Intercolonial

New Zealand Tablet, 1 October 1908, Page 35

Intercolonial

A tribute was paid to the memory of the late "Mr. Nicholas Fitzgerald at a recent sitting of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, when a resolution was agreed to, on the motion of the Premier (Sir Thomas Bent), seconded by the leader of the Opposition, putting on record the sense of the great loss which the House had sustained by Mr. Fitzgerald's death, after a service of 44 years.

The Hon. John Gavan Duffy, in his address at the reception to Ensign Emmet in the Cathedral Hall, Melbourne, said : ' I am especially gratified to be here to-night to do honor to our distinguished guest, for two reasons personal to myself. Firstly, because, curiously enough, I am.^the only Australian who ever represented Australia in a public capacity in America. In the days before Federation, at the Postal Congress held at Washington, I represented all the Australian States, and New Zealand and Fiji as well. Both private and public hospitality was lavished upon me, and I was enabled to see a large part of the great Republic under most fortunate auspices. lam glad to-night, in showing hospitality to an American, to do some little thing to show my appreciation of American hospitality. Secondly, it is not unfitting that a. son of Charles Gavan Duffy should greet a kinsman of Robert Emmet, that there should be some bond between the men of '48 and the men of 1803.'

His Eminence Cardinal Moran (says the Freeman's Journal) celebrated the anniversary of his birth on Wednesday, September 16, when he entered on his 79th year. The Cardinal was born at Leighlinbridge, County of Carlo w, Ireland, on September 16, 1830. He was ordained priest in Rome on the feast of St. Joseph, March 19, 1853, and was installed as Bishop of Ossory, August 18, 1872. He was appointed to the Archiepiscopal See of Sydney, March 21, 1884, and was created Cardinal-Archbishop on July 27, 1885. Under the earnest administration of his Eminence, the Church in our midst has grown to robust proportions, and is the wonder of the onlooker, and the envy of other denominations, while it commands the admiration of older Catholic countries. The progress and development of Catholic education under the aegis of his Eminence has been wonderful, while his strong personality has been the means of crowning with success that system of education by which the children of Catholic parents have been imbued with a strong love of faith, as well as that training so requisite to make good citizens.

Cardinal Moran, replying to the remarks of the Lord Mayor of Sydney at the luncheon in connection with the birthday" of his Eminence, said it'would not be his fault if he did not carry out the commands of his medical adviser, then present, and who had instructed him that he (the Cardinal) was not to give trouble to anyone by dying before he reached the century. He had always tried to follow in the paths that duty and conscience dictated, regardless of consequences. They had some stirring times in the Home Country at the present time, judging from the cables to hand. It only reminded them of the wail of some in the ir own midst who would go a doubtful way about uplifting public life in the Legislatures by selecting only Protestant cand£ dates, to the exclusion of the most upright and patriotic of the Catholic citizens. So far as the mere name of Catholic was concerned, his advice would be that if anyone approached the polls on the mere pretext of his being a Catholic, then" he would*" advise all his fellow-Catholics to make it a point to oppose that man, and to vote only for a man of true patriotic heart, of honor, and of rectitude.

The will of the late Mr. Michael Lennon, otColonna, farmer, has been lodged for probate (writes the Melbourne correspondent of the Freeman's Journal). The deceased gentleman died' on August ii, leaving personal property of the value of and by Ju. will, which is dated December „, i 9i 9 0 3 , the property is left to various charities, almost exclusively Catholic. Testator bequeaths £100 to the Catholic clergy of the diocese of- Sandhurst, and to the parish priest of Kerang. The residue of the estate is to be divided equally between the Sisters of Nazareth, the Foundling Hospital at Broadmeadows ; St. Joseph's Recemog Home Carlton; The Orphanage, Bendigo ; the Home for Destitute Children, at Surrey Hills; the Magdalen Asylum, -Abbotsford; St. James's Asylum, Oakleigh ; The Orphanage, Rosary place, South Melbourne; Little Sisters of the Poor, Sandl hurst Hospital, Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Bendigo ; Society °L fl'u^Tl dC ? Ul> Melbourne 5 Girls ' Orphanage, Geelong; and the fund for infirm priests, Bendigo.