Intercolonial

New Zealand Tablet, 12 March 1914, Page 53

Intercolonial

The Bov. T. R. O’Grady, of Kalgoorlie, is to be the new manager and editor of the M’est Australian lit cord . ! V ■ - . Prior to his departure on a holiday trip to Europe, the Rev. P. J. Power, of the. Sacred Heart parish, Darlinghurst (Sydney) was presented by the parishioners " with an illuminated address and a substantial cheque. The Hon. John Meagher, M.L.C., who has left for Europe, has been selected by Bishop Dunne to represent the Diocese of Bathurst at the celebrations in honor of Home Rule in Ireland this year. After' the business of the meeting of the St. Patrick’s Day Committee in Bathurst had concluded opportunity was taken of the occasion to wish Mr. Meagher bon voyage. A large and representative gathering assembled in the convent schoolroom, Narrandera, ‘on Wednesday, February 11, and made a presentation to Very Rev. Father Gray on his departure for the Old Land, after some 20 years’ strenuous labor in the parish. The Mayor said that Father Gray had been for over 19 years in Narrandera, and as a result of his efforts the school, convent, and church had been erected. Father Gray was about to return Home after an absence of 30 years, and he had the greatest pleasure in handing him a cheque for 200 guineas. This amount was later supplemented, making the total £250. The District Secretary, 11.A.C.8. Society, Adelaide (Mr. P. F. Kiley), has received from the National Directory in Fremantle a communication in reference to the proposal to charter a vessel for visitors to the opening of the Irish Parliament. This states that the White Star line is prepared to place the entire passenger accommodation of a one-class liner at the disposal of the Directory, on giving them six months’ notice, accompanied by one quarter fare, amounting to £l2 8s per head. This sum, with the names of those requiring accommodation, must reach the Directory by May 31 next. The Hon. J. Gavan, Duffy, K.S.G., referring at the opening of a new school hall in Balaclava, Victoria, to a recent attack on himself from an Orange platform, said that he himself .took no thought of these matters—he could knock the noxious things away as he might a creature that crawled upon his sleeve. They did him no harm, rather good, because he felt, when attacked in this way, that he had brought forward some argument which the other side found so unanswerable that they had to descend to personal abuse. If they praised him, then he might feel that he was on the wrong tack. Every Catholic of prominence, every Irish Nationalist, who spoke what was in his heart, was a target for the attack of every blatant Orange ranter, clerical or lay ; a target for every smug, oily, sanctimonious, insignificant hypocrite, whose interest it was to revile the Church of Rome and the country that gave him birth. This was outside the pale of reputable controversy. ~He could argue with many men who differed from him in religion and politics, and they could conduct their talk with the courtesies of gentlemen. His public life before the State for 30 years ought to be an answer to any attacks men like these could make. One of the counts was true. He might be old and feeble — so was the gentleman who had been good enough to say so—but it was not good taste to bring that forward as an argument against Home Rule. He was not too old to stand up for the country from 'which he came, and for the grand old Church, against which the gates of hell and all the Orange lodges would never prevail. 1