INTERCOLONIAL

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 33, 18 August 1904, Page 31

INTERCOLONIAL

There are 10 Fathers of the Order of St. Augustine laboring in North Queensland. The entire Catholic, population of this vast Vicariate docs not exceed GOOO persons, and these are found only in small centres, far distant one from the other.

Cardinal Moran, in an addie.ss at Parramatta a few Sundays ago, touched upon Uu- Vvoik of the lush race as church builders. His Eminence reminded his audience that if the drum-beat of the British forces followed the sunrise around the world, no loss true was it that in every land under the British flag Celtic hands had raised Catholic churches and Celtic voices were heard in Catholic anthems. His Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne and some twenty priests were present at the obsequies- of ttre ~ late Mrs. Yerga ih- St. John the Baptist'.s . Ciiur. ch., _ r riiHfon Hill, on July 29 the deceased, /lady wi& -the- ■' wife of Mr. Thos E Verga, .1 P. It may be mentioned that St. John's Ch,urch was partly, buikt and wjiollyfurmshed by Mr. Verga and his late wife.

The funeral of the late Very Rev. Father Le Renfletel (says the ' Catholic Pr^ss ') was probably one of the largest seen in Sydney since* .that of • Archbishop Polding in' Js77. It was extraordinary'' in ntftnbersiand extraordinary in the deep sorrow that swayed the multitudes which gathered at the church and cemetery and lined the route of the sad procession from end to end. The bells of churches outside the Catholic fold joined their melancholy tolling to the muffled 'peals of St. Mary's Cathedral. His estimated that over 40,000 people tool: pait in the last obsequies The whole city practically suspended business when the hearse left St. Patrick's for Waverley

The Arehbrshop of Adelaide has published his ninth annual report of the iinancial affairs of -the arpJidiocese, in which he .says : — Our total expenditure for" the" nine years was £194 682. Against this amount the total of our receipts was £191,335. With figures of such magnitude the shortage— £3.346— will seem hardly worth taking into account. In reference to the ' old accounts,' the report says :— ' The long list ,of old liabilities— those liabilities, vi 7 , which were in existence in March, 1895— continues to contract. Of that list, which comprised 28 items in 1895, representing a debt of £sfi,9ftß, 18 items had disappeared by March 31, 1903, three more had vanished from their places in the table , and this year one aeain falls out But six items remain The £r>fi,9Cß of March, 1895, is represented, after payment of interest and all other claims, by a debt of but £12,883 in our last balance-sheet.

His Lordship Bishop Murray, of North Queensland (writes the Brisbane correspondent of the ' Cath-olM* ~- Prees ') Was here recently on his return from the south, and in the course of conversation his Lordship told us „ the following incjdent, which is worth repetition. -< A ; few months ago. when the f ßishop was at Thursday Is*- ' land, a sick call arrived all the wav from Port RaWih. , The priests on the island being the shortest distance from the sick person, thefe was riothittg to da but lor one of them to pack up .and, take the next boat Port Darwinwairis. Six weeks later, when Dr. Murray again called at the island, the priest who went on the long sick call had not returned. He was still patiently awaiting a. steamer to bring him back. Long distances are still very familiar to many of the priests of Queensland. Only a week or two aero 1 Father Fitzsimons, -df ' Rockhampton, ca\ered 310 miles with one horse and ■buggy. In his annual report of St. Vincent's Hospital,' Melbourne, the Inspector of Public Charities writes as follows •— ' The institution closed the year with a debit balance' of £T>33. The cost per bed was £44 13s 7d., compared with the mean cost of general h6'gip'itals of £58 l' 7« 2d. t X^ ie average cpst qf"«ac!i" -inJ-pa^jent wa§ ' £2 19|.4d, and the estimated cost* of out-patients wris £1302! There is no paid collector, And the proportion of cost of administration to expenditure on maintenance was 3 ')C cent The managers of this hospital are_ deserving of the highest praise for the results whteh-/ the statistics of the year show The institution is one of the most economically managed of all the hospitals of - the State. On the other hand, it is exceptionally well supported by the public, as it receives by a long -way the highest ,rate, per daily average, of all the hostpitals in the State This result is worthy of congratulation, more especially when it is remembered that paid collectors are not employed in connection with the institiition. In addition to these facts, the hospital is Ke.pt up-to-date, and from every point of view is one <$f the most efficient in the State.' ''. ' •