Intercolonial

New Zealand Tablet, 23 July 1908, Page 35

Intercolonial

The Peter's Pence collections taken up at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, on Sunday, July 5, realised To meet the wonderful expansion of 'Australian telegraphic and telephonic business, ;£?',ooo,ooo will be needed covering the next three years. His Lordship Dr. Olier, Bishop of Tonga, who is on a visit to Sydney on account of ill-health, is making rapid progress towards recovery. The New South Wales Government proposes lto create a dozen new Legislative Councillors. Of the 53' members at present in the Council over one-third top the tluee-score age limit, and the number on active service is .only between 40 and 50 members. Mr. Louis Brennan, of torpedo fame, at the instance of Mr. Deakin, forwarded to Australia official descriptions of the mono-railway invented by him, and has asked for assistance from the Commonwealth towards the expense of the development of the invention. . , - " Mr. Percy Jones, the young Geelong musician who was so successful as conductor of St. Augustine's Orphanage Band, and was sent to Europe to continue his musical studies, is now settled in Vienna. In a letter recently received by the Rev. Brother Kerins, of St. Augustine's Orphanage, he says that he expects to remain in Vienna for two years. The Very Rev. T. F. O'Neill, of Gawler, S.A., who is on a visit to Ireland for the benefit of hishealth, has had a serious illness since his arrival at Dublin. He was a patient in a private hospital conducted by the Sisters of Mercy, and sufficiently recovered to travel to a health resort located near Dublin. The latest advices state that he is slowly regaining his health. There was great rejoicing at St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, when the results of the recent final examination of nurses were made known. This examination was held by the conjoint Board of Examiners of the R.V.T. Nurses' Association. Nineteen candidates (including four Sisters of Charity) presented themselves from St. Vincent's Hospital, and all passed, one of the Sisters obtaining (out of 80 candidates) the highest number of marks for the surgical paper. The erection of two steeples in front of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Bendigo, has just been completed, at a cost of ovc »" j£3 oo °- Later on the principal part of the main building and side chapels will be erected. It is also intended to carry out some extensive additions to St. Aiden's Orphanage, at Grassy Flat. All these works are being carried on by funds provided by the. estate bequeathed to the Church by the late Rev. H. Backhaus, the pioneer i priest on the Bendigo goldfield, who was also we'll known in South Australia. Mother M. Joseph Sherlock, of the Nicholson Street Convent of Mercy, Melbourne, passed to her eternal reward on June 27. The deceased was a daughter of the late Sir Robert Sherlock, of Dublin — a family distinguished in military and naval circles. She was born on August 4, 1828, and was one of three sisters who gave their lives to Cod in religion. She entered the parent house of the Institute of Our Lady of Mercy at Baggot street, Dublin, on September 8, 1847, and made her religious profession on May 14, 1850. Deceased was one of the pioneer Sisters who came to Perth in 1856, and the last survivor of the three Sisters who founded the Convent of Mercy at Nicholson street, Fitzroy, on March 7, 1857. The repatriation of kanakas from Queensland is now practically completed, 4197 having been returned to their homes. Meanwhile the Queensland sugar-fields, which were to be ruined by white labor, seem to have survived the repatriation of Tommy Tanna. The^Government Statistician has just issued" his report' on the sugar crop for 1907. The output has a record for the State. The area under cultivation was 126,810 acres; crushed 94,384 acres ; .yields, cane 1,665,028 tons ; and sugar, 188,307 tons! The yield of cane per acre was 17.64 tons ;v sugar «*per acre, 2 tons; tons cane to tons sugar, 6.84. The consumption of sugar in the Commonwealth is put down as" 191,416 tons; New Zealand, 42,673 tons. The consumption of the different States was :— Queensland, 27,543 tons; New South Wales, 72,873 tons; Victoria, 53,437 tons ; .South Australia, 17,486 tdns ; Western Australia,. 12,754 tons ; Tasmania, 7323 tons.