather did he wi-h to see a man able to meet the ron-h and tumble ot Australian life as Catholics would have to .10. Ik d, 1 not believe in the puny piety that requires to be bpoon fed to Keep it from evaporating

On the occasion of the laying of the foundation-stone of a new presbytery at Albury the Right Rev. Dr. GalLi-her delivered an impressive address in the course of which be said —Of all the calumnies levelled at the Church in this in-iUTiah.siic agu which they had to combat, the one he could uonte-n plate willi least equanimity was the oft-repeated falsehool and downright lie that the Church was the enemy of learning, and ever nought to retard the advancement and stifle the energies m every form of the human nmxl. 'Never! never! never!' sud his Lordship with emphatic warmth, ' w.in there in view of the testimony of history, a fabric of justification for such a statement. Let their detractor's call them tyrants and de-pots and say that the pane- ly prelates of the past grasped at wealth and power despoucally. History, however proved that that power was directed wisely and for progressive purposes. But that the Catholic Church was the enemy of learning

filled him with indignation. The very stones of the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and numerous other heats of learning founded in byegone ages, in mute but convincing eloquence, would stigmatize such an assertion as pure calumny a falsehood, and a he.' Having dealt at length with this aspect of his sermon his Lordship exhorted them to stand by the Church in her struggle for the sanctity and holiness of domestic life Archbibhop Redwood referred to the matter in his paper at Sydney, and he (Dr. Gallagher) said that they muse not be lackadaisical or sickly in protesting against the tendency of the age to corrupt the nuptial couch. Ihe solidarity of the nuptial tie must be preserved In his own pariah he had known a divorced man and woman to marry Ihe curse of God would surely fall on those clergymen who performed marriages of divorced men and women. Those who eoußfat such marriages, with three or four divorced wives or husbands living, were less than brutes. They should fight with earnestness for tne indissolubility of the marriage tie, and against every effort that would tend to reduce marriage to the level of prostitution Let them stand by the Church for the sanctity of the domestic hearth. Let there be in the home one father for their children I here must be no divorce in our marriage laws— no sanction of prostitution as the marriage of divorcees which it amounted to The Church would fight the battle against the undermining of social life, and their aid as allies was imperative. In conclusion, hia Lordship urged them to renewed energy in their efforts to have their rights to national education for the children recognised by the State. *