Interprovincial

New Zealand Tablet, 10 December 1908, Page 23

Interprovincial

The Rev. Father Power, of Hawera, whilst on a visit to his native county of Waterford, delivered a very fine lecture on New Zealand' in the Town Hall, Dungarvan. One of the audience, on moving a vote of thanks to Very Rev. Father Power, said that tlie Very Rev. lecturer had given such a very interesting account of New Zealand — its climate, the fertility of the soil, variety of its products, and its land and labor laws — that it would no doubt result in attracting many emigrants from Ireland to that favored land, instead, of to the United States and Canada. • a As an outcome of the mission that was held recently at Wadestown, an enthusiastic and representative gathering of the Catholic residents _ (writes an occasional, correspondent) met at the house of Mr. Blake on Wednesday, December 2, to discuss the advisability of procuring land and erecting a church thereon at Wadestown. The Rev. Father Hickson, S.M., Adm., supported by Rev. Father Pooples, S.ivi., presided. At tlie close of the~ meeting Father Hickson expressed his great satisfaction and warm appreciation at tlie result, of the collection made in the room, which amounted to £70. A strong committee was then formed to. carry out the objects of the meeting. In the course of an interview given to a representative of the Wellington Everting Post, the Eev. Dr. Gibb, who has just returned from a trip to the Home Country, said : ' There is one phase of drurclTmoveiaent at Home which is disquieting to a convinced Protestant. What -the end- of -it all will be no man knows, but it can hardly be questioned that there is a Romeward. movement on the part of a very considerable section of the Churchy of England. The direct activities of the, Roman communion did not impress me so much — though they aie very much in evidence in many quarters — as the Romanising processes that are taking place in other communions. It is scarcely credible that north of the Tweed, in the Established Church of Scotland, there should be any symptoms of this kind of thing. But there are. Jacob Primmer, of whom you may liave heard, is doubtless something of a fanatic, but tho case of St. Cuthbert which ho brought before the

General Assembly was suggestive of much. Qliey have introduced what Mr. Primmer calls graven images' into that venerable old building, and carry through a service which is, to say the least, very high. . Of course, there was bound to" come a reaction from the bareness of the structures and the severe simplicity of the old time Presbyterian worship, and most progressive men in that communion desire a fuller and more beautiful service than is customary, but the tondencies in evidence at Home aro certainly' significant. After my last visit to the Home Land thirteen years ago I said I believed that the battle of the reformation would have again to be fought out there/and I am now even more of that opinion than I was then.'