Death of Father Dalton, S.J., Sydney.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4, 26 January 1905, Page 30

Death of Father Dalton, S.J., Sydney.

Th life thlat faded out at Riverview on January 5 (says the ' Freeman's Journal ') was that of a Catholic educationist whose work was singularly free from incompleteness. The Very Rev. Joseph Dalton, S.J., had tihe felicity to see the full fruition of his later lifework. There have been toilers in the vineyard who were called to their reward before their eyes had seen the glory of their harvest gleaned from the labor of their lives. Not so with Father Dalton. His long 1 «fe flickered out amid the beautiful environment of the great educational establishment whi<?h he founded on one of the fairest eminences that smile down upon the waterways of Sydney. Five-and-twenty years ago he saw it a scrubby height, enibastioned by forbidding rocks. Long before his eyes closed in death that suburban wildernujs had vanished, leaving in its place a veritable fairyland tthat delights the eye of tihe traveller. In the beautiful grounds that slope down to the Lane Cove River are set the noble buildings of the College of St. Ignatius. The nineteenth century was but sweet seventeen when Joseph Daliion was born in Waterford, that southern city of Ireland which has given of its best to the Church. His ecclesiastical studies commenced in his native town, and were prosecuted further in the Jesuit Colleges of Clongowes and Tullabeg. In 1836, when but nineteen, ho entered as a novice of the Society of Jestus, and, fulfilling his probation, took the vows. Thereafter for eight years he taught in tyhe principal Jesuit colleges of Ireland. The year of the great famine, '47, saw him in France pursuing the philosophical studies of the, Society. These mastered, as well as other scholastic " attainments, he. in 1854-58, went through a complete theological course in St. Buqfno's

Jesuit Seminary, North Wales. Dr. Murray, Archbishop of Dublin (uncle of the Bishop of Maitland), ordained him priest at Maynooth. Education once more claimed him, and at CJongowe's Wood College he devoted four or five years to disciplining the students. As Rector of St. Stanislaus', near T.ullamore, he presided over a body of students, Some of whom are now on the Australian mission. In 1866 the General of the Society ordered him to take charge of the Jesuit mission m Victoria. As fellow-voyager to the Antipodes Father Dalton had the present venerable Archbishop of Hbbart (Dr. Murphy). After his arrival in Melbourne twelve years were spent In directing the studies at St. Patricks College, as well as in missionary labors at Richmond, the sftiburb set apart for tihe Jesuits by Archbishop Croold. Four years after his arrival Father Dalton was enabled to purchase seventy acres of an estate at Kew, -whereon he began to build tjhe College of St. Francis Xavier. In 1878 Ardhbishop Vaughan invited him to Sydney. His arrival was signalised by his appointment as Supertor of the Jesuits in New South Wales and Victoria, and he may justly receive the credit of founder of the Society of Jesus iv New South Wales. North Sydney was then 1-nowin as St. Leonards, and here the Jesuit mission was established. When Riverview was opened in 1880 it prdvided but scant accommodation for ten or twelve stuidonts. Since then the number of its resident pupils has increased by leaps and bounds. In 18Stf the then Rector, Very Rev. J, Ryan, S.J., gave a holiday in honor of the 150 th boy. Since then the college has gone on prospering despite the aitlver.se seasons whifch Australia has known. Father Dalton was esteemed not only by those who came frequently within the sphere of his influence, but by all who happened to meet him. His was a personality that sought no publicity, but one tihat found its vocation in devotion to duty, the exercise of true charity, and the practice of those gracos whioh sweet-en daily life. Many of his best friends were non-Catholics, who rejoiced in tihe friendship of one so sincere arid serene and, withal, genial in his disposition. The presence of so many former students at the obsequies pnaved the loyalfy of his pupils to his memory. His sympathies were broadly human, and his kindness in acoord with them. The remains were taken to St. Mary's Church, North Sydney, where, on January 7, a Solemn Requiem Mass was offered mp for the repose of the soul of the deceased priest, the panegyric being preached by his Grace Archbishop Kelly. The interment took place at the Gore Hill Cemetery, where his Lordship the Bishop of Maitland officiated.