CATHOLIC EDUCATION IN TASMANIA

New Zealand Tablet, 9 February 1911, Page 257

CATHOLIC EDUCATION IN TASMANIA

- (From an occasional correspondent.) Hobart was en fete on Sunday, January 22, the occasion being the opening of St. Virgil's College. The college stands on the lower slopes of Mount Wellington, some hundreds of feet above sea level. From the rooms and balconies there can be obtained a charming view of the pretty city of Hobart, of the silver Derwent, and the verdant hills, which, like a guard of honor clad in Nature's richest hues, sentinel its course to the sea. It is safe to assert that no college in the Commonwealth occupies so charming a position. . The total cost of the huilding, apart from the value of "the land on which it stands, is over £7OOO. The huilding is a three-storey one, and is built of brick, with sandstone facings. Among those present at the opening ceremony, which was performed by his Grace the Archbishop of Hobart, were his Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne, his Lordship the Bishop of Ballarat, Right Rev. Monsignors Hoyne, Gilleran, and Beechinor, and many other representatives of the Tasmanian clergy, Rev. Brothers McCarthy, Wareing, O'Brien (Brisbane), and Burton (Dunedin), Senators Keating and O'Keefe, Mr. Earle, M.P., and several other leading citizens. The gathering was held in the spacious gymnasium, which was crowded with people. Eloquent addresses were delivered by the visiting prelates. The Archbishop of Melbourne specially addressed himself to the question of the importance of religious instruction in the schools. He pointed out that the Catholic Church had, in the face of all opposition, at a large expenditure of money, ami in many instances at great sacrifice on the part of parents, sought to provide religious instruction for its children so that they might be made acquainted with the Gospel of Christ and Christian doctrine. They could see how ill France fared by the exclusion of religious instruction from the schools. She had, on account of infidelity, fallen lower and lower in the moral, social, and religious scale, and if she persisted would soon become a byword among the nations. It. had frequently been stated that morality could he taught without dogma. He maintained it could not, and said, with Cardinal Wiseman, that morality without dogma was a triangle without a base, a house without a foundation. Religion was the. philosopher's stone, the radium or radio-activity that could transmute t all that was base, low, and imperfect in man's character into higher and nobler principles of life. The Bishop of Ballarat paid an eloquent tribute to the great work done by the Christian Brothers on the mainland, particularly in Western Australia. Other speakers included Dr. Kenny, K.S.G., and Senator Keating. At the conclusion of the ceremony Dr. Delaney announced that a personal friend of his had handed him a cheque for £l5O, thereby wiping out the remaining debt on the college.