NEW ZEALAND : GENERAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 9, 28 February 1901, Page 20

NEW ZEALAND : GENERAL.

We have to thank the Registrar-General for Statist ict of tin' Colony of New Zealand for the year lsO'.t. The Wellington St. Patrick's Day sports will be held at the Basin Reserve on Saturday, March 10, and in the evening an Irish National concert will be given. Miss Cathehixc a Bolaxd, a pupil of the Sisters of Mercy, Darfield, was successful at the recent Junior Civil Service examination. The population of the Colony on December :U was estimated at 810,5315, inclusive of '.V} S", l Miw-i*. At the end of W'J the ehtimated population, excliwvu of Maoris, was 750, 50.3. The Commonwealth Premier has re<j nested the Right lion R. J. Seddon to send Xid 1 ) troops from New Zetland for the opuniug of the Federal Parliament. It is suggested that half the number should be Maoris. Ixci.unixa the sixth contingent, the total number v-nt to South Africa by New Zealand was Si) officers and 22vi men. Of these 4 ofli' ers and (i.i men were killed, \\ officers and 10l men discharged, 1 oilii er resigned, '2 uilicers and 1 man were transferred, 2 men dismissed, and 11 offkors and 22.'i men aie on lea\e in New Zealand. The present strength in South Alrica, including men going or returning, C) 0 officers and ISs7 men. A rare act of high commercial honor is rccoidtd ty the Mat aura Unstyn. Some 12 years ago (nays our southern contemporary) the late Mr. M. Griffin, who kept the Club Hotel, Gore, h ad to seek the protection of the Bankruptcy Court, there being few, if any, assets in the estate. Some time afterwards he took over the Nightcaps Hotel, and on his death his widow conducted the biibinees, and has remained in charge of it ever s-inc^. Mrs. Griffin, a few days ago, instructed Mr. D L. Poppelwell, solicitor, to call the Gore creditors in her late husband's estate together, and on their assembling on Friday the pleasing intimation was made to them that Mrs. Griffin had decided to pay all the debts in full, which was done there and then. The Invercargill creditors are to meet this week on a similarly pleasing mission. The amount Mrs. Griffin is distributing for this honorable purpose runs into something like £400. It is understood there is a movement on foot among the Gore creditors to present Mrs Griffin with some tangible token of their appreciation of her action. Tin: WooiJci'le E.ramliv r takes a member of the Maharahara West School Committee severely to task for gettin? parents to sign a petition against the appointment of a lady teacher because, as he thought, she was a Catholic. It was subsequently discovered that the lady in question was not a Catholic, and when the parents saw what a grave error they hal tnido in signing the petition, they immediately sought to rectify it by writing to both M'ss Tester and the Board, expressing their r gr. t for having signed the petition. Miss Tester very proparly declined to accept any anology, and refused to reconsider her previous decision. Com'nenting on the above, the Etamiwr says : — ' It ia a thousanl pities that such an affair should now be allowed to rest without some restitution being made to the young lady for the pain and inconvenience to which ahe has been put. We had thought that the days of that narrowminded bigotry which his been so apparent throughout this business were passed. What right has any community to say what the religious principles of any of their teachers shall be 1 Even hid Miss Tester been a Roman Catholic, who will dare to say that that would affect in any way her capabilities as a teacher or her influence over the children / The days of that kind of thiDg are parsed long ago, and the sooner such people as these mixed up in this particular case

allow their minds to become broadened by the spirit of the times, the less chance will there be of their landing themselves into Buch an unpleasant position as they are now in.'