INTERCOLONIAL

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 51, 22 December 1904, Page 31

INTERCOLONIAL

The bazaar in aid of the funds of the Cathedral Hall, Melbourne, resulted in a net profit of over £3000.

Tihe pr,om,oters of the fiirtd fior Mgssts. Duggan and Keilly, p,oli(tipal >prisKMers, formerly exiled to West Australia, are 1 providing a cottage for them at Perth pending t/hek return t 0 Ireland. An appeal has been made to liis'h- Americans for funds.

T<he Yen. Archdeacon D'Arcy has presented to the Batihlurst Uonvent of Mercy a statue of the Immaculate Conception. The statue is cast in iron and stands about} sft| iiig/Ei. The work is a masterpiqee of art, the fejatfuresl are bjeautifnilly cast, while iihA hanging of tihe drapery is perfect. The statue was made in France, and arrived in BatJHurs't^ few days ago. It is to be placed ih the centre <Jf the garden, anfl the work'iin connectUon wit)h its erection is now Being carriefd oXit.

Regret is "being expressed throughoiut Ballarat and distrifct, siaysi the ' Age,' at flhe decision of the Phoenix Fopnldiry Qon^pany to close down its works. Altogether no fewer Wan 949 locomotives halve since 1872 been built ifti tjhe iowntiry for the Railway Department at a cost of £1,250,000, while between £600,000 and £7,00,000 has been ex(pe!n)ded in wages. The plant in tihe huge establishment is valued at over £30,000. For a long while 400 hands were employed, and t^heir wages totalled oiver £16i00 fortnightly. Latterly, as tlie work of locomotive construction slackefned off, olnly about 70 hands were ongage'd.

The Inspector of Catholic sahools in tJlie archdiocese of Melb)omrne reports as follows :— Tiie tiotal number of Qhildxein w^io atitonded our ill primary schools during the year was 21,714. The total -dumber of teachers were 447, of whom 232 were members of religions Orders. Tbe Kum'ber taught by religioms Orders was 17,012, a^nid by lay teachers 4702. The Sisters of Mercy have 5457 im their schools, the Sisters of Charity, 3»066 ; the Sisters of St. Joseph, 1905 ; and the Cihristian Brothers, 197,6. The cost of maintenance for last year of tjie 111 primary schools was £22,450, whilst tShe'ncw stahioiol b(uil.dings reached no less a sum thjan £10,916 16s Id, 'atnd. the 1 expenditure on alterations, repairs, etc., was £1&69 15s 3d, making a grand total of £35,036 Ms lOd.

At a cojKverisiaJ'/ione tendered to the stallholders at the baz'aiar in aid of the funds of the Cathedral Hall, MelLpuirlie, his Grace tihe Archbishop said he was asked wthat he exjpecteid tihe result of -tihc bazaar to be, and replied about £3000. It was highly satisfactary to find that, after paying expenses, that result bad been achie--ve^. He sincerely thanked all who had taken part in the bia^aar, anJd helped to gain siuch a magnificent result. DViriing tjie past two years the sum of £20,000 had been* efx/penided Qn the hall, ciu-h roomsi, and tfie prirhlary scthfool. He had paid a considerable portion of that himself. Of itfie totial £14,000 had now been pai<d off, apti. only £60/00 remiafned due. No public alppeal would be majde to meet tihe interest on ttiat sjum.

In Ilhe co,urse of an address at tihe distribution of prizes to the stu'de»nts of River view College, Sydney, Atrcjhbisjhtop Kelly, referring to the importance of history and science, s<a*l tihore was a difficulty alhotit tthese, but as. a Catholic, be was not afraid of the truth, but they mlust giulatfd against falsehood and malice. They heard from real histprians how difficult it was to write reliable Ihistiory. He mentioned Mr. Lecky to slhow that a histotriajn m<ust be a mian of researqh, discernment, ,of loyjalty to tr,uth, and high principle- He must be neutralised as, far as party went in order to write accurate history. Oatti'olics were not afraid of hisfory. There were at tjhe Vatican valuable archives thrown open by Leo XIIII. to the students of the world. History in the sjpiot of bias was dangerous, poisondus. He had been accused of calling the system of popular instruction in t|hie State poisonous. He ha.d never called that system 'poislofcous. He had saiti of instruction as giVen in Ireland that it was poisionous. He now saM : ' Give us no *hi®tory rather thain biassed history.' Sometime ago, s(peaki)ng on the Papacy, he had claimed that the credit of achieving Magna Charta was due to the Papacy. Siome time later a letter signed ' Ci<vis ' appeared in the press contradicting tfhat statement. As the letter 'aippearejd %o be written in a Spirit of contention he did not reply to it. But the Magna Charta on tihe statute book of England wag that given not by Pope lotnocent of King John's time, as referred to by ' Civis,' but was that signed by the Papal Legate of his successor, Honoriu9 111. That just showed bow history cooild be miswritten, arjd miswritten history was the bane of students.