Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 29 June 1911, Page 1202

Notes

Monsignor Benson The Roman correspondent of the Catholic Times learns that in recognition of Father Benson's labors for the promotion of religion the Holy,father has appointed him a Camcricre Segreto. This dignity carries with it the title of Monsignor.

«God or No-God in the Schools' We print elsewhere : a first instalment of the text of the new matter in Dr. Cleary's latest work on the great question which he has made so completely his own. The work has just left the publisher's hands, and will be obtainable from all Catholic booksellers. In addition to the general text, which we reproduce, full references and many crisp and interesting comments are given in the copious foot-notes which form a feature of the work. To some of these we hope to make incidental reference from time to time. We were particularly pleased to find, in the very first footnote, a dignified protest against the grudging and churlish attitude "shown by the Post in the matter of according space for the recent controversy. Dr. Cleary thus refers to the pinch-beck policy adopted:' The new matter included in this summary consists of numerous considerations and extracts, which the present writer was unable to make use of in his letters on account of the editor's vehement, protests against " polemical prolixity," and his threats to close down the discussion after it had only just begun. In marked contrast with this was the action of the Otago Daily Times (Dunedin, N.Z.) — of the most ably conducted newspapers in Australasia—which generously and cheerfully accorded the present writer space for thirteen lengthy articles (not mere letters) on the same subject, written in express opposition to that paper's educational policy, at a time when the question was not nearly so much "in the air " as it was when the discussion took place in the columns of the Wellington Evening Post. The Dunedin discussion was, at the suggestion of the Otago Daily Times, reproduced in book form ("Secular vs. Religious Education," pp. 212; Dunedin, 1909)'. « The Dream of Gerontius ' The following particularstaken from the Catholic Who's —regarding Sir Edward Elgar, and his musical masterpiece The Dream of Gerontius, which is to be performed in New Zealand by the Sheffield choir during the coming weeks, will be of .interest to our readers. The composer was born at Broadheath, Worcestershire, the son of W. H. Elgar, organist. Settled near Worcester as a Professor, he became, in that city, organist and choirmaster at St. George's Catholic Church. He subsequently composed and taught music at Malvern. His Caractacus and Sea Pictures were performed at Leeds and Norwich Festivals respectively of 1898 and 1899; and his Dream- of Gerontius was produced at Birmingham Festival of 1900. This masterpiece, hailed immediately as the finest oratorio written by an English pen, after having been performed in Diisseldorf and America, was heard in London for the first time at Westminster Cathedral in 1903, under the baton of the composer. A second oratorio, The Apostles, was produced at Birmingham during the same year, and in 1904 a unique compliment was paid the composer by the Elgar Festival at the Royal Opera—the first occasion on which an English composer has been honored with a festival of his own works during his lifetime. Sir Edward, who was knighted in 1904, is a Mus. Doc. of Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, and Yale; Hon. Freeman of the City of Worcester, and member of many foreign academies and societies. He married (1889) Caroline, daughter of General Sir 11. G. Roberts, K.C.8., of Hazeldine House, Worcestershire, and has one daughter.