Christchurch H.A.C.B. Society.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 12, 19 March 1903, Page 15

Christchurch H.A.C.B. Society.

(From an occasional correspondent.)

March 16

A very edifying spectacle was witnessed in the ProCathedral, Christchurch, on Sunday morning last, when the members of the Hibernian Society, to the number of about 65, assembled to honor their Patron Saint by receiving Holy Communion in their regalia at the seven o'clock Mass. Rev. Father O'Connell (past-president of the Waimate branch) celebrated Mass, and delivered a very practical sermon on the benefits, both spiritual and temporal, to be derived from the Hibernian Society, strongly urging upon all young men the advisability of becoming members instead of drifting into rival organisations, where safeguards to their faith were utterly wanting.

After Mat.s, the members adjourned to the Hibernian Hall, where a splendid breakfast was served. At its close the V.P., Bro. Hyries, welcomed the Rev. Father O'Connell, and thanked him for the services rendered by him to the Society, and expressing the sincere regret of the members that his Lordship the Bishop was away from Christchurch, and could not g,race the gathei ing with his presence

Father O'Connell, in reply, thanked the Society for their kind expressions towards himself, and expressing his pleasure at being able to assist the Society in an> direction, and pointing out the fact that t,he best means of increasing the Society lay with the members themselves, in each one doing his best for the common good. Bro. Sellars, in his usual happy style, made reference to q.uite a host of matters concerning Hibernians and Catholics in general, expressing a hope that the Society would keep on increasing at even more than its piescnt rate.

Bro Edmonds, in a happy little speech, drew attention to the positions attained by Irishmen and Catholics all o\er the world, and the ability displayed by them in every walk, of life, as contrasted with the oft-repeated statement that Irishmen were unable to govern themselves.

Bro. O'Brien spoke at some length on the increased benefits derived from the Hibernian Society, as compared with other friendly societies, also showing the rapid strides made by the Society in the various parts of Australia, where the efforts of the members are ably supported by his Eminence Cardinal Moran and a number of devoted bishops and priests,

Bro. Doolan found plenty of useful matters to speak of in connection with the position of the Society in this Colony^ and threw out many practical hints for the earnest^ consideration of the members. Bros. Mallaqum and Hayward referred strongly to the want of unity and co-operation among Catholics, which detracted greatly from the influence they should wield in the Colony.

Mr. E. O'Connor, proprietor of the Catholic Book Depot, Barbadoes street, Christchurch, has in stock 'Tho Office of Holy Week,' according- to the Roman Missal and Breviary, with an explanation of the ceremonies and observances, by Father Crasset, S..T. To avoid disappointment intending patrons should apply at the earliest date for copies, which are sold at a \ery moderate pricql ...- Country visitors to Dunedin as well as residents will find the Mutual Co-operative Stores, Maclaggan street, with branch at George and Hanover streets, a Aery cheap place to make their purchases. Only the best goods are kept, and these are sold at a minimum of profit.... Messrs Duthie Bros . the well-known drapers, of George street, Puncdin, have just landed and opened up their first shipments of autumn and winter goods, which consist of all the latest novelties procurable in the Home country. These goods have been specially selected by the firTn's own buyer, and will be sure to give every satisfaction to patrons.... Morrow, Bassett and Co. have been appointed sole agents in New Zealand for the Cochshutt Plough Company s famous ' Excelsior ' arm implements. Champions all over the globe. Send for catalogue. •*♦

Mr. Fitzpatrick, the treasurer of the TJnited Irish te U of 8 sent another remittanS, tSS time of £2000, to the Irish National Defence Fund. r™?^ P !; am Sha J We " T aylor, secretary of the Irish Land Conference on his visit to America, was received by President Roosevelt, with whom he discussed the work nlltvfhfT 6 ' Captain Shawe-Taylor said subsequently that he was much impressed by the President^ familiarity with Irish political matters.

£25 in hard cash given away every six months. To further popularise the famous Kozie Tea, the proprietors (Messrs. W. Scoullar and Co.) purpose curtailing their advertising expenses by £20 each half-year, and distributing that amount in cash bonuses amongst the consumers of Kozie Tea in the following manner: £10 to the consumer who returns coupons representing the largest quantity of Kozie Tea, £5 to the one returning coupons representing the 2nd greatest quantity. £3 to the one returning coupons representing the 3rd greatest ii 11 u lan /ill y ' to the one returning coupons representing the 4th greatest quantity, £1 to the one returning coupons representing the sth greatest quantity 10s each to the one returning coupons representing the 6th, 7th, Bth, and 9th, 5s each to the one returning coupons representing the eight next highest ; in all 17 prizes Any coupons not sent in for the first distribution, which will close on May 31, 1903, may be -saved and sent in for the next, closing on November 30, 1903, or any following half-yearly distribution. Kozie Tea is packed in lead, with vegetable parchment lining, and is therefore quite impervious to the air ; will keep longer than in any other form of package ; and especially is preferable to tea packed in small tins, which becomes tinny ' —that is, tastes of the tin if kept any length of time before using. Kozie Tea is put up in four (4) grades and sold at Is 6d, Is 9d, 2s and 2s 6d so that these fine teas and the chance of a handsome bonus is within the reach of all. Golden Tinned Kozie at 2s 6d is the most superbly rich and fragrant tea ever put on the market, and will be appreciated by Connoisseurs A coupon will be placed in each packet and tin of Kozie Tea, and will count in the distributions as follows —Two red will represent lIT/of tea. One black will represent lib of tea. One blue will represent 51t> of tea. One green will represent 10th of tea. Coupons must be sent to W. Scoullgr and Co., Dunedin, with sender's name and number of coupons marked nlainly on package containing same by 31st May or 30thi November in each year. A list of successful competitors will be published in the daily papers as soon as the count up is concluded, and P.O. order for bonus posted at once. Kozie Tea may be obtained from all Grocers. **♦

Catholic body will find expression in a manner which will leave a permanent record in the annals of the Catholic Church in Australasia. Cardinal Moran does not belong to Sydney alone. Ho is of Australasia, and the strongest and most commanding figure within all its wide area. And Catholics, and not Catholics alone, are proud of the eminent position of their fellow-citizen as an ecclesiastic, a patriot, and a scholar He was raised to the dignity of the priesthood on March 19, 1853. He was one of the most brilliant of the thronging concourse of students who, in those picturesque Papal days, gathered around the lecture-chairs of the great Jesuit professors in the Eternal City : the noted mathematicians and astronomers Vico and Sestini, the learned Spanish philosophers Forn and Manera, the famous theologians Perrone, Voigt, and Schrader, and the able biblical scholars Rbitz and Patrizi. When still a young priest in Rome, he was well known in the circles of the learned for the ripeness, the keenness, and the far-extending character of his scholarship. While yet in the bloom of early manhood, his patient and toilsome researches among the treasures of the Vatican Library, the British State Paper office, and the archives of the mother-houses of various Religious Orders in the Eternal City, enabled him to give to the world a series of learned volumes that are still standard works upon the early and the post-Reformation periods of the ecclesiastical history of his native land. C'ver a score of thosse golden volumes showed the partial results of his long and loving labors among the hidden, almost forgotten, and previously unexplored, or scarcely explored, treasures of Irish historical lore. The early love of historical research is with Cardinal Moran still, but, if possible, keener and more active than ever. Some of its results are to be seen in his exhaustive and monumental ' History of the Catholic Church in Australasia.' Research among libraries and archives and moss-grown mins for facts illustrative of Ireland's historic past, filled a goodly portion of his recent tour in Europe, interrupted only by the duties of his visit to the Holy See, by great religions functions, and by those grave and moving expositions of the rights of his mother-land which raised the National cause to a higher plane and infused ' a second life, a soul anew,' into the people of green Eire of the Streams. Like his brilliant archiepiscopal neighbor in Melbourne, the Cardinal combines, in a high degree, the two qualities of being a man of study and a man of action. Few prelates in the Church can point to a more active and fruitful episcopate than he. ' Looking back,' says his Jubilee biography, 'on the career of the Cardinal in Australia, one finds every year marked by some majestic ceremony, some picturesque pageant ; by the inauguration or completion of some important work. The episcopate of his Eminence may be described as a series of historical pictures traced upon a field which will retain its colors fret h and vivid for ev< r.' During the first three years of his episcopate in Australia — years, too, of much financial embarrassment in New South "Wales — eight Religious Orders were introduced by him, and no less a sum than £2 ( .)l,biQ was expendtd on religious undertakings in the archdiocese of Sydney : £106, Oyo of this splendid total being for convents and institutes of charity. Since the care of Australia's great mother see fell upon his shoulders in J 884, the number of its churches increased from 120 to 170 (\shile maiiy were enlarged or rebuilt), its priests from 100 to 180, its religious teaching Brothers from 78 to 2G4, its religious Sisters from 102 to 1061, its Catholic primaiy schools from 81 to 224, and the children attending them from 10,930 to 23,107. Jn the same short period of nineteen y^ars the number of Catholic charitable institutions in the archdiocese rose from five to twenty-four. The great ecclesiastical Seminaiy of Manly was also erected ; two Plenary Councils of the Church in Australasia were held — the first in her history ; St. Mary's Cathedral \vas enlarged and dedicated ; and the first Australasian Catholic Congress was carried out on a bold and striking scale and with complete and gratifying success. The Jubilee volume of the Cardinal's biography sa)S that ' since I*B4 his Eminence has founded, blessed, and opened in the diocese of Sydney aloi.e no less than 400 works of religion, education, and charity — an achievement which, we think it is permitted to us to lemark, is absolutely without parallel in any other part of the world. Even we who

mingle in the throng may hardly know the meaning or the magnitude of th.s work, performed by one man, who ha* still before him, m the ways of God, the time and energy to crown his career with even greater triumphs for "knowledge, freedom and truth in Christ," and thus «• to fill," in the words of Arthur Henry Hallam, ' With worthy thong-ht and deed, The measure of hia high deaire.' " • Cardinal Moran has, likewise, taken an active, broadminded, and patuotic interest in public affairs, without, however once touching the pitch of mere party politics! He lifted the cause of Federation to a higher plane ; he took au active and conspicuous part ivi v the State" Centenary commemorations of 10881 0 88 and in the celebration of the establish. ment of the Australian Commonwealth ; he made noble and highly-appreciated efforts as peacemaker during the great maritime strike of 1890 ; and, generally, he has been, ever since his arrival, a partof the public life of Australasia. From the moment he landed he became, in his own words, ' an Australian among Australians.' 'Outside the circle and pale of religion ' he added, • I know of no subject relating to our social and and our national welfare in which ib is not within my power to work with the same energy and the same devotion of heart and feeling as any other man in Australia. • The distinguished jobilarian may be described as a comparatively young mao of three-and-seventy years For after all, age is to be reckoned by physical and mental conditions, rather than by the number of years that one has breathed atmospheric an-. Measured by this standard the first, Australian Cardinal has merely touched the later summer of his life. Increasing mental power follows, with him, as with the present Pope and the late Mr. Gladstone (whose brains kept growing till far on in life), still accompanies the gathering years, and betokens length of days \\ oruswortk's lines have been happily applied to him :— ' ' The monumental pomp of age Is with thiH goodly personage • A stature undepressed in size, ' Unbent, which rather seems to rise In open victory o'er the weight Of seventy years to loftier height.' We heartily join with the Catholic Church throughout these lands in wishing Australia's first Cardinal length of years and many happy returns of the day.