DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND

New Zealand Tablet, 5 June 1913, Page 24

DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND

(By telegraph, from our own correspondent.) June 2. Rev. Father O’Malley addressed the Holy Family confraternity last week, and Rev. Father Creagh, C.SS.R., will do so this week. There was Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at the Cathedral from the 11 o’clock Mass yesterday until after Vespers. In the evening there was the usual procession, when his Lordship the Bishop bore the Blessed Sacrament. In conversation with Bishop Cleary, who returned yesterday morning from his southern tour, he explained that his escape from a serious injury at Aramoho Station was miraculous. He was in the carriage reading his Office, and he had just thrown back his head, when the bullet grazed his forehead, drawing a little blood. Had his Lordship not thrown back his head at that particular moment the bullet would have entered at the temple.' The destruction of the Orphanage by fire last week is arousing public sympathy and interest, and on next Friday night a public meeting will be held in the Chamber of Commerce room, when the Deputy-Mayor will preside. Several Members of Parliament, the chairman of the Harbor Board, his Lordship Bishop Cleary, and several prominent citizens will address the meeting. It is hoped a hearty response will be made to the appeal for so deserving an object. His Lordship the Bishop spoke earnestly on the subject at the Cathedral last night.; A special appeal was made at the Masses in the city churches yesterday on behalf of the orphans. Mathers were asked to forward any clothes available for the little ones, whose garments were destroyed in the fire. The Bishop’s appeal was most pathetic. He

referred to the awful- tragedy, which befell the Irish emigrants crossing the Atlantic in coffin ships in the ’forties, thousands of whom were cast into the ocean bed or nameless graves at Quebec, and he eulbgised the French-Canadian Catholics, who adopted hundreds of Irish orphans, many of whom, later in life, occupied distinguished positions in Canada. His Lordship expressed the hope that the action of the noble FrenchCanadians would be in another direction copied by the good people of Auckland in dealing with the present catastrophe. Right Rev. Mgr. Brodie will devote special attention in the city and throughout the diocese to the raising of funds for the erection of a new orphanage. The work could not be entrusted to better hands. His Honor Mr. Justice Edwards gave judgment this morning in the dispute between the Remuera Road Board and the nuns of the Sacred Heart Order who conduct a school at Remuera. The Road Board sought to recover a sum of £4OB 14s 2d claimed to be due them for two years’ rates in respect of land and buildings owned by the Sacred Heart Order. The defence was that the land and buildings were used for a school not carried on for pecuniary gain or profit, and that they were exempt under paragraph (g) of section 2 of the Rating Act, 1908. In the course of his judgment his Honor pointed out that exemption from liability from rating given by paragraph (g) was of lands and buildings used for a school not carried on exclusively for pecuniary gain or profit, but so that within any borough or town district not more than four acres be used and occupied by or for the purposes of any one such school. The counsel for the" plaintiffs contended that this exemption must be read as limited to the school buildings and the lands immediately surrounding them, or at all events to the buildings and such an area of land as may be reasonably necessary for the purposes of that school. Alternatively, ■he contended that exemption did not extend to the gardener’s cottage and the land surrounding it. In his Honor’s opinion none of these contentions could be supported. If, he said, it had been the intention so to limit the area of land exempted in cases in which the school was outside a borough or town district the limitation contained in the latter part of paragraph (g) would have been general. If lands outside the area of a borough or town district were bona fide occupied for the purposes of a school, no court could inquire as to whether or not a less area, might be reasonably sufficient for these purposes. His Honor further decided that the cottage provided for the accommodation of the gardener and the land adjoining it were not rateable. A gardener was a menial servant, and, although he resided in the cottage, he was not in the legal sense of the word the occupier. Defendants were for purposes of the Rating Act occupiers as well as owners, and they occupied the cottage for the purposes of the school. Judgment was given for the defendants with costs according to scale.

A lecture delivered by Mr. J. J. Sullivan in St. Benedict’s Hall last Wednesday night on the life of Tom Moore, the Irish poet, was heard with great interest by the 600 or 700 people who attended. Mr. P. J. Nerheny was in the chair. The lecturer traced the history of Ireland about the time of the poet’s birth, and early childhood, and went on to mention that he took advantage of the opportunity given to secure an education at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1793; After dealing with the poet’s life and works Mr. Sullivan conceded with some stirring remarks concerning the poet’s unswerving devotion to Ireland. He said that some good Irishmen were of the opinion that when Moore went to London Ireland began to take a secondary place in his thoughts. The lecturer pointed out that all the evidence available was to the contrary, and Lord Byron’s poem on the Irish question was in itself-a sufficient refutation. On the motion of the Right Rev. Mgr. Gillan, Y.G., seconded by Mr. D. O’Donoghue, a hearty vote of thanks was passed to Mr, Sullivan. It was decided that arrangements be made for the erection of a monument to Moore in Auckland. During the evening songs were contributed by Mrs. Bourke, Mrs. F. Bourke, Mr. nall, and Mr. Egan. &

OPENING OF A NEW SCHOOL. A large number of ladies and gentlemen assembled yesterday in Vermont street to witness the formal opening by his Lordship Bishop Cleary of a' Catholic girls' parish school. A number, of the clergy and also the Marist Brothers attended the function. Rev. Father Edge, in asking Bishop Cleary to perform the ceremony, said the school had been built for the purposes of Catholic education. It represented in the first place a contribution from the people of Ponsonby for the benefit of the State. . They hoped to. train in it future citizens, who would respect law and order, and who would also show a certain amount of reverence for authority. ' They must never forget that the future of the Church had its foundations in the school. The building they were opening represented an expenditure of £3200, of which £lsoo'had already been contributed. Father Edge complimented the architect (Mr Mahoney) on the design of the buildings, and the contractor on the faithful work done. His Lordship the Bishop, in addressing the assemblage, said that just as Christ had set a little child in the midst of His Disciples, so the Church set a child amidst the Catholic people, because it was the centre of all— one whose proper training would have endless importance on the future of the Church. Christ gave a grand example for the training of the child in the way it should go. Christ was teacher of all teachers, Whose educational influence had the vastest effect on this old world. It was Christ’s teaching which had elevated woman to her. present high position. ■ The object of their schools was to .train the child on the model of Christ, to guard it in its first periods of existence from the assassin’s hand, and when it grew in years it was the duty of the Church to guard the child from false philosophy. The Bishop here quoted from an educational authority, who wrote that the Catholic Church wished to have a school in which the whole human being could get an education, knowing that Christianity brought culture out of barbarism. It had always regarded character and moral value as the highest of developments. Mere mind storing or mind sharpening was not even half an education. The two together did not fit a man for the society of his fellowmen. Morality was the broader, the deeper, the higher the schooling. An education that did not embrace true and complete morality was a great deal more than defective. Self-control was the main immediate agency in the formation of moral character. Selfcontrol depended on the schooling of the will, which could be carried on in no other way than under the higher motives connected with human destiny. These higher motives, as the sole ground upon which a practical morality could he based in the schooling of the will, were to be found in religion only. He emphasised the fact that the school period was of enormous importance, and that the grand central object of all education was the formation of character, and that could not be don© apart from religion. His Lordship also touched upon the sacrifices Catholics were making to secure the true education of their children, and complimented Father Edge and the committee upon the results achieved in the building of that school. They had been working while others were merely talking. Amidst applause his Lordship declared the school open. • Right Rev. Mgr. Gillan, V.G., congratulated, the people of Ponsonby on the opening of such a fine school, and said it was the development of what had been done during the past twenty years. Right Rev. Mgr. Brodie referred to the great work done in Australia in the matter of Catholic education. He was glad New Zealand was now keeping pace with Australia in that respect. Mr. M. J. Sheehan, secretary of the Catholic Education Committee, quoted Sir Thomas More’s words, r Education without religion is but a splendid infamy. The speaker expressed the hope that other parishes would follow the splendid example set by Ponsonby. On the motion of Mr. Brown, seconded by Mr. Flynn, a vote of thanks was accorded Bishop Cleary, after which the visitors were invited to inspect the school building. A handsome sum of money was subscribed by those present.