Intercolonial

New Zealand Tablet, 26 November 1908, Page 35

Intercolonial

The Right Rev. Dr. Olier, Bishop of Tonga, who had been on a visit to Sydney for his health, has returned to the Islands.

The new novitiate and "training college of the Christian Brothers at Strathfield will be blessed and opened by Cardinal Moran on December 1.

His Lordship the Bishop (Right Rev. Dr. Gibney) received a great number, of congratulations on last Sunday, the Feast of All Saints, his seventieth birthday (says the W. A. Record). •

The Sisters of Mercy, Parramatta, have established a branch house, under the name of the Holy Cross Convent, in the Bondi parish, which was opened and" blessed by his Eminence Cardinal Moran on Sunday, November 8. The site, building, etc., cost over The collection at the ceremony amounted to Within one month (writes the Rockhampton correspondent of the Freeman's Journal) no fewer than three priests of the Rockhampton diocese have been called away. First, Dean Murlay, then Father B. McGrillan, and now the death of Father Thomas Fitzsimon has to be recorded. Six years ago, on November 9, 1902, Father Fitzsimon, then newly-ordained, arrived in Rockhampton, to minister under Bishop Higgins. Father Fitzsimon was a native of Castlepollard, County Westmeath, and was about 30 years of age.

His Lordship Abbot Torres, and the missionaries of New Norcia, W.A., had a very harsh experience during their attempt to establish an aboriginal mission on the northern part of the coast. His Lordship was four months absent. The expedition consisted of his Lordship, three priests, one brother, ten natives, a mission lugger laden with cargo, a whaleboat and 17 tons of cargo aboard the Bullarra, a costly turnout, and everything at the expense of Abbot Torres himself, or rather New Norcia, whose head and principal he is.

The Very Rev. Dean Phelan, V.G., in the course of a sermon delivered at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, on Sunday, November 8, expressed the hope that at the combined annual Communion of the Catholic Young Men's Society 3000 would receive Holy Communion. On Sunday, November 15, the Archbishop would be in Rome, and he would then present to the Pope the largest offering of Peter's Pence that had ever been subscribed in an Australian diocese. A cable message of congratulation, stating the number of those who received Communion, would be sent to the Vatican on the morning of the ceremony. The critics found fault with them as Catholics, and said it was impossible for them to be loyal to the secular authority. The Dean quoted from the speech delivered by the Duke of Norfolk (the Earl Marshal of England) at the great Eucharistic Congress, in which his Grace expressed in forcible terms his unswerving loyalty and devotion to the Chair of Peter. Yet, that was the Duke who crowned Edward VII., and to whose house belonged the high privilege of crowning each succeeding sovereign of England.

In the course of his speech at the blessing and opening of Holy Cross Convent, Woollahra, on Sunday, November 8,, his Eminence Cardinal Moran referred to the necessity for the establishment of an Australian fleet. His Eminence said :— Some few years ago it was considered a sort of treason to speak of an Australian fleet, but now the leading statesmen - say that they must have an Australian fleet, and he hoped that some day it would come into the Sydney Harbor to receive a salute. There were two immense fleets in the Pacific— the American and the Japanese. It was the duty of Australia to hold the balance with its own fleet. He trusted that the Home Government would subsidise the Australian fleet, and instead of Australia paying six or seven hundred thousand pounds for a few worthless battleships for its fleet, he hoped that the Home Government would send them two million pounds a year as a subsidy for an Australian fleet. An Australian fleet would be doing the work of the Empire in policing the Pacific, in guarding Hongkong and other British interests in China; it would be a bulwark for India and for other British interests.