DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH

New Zealand Tablet, 12 November 1914, Page 26

DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH

(From our own correspondent.) November 9. The. Very Rev. , Chancellor Price, Adm., returned from Sydney last week. Whilst there he made satisfactory arrangements for having Mosaic tiling, installed in the Cathedral sanctuary. This, and other permanent work will be completed with as little delay as possible preparatory to the reception of the marble high altar. Through the good offices of the Very Rev. Chancellor* the nursing and working staff of; the Lewisham Hospital in this city has received a timely increase in numbers, also as an outcome of his visit to the New South Wales capital. • \ .t. ; - The annual meeting of the Cathedral Tennis Club was held recently in the rooms of the Catholic Club,Wiltshire Buildings. The president (Mr. J. R. Hayward) presided. The annual report indicated consider-, able success during the past playing season. The club entered teams for both the A and B sections in the tennis competition. The A team, secured second place, whilst the B team achieved good results. The membership is steadily increasing, whilst financially, there; is a balance to the credit of the club. ■ His- Lordship: the Bishop and Sir George Clifford, . Bart., are patrons ;; the Rev. : Bathers Murphy, B. A., -and Long honorary

vice-presidents, -■> and the election , of officers and committee, resulted as follows President, Mr. J. R. Hayward; vice-presidents—Messrs. T. »O’Connell, B. O’Connor,' and J. Cronin secretary, 'Mr. J. Lagan ; treasurer, Mr. J. R. Hayward; club captain, Mr. B. O’Connor; committee Misses Tracey, Canavan and Meachem, .Messrs. E. L. McKeon, J. McNamara, and C. Williams, r Out j of their own savings the boys of the Marist Brothers’ , School] have collected £5 for- the Great Britain, Ireland, , and Belgian fund. i'nii Playing against Addington School last Saturday, Marist Brothers’ made 153 for five wickets Sloane (74), Matthews-(21). Addington replied with 21. Matthews and J, Gibson bowled best for the winners. 5 d : E. McLaren, who played in the Marist Brothers’ School cricket team two years ago, and was picked to play for the 15 colts against Canterbury reps, last Saturday, has been making big scores for St. Bede’s all the season. P. Greenlees, another old boy of the school, was also chosen. Children of the higher standards of the Catholic primary and secondary schools were, at the invitation of the Christchurch branch of the Navy League, present at picture entertainments in connection with the recent Trafalgar Day celebrations, when suitable subjects were screened. ■ r. ; At an examination conducted at the Convent of Our Lady of the Missions, Rangiora, on Saturday by Mr. St. George, examiner for Trinity College of Music, the following candidates were successful:—Higher Local —Ellen Kelly, 70. Senior Catherine Joyce, 85 (honors). ; Junior— E. Coates, 89 (honors) Evelyn Fraser, 85 (honors) ; Pearl Murphy, 85 (honors); Zita M, Lynskey, 77. ■ - Last Wednesday the Marist Brothers’ and West Christchurch Schools continued their unfinished match at Hagley Park. West made 128 by fine free cricket, Watts (62), Doreen (26), Sinclair (21), being top scorers. The Marists fielded splendidly, J. Gibson being the best. The Marist Brothers’ boys made 178runs with five wickets down, winning by five wickets and 50 runs. Matthews (103), Dunn (32 not out),' Main (12) were top scorers. West Christchurch fielding was also very fine, the winners having to go hard for their runs. - A Sister of the Order of the Faithful Companions of Jesus of Middlesborough, England, writing to a friend here, mentions a visit made to them by'the Very Rev. Dr. Kennedy, S.M., Rector of St. Patrick’s College, Wellington. He was' accompanied by the Very Rev. Father Moran,- S.M., Superior of the Marist Fathers in Middlesborough, who, the letter stated, was very kind and very friendly to the Community. The visit was made at Redcar, a seaside town in Yorkshire about eight miles from Middlesborough, where the community have a house in which they spend their vacation. The Sisters were much impressed with the Very Rev. Dr. Kennedy, and greatly interested in the information he was able to impart concerning New Zealand. ; EXPERIENCES OF DEAN REGNAULT. j • . (From our Christchurch correspondent.) , - The Very Rev. Dean Regnault, SM., writing from Paris under date 11th August, to the Very Rev. Father Graham, S.M., M.A., Rector of St. Bede’s College, Christchurch, relates some interesting facts concerning the' strenuous time then being . experienced in France. Would it interest you to know (he writes), tinder what circumstances ;;L am scribbling these few notes? First, it is 11 p.m. ; I am in Paris in Gare de, Lyon, in a railway packed, with fugitives. They are squabbling because, one of them happens to have one inch more room - than the * others. For about ten days, ; all. the railways \ have , been under the,, control of the : military authorities, for the;.purposetpf mobilisation. It has been impossible for civilians -j to travel. , Thousands of , people have been, like myself, prisoners in Paris or elsewhere. •Yesterday I heard that a train would leave for the south, and that a few - privileged' persons ' would be

allowed; to travel by the same-train. The conditions necessary to' be numbered among the privileged ones were .to obtain a certificate of identity, then a passport, then a ‘ permis ’ to go within fifty yards of the railway station. In the hope : that the British Consul would be of some assistance to me I managed to get an interview with him, after waiting a considerable time. Difficulties again-, however, intervened. After a good deal of wasted patience and time, I got the necessary papers, including my railway ticket with the number of the train. It was train number 52, leaving Paris at, 12.5 am. French people go to bed very early, and ; as I did not like to interfere with. the rest of the two good old confreres who have so charitably and so willingly given me hospitality since August 2, I left the house to-night at 8 p.m. with the intention of waiting near the station. I arrived at the station at 8.30, and to my great surprise the train was already preparing to leave, and every carriage almost full. People were still pouring in, asking for places, fighting with the guards, shouting and creating a real pandemonium. It is nothing compared with the Square outside the railway station. For days it has been occupied with foreigners, men, women, and children with all their belongings. It is impossible to find one’s way through the crowd; they are packed up like sardines, they sleep and eat there, hoping that a train will sooner or later take them somewhere, anywhere. The main thing is to leave Paris, where they are not wanted. This is one of the consequences of the war. Continuing from Lyons, under date August 17, Dean Regnault states: You know how, after landing in France, we visited some of our colleges and then attended the ' Eucharistic Congress at Lourdes. From Lourdes we made our way to Chartres and Paris en route for Belgium. We had just'' reached the French capital when we were told that all the French railways were to be handed over to the military authorities that very night for the purpose of mobilisation, and that noone but reservists or soldiers would be allowed to travel. My two confreres were advised to rush to the railway station and try to make their escape to London. They succeeded. I remained in Paris. It was August 1. We were to leave for Differt (a six hours’ journey) on August 3. The journey became absolutely impossible. Father Raffin' and a few other confreres were already in Differt, which had become, or was becoming, the centre of German operations. For a whole week no news reached us. On the following Saturday Father Baffin and his companions arrived in Paris at 2 a.m. They had left Belgium two days before by a small northern line, had walked across the frontier and a good part of the way, and found another small train, a goods train, which the authorities allowed them to use as far as Paris, and finally to Lyons, whither Father Baffin called all his men. This is how I happened to find myself in that crowd the other night. Our confreres from England and Ireland, including the Very Rev. Dean Holley and Very Rev. Dr. Kennedy, arrived on the following day. Sbme of the men have endured real hardships in the course of their travels, others will not easily forget some of the incidents of the journey. (These were mentioned in a letter from the Dean previously printed in the Tahiti.)