Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 23 February 1911, Page 338

Notes

The Post Office Admirable on the whole as our postal arrangements are, the day has not yet arrived when the public can place implicit dependence on them. On Tuesday morning of last week, an hour and a-half before mail time, certain of our editorial matter including our comments on Mr. Ell’s speech and the rest of the matter now appearing in this column —was posted at the Christchurch Post Office; and, in order to make assurance double sure, we had the matter registered. After all our precautions, some genius in the office placed the packet in the wrong receptacle; and instead of reaching Dunedin on Tuesday, the matter only arrived on Wednesday night, nearly twenty-four hours too late to be included in last week’s issue. We mention the matter, not for the purpose of animadverting on the post office peoplewho made every possible apology—but so that readers may understand why our reference to certain recent happenings is thus belated. Our American Visitor

The Right Rev. Mgr. Fowler, a visitor from the United States, who has figured in several interesting interviews in the daily press, has been in Christchurch for the past fortnight ; and though ostensibly on a holiday visit to the Dominion, the Monsignor has had a sufficiently busy time.

On the first Sunday of the month he preached at three Masses in the Cathedral; and at Benediction in the evening on the occasion of the usual monthly procession he delivered a fourth sermon, the last being a singularly appropriate, devotional, and touching discourse on the Blessed Sacrament. On the following Sunday the Monsignor delivered a pithy, pointed, and outspoken address at the opening of St. Bede’s Collegiate School ; and in the evening preached the occasional sermon in connection with the anniversary of the opening of the Cathedral. The vast building was thronged to the doors, and the preacher chose as his subject the claims of the Catholic Church to be the true Church of Jesus Christ. The speaker’s descrip-tion-introduced with great appositeness and skill — of scenes in Rome at the time of the present Pope’s election and coronation, was absorbingly interesting; and the whole address was aptly described by his Lordship Bishop Grimes as ‘an eloquent and masterly discourse.’ Monsignor Fowler leaves Christchurch this week, either to view the beauties of the West Coast, or in the direction of Dunedin. Whereever he may go, our priests will find in him a most genial, cultured, and engaging personality; and our people who may be privileged to listen to his telling and impressive discourses, have in store for them a rare treat. If Monsignor Fowler’s addresses are a fair specimen of American pulpit eloquence, it is little wonder that Catholicism has made such giant strides, and is now easily the dominant religion in the land of the Stars and Stripes. The Education Question The recent utterance of his Grace Archbishop Redwood on the subject, the numerous press comments on that utterance, the pointed declaration of the Minister of Education the other day at Auckland, and the remarks of his Lordship Bishop Grimes at Christchurch on Sunday week, have all combined to make the Education question the question of the hour; and it is little —this being election yearthat interest in the subject will be allowed to decline. Under the circumstances, we warmly recommend those of our readers who have not yet purchased a copy, to make themselves possessed, without delay, of Dr. Cleary’s admirable pamphlet, entitled Secular versus Religious Education. It is, in our judgment, the ablest and most thoughtful work that has come from his pen— and that is saying a very great deal. There is not an aspect of the question which is not dealt with, and—thanks to a copious index— reader can ascertain at very short notice exactly. why the Church objects to the existing State system; why Catholics cannot accept any of the Bible-in-Schools programmes, or the New South Wales system how far the ; Catholic body could co-operate with other religious bodies in trying to secure a change for the better; and what precisely it is that Catholics claim from the State, together with a statement of the various ways in which that claim can be met without in any way impairing— less destroying— State system. The reader will find, also, complete replies to the well-worn arguments advanced by the secular press against the Catholic position; and the work remains to this day unanswered, because it is unanswerable. The price—ls, or posted Is 3d—brings the book well within the reach of all, and those of our readers who have not yet secured a copy should lose no time in ordering. The work is a veritable vademecum on the subject; and no Catholic who desires to be thoroughly equipped on this great question can afford to be without it.