Intercolonial

New Zealand Tablet, 19 May 1910, Page 795

Intercolonial

The Hon. John Meagher, M.L.C., was recently received in audience by his Holiness the Pope. Our Sydney exchanges report that his Eminence Cardinal Moran has completely recovered from his recent indisposition. The new Federal Ministry comprises one representative of Queensland, two of Victoria, two of New South Wales, two of Western Australia, two of South Australia, and one of Tasmania. The Rev. J. A. Carr, of Ardrahan, and the Rev. F. W. O'Mahan, of Ballyvaughan, are at present on a visit to Australia for the purpose of collecting funds for the new Cathedral and the Diocesan College, Galway. The Very Rev. Father Butler, of Cootamundra, has been appointed to succeed the Very Rev. Father O'Dwyer as parish priest at Tumut; and the Right Rev. MonsigncftBuckley, of Wagga, has been appointed Vicar-General of the Goulburn diocese.. The Bishop of Maitland, Right Rev. Dr. Dwyer, received an enthusiastic welcome to Dungog a few days ago. He was entertained at a complimentary banquet, attended by leading residents of all denominations, and speeches were delivered by the Hon. W. Bennett, Messrs. W. Brown, P.M., G. S. Waller, and the Rev. Father J. C. Meagher, and others. N Referring to the omission of the Hon. Hugh Mahon from the Federal Ministry, the Sydney Daily Telegraph says: —' Mr. Mahon has a record as an administrator. Indeed, he was the best administrator, and the most independent of his officials, of any of the Ministers in the last Labor Government.' Then the Telegraph adds:—'The fact . . . is that the ablest administrator which the party xiossesses is lost to the Ministry.' Mr. John Burke Ryan, who died on his farm, near Corop, on March 23, aged 85 years, was a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary, under the command of Mr. Robert O'Hara Burke, the well-known Australian explorer. He was in Melbourne in 1860 to wish bon voyage to his old chief on starting for the trip across Australia, from which he was destined never to return. Mr. Ryan spent some years at the goldiields, and about 40 years ago he settled down to farming in the Rochester district. His Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne has made the following clerical changes in the archdiocese, which were necessitated by the death of the Rev. D. Horan, parish priest of Bacchus Marsh:—Rev. M. Ryan, from Elsternwick to Bacchus Marsh, as parish priest; the Rev. John Gibbons, from -North Melbourne to Elsternwick; Rev. M. A. Vaughan, who has been on leave owing to ill-health, to North Melbourne; the Rev. W. Berntsen, from Brunswick to Gisborne; and the Rev. P. Gibbons from Gisborne to St. Patrick's Cathedral. At Maclean the other day Bishop Carroll, of Lismore, criticised the administration of the State education system, and, in the course of his speech, said: ' Pupils of the Catholic schools are allowed to compete for bursaries in Queensland, but in New South Wales, no matter how talented the pupil of the Catholic school may be, he is debarred by law from the privilege of gaining a bursary. Is that justice? I believe the time will come when all students will be on equal terms, no matter what religious faith or convictions they hold, and the work of the Catholic schools will be justly recognised.' The Mother Rectress of St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, accompanied by Sister. Mary Xavier, left recently on a trip to Europe. The former was the recipient of a purse containing 105 sovereigns, presented by the Sisters and nurses, who entertained the Mother Rectress at ■ a concert, and made the presentation. Mrs. D. Slattery, of East Melbourne, gave the Mother Rectress a cheque'for £l4O, and Mrs. Southall, of Richmond, presented Sister Mary Xavier with a cheque for £IOO, both these ladies regarding it as a privilege to be the purchasers of return tickets for the Mother Rectress and her companion. It is just fifty years since the first Sisters of Mercy arrived in Queensland (says the Brisbane Age). On his consecration as Bishop of Brisbane, the late Right Rev Dr. O'Quinn, before leaving for Queensland, undertook the task of obtaining clergy and nuns for the new diocese. In response to his request for a 'foundation' of Sisters of Mercy, Mother Vincent Whitty and six other Sisters from the Mother House of the Order, Baggot street, Dublin, volunteered and thus became the pioneers of the Order in Queensland. The Sisters sailed on December 8, 1860, and arrived in Brisbane' on May 10, 1861. To-day only one (Mother Brigid Conlan) of the gallant little band who so courageously left home and kindred to face privations in a new land survives. Mother Brigid now controls St. Vincent's Orphanage at Nudgee. The Sisters first occupied a small cottage in St. Stephen's Cathedral grounds,- and at once opened a. school. There they remained until 1863, when they purchased the residence of Dr. Fullerton, which has since been enlarged until it has become the noble pile which we to-day know as All Hallows Convent.