INTERCOLONIAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 13, 30 March 1905, Page 31

INTERCOLONIAL.

The Rev. Fathers O'Gorman (Cooma) and McDeinvott (Burwood) are leaving for a trip to Europe. His Lordship Dr. Vidal, Vicar-Apostolic of Fiji, who hias been on a visit to France, returned to Sydney recently, 'bringing with him a number of priests to assist in the work in his island diocese. New Zealand furnisftea two preachers at St. Patrick's Qhjurch, Sydney, an Sunday, March 12. The sermon at the 11 o'clock Masjs was preached by the Very Rev. Father Smyth (Hastings) and ,-.t Vespers by the Rev. Father Herbert (Grey mouth). The Rev. Thomas Cahill, of Carterton, N.Z., has arrived in Sydney for a health trip to the old country (says the ' Freeman's Journal '). Prior to his departure Father Cahill is paying a visit to Bourke, his old p&rish for several years while he was on the Wilcannia mission. He will als>o say a prayer at the grave of his brother, the late Rev. J. J. Cahill, of Brewarrina, who passed to his reward last year, and wi'l probably visit his brother the) Rev. W. Cahill, of the (Joulburn diocese, and his sister, who is a Sister of Mercy in the fliocese of Wilcarnia. In the oouinse of an address at tihe District Meeting of ,tlhe H.A.C 4 8. Society 'in Sidney, the ' OjUier 1 day, president said : — After twenty-nVe years it was pleasing to know that the Society was associated with the grandest progress ever made in one year. During tihe yea*" seventeen new branches had been npeucJ, '<'ii ftf t non and seven for women. The admissions for the year weie— by initiation, 2010 ; by clear iii.ios, i. total, 2112 members gained during the year. The departures were— by clearance, 81 ; deaths, 22 ; resignations, and unfirtancial members, 'nearly 700 ; total, 788 ; showing a net irtcrease of 1324 members, an increase equal to more than 25 per cent. The present membership was 6577, but many of those not included were not by any means last to the Society, as the greater part would, according to past experience, retain their membership-. His remarHs. if he might be permitted to say so, were equally applicable to the funeral fund in particular. A num of £H0 6|S 9d .hadibeen paid aw*v m funeral claims. The receipts of the District Board for the year, amounted to £4864 6d lOd. The total net increase was £1732 11s 4d. The total net funds of the Society amounts t o £28,672 12s fid, an Incrci'-e -J £4262 17s lid. He thought these (inures fully showed their Society was continuing to progress at e\en a greatet rate than in the past. The judgment of Mr. Justice Gordon in the Adelaide case— re bequest for Masses— was notable (writes the Melbourne corrpspionldent of the ' Freeman's Journal ') as illustrating the apirit of the times, which is adverse to tihe sectarian statutes of Edward VI. Tne point at issue was whether a bequest in the will of the late Anne Kelly, of Morphettvale, was valid. After leaving a life interest in her house and land, furniture, and houseihokl efforts to her sister, Honora Cahill, and afterwards to Mrs. Cahill 's danghiter, Elba, the testatrix added :— ' At the death of the said Eliza Cahill. that the annual income of the said house, land, and effects be devoted to the support of the resident Catholic priest in charge of the Morphestvale district, in return for Masses for myself and my brother, t>he late Thomas Kellv ' The action was a friendly one for construction on that and other points Mr. Justice Gordon field tihat in England bequests for priests offering up MiasKes for so"ls of the dead were void under an Edward VI. statute, tint he dii not thin\ the Act referred to was now or ever had been part of the law of South Austral)*,. The statute was in a very special sense the product of conditions peculiar to England at tihe time it was enacted. Since t<hat time the public policy of Great Britain, as displayed in tihe laws, had radically changed in its attitude towards religious beliefs other than iJhose embodied in the canons of the established Church of England. 'in my opinion,' continued Mr. Justice Gordon, ' any statute aimed at extirpating reverent religious .ites of any branch of the Christian Church, always \v :!.-;. v(\ si ill is, inapplicable t"o the circumstances • f S.yitn Australia, a dependency of the Crown, in wnii.'h M'lipious freedom has from the first been a nolitic.il starr aul