People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 15 July 1915, Page 41

People We Hear About

Sir Timothy Coghlan' 1.5.0., who recently retired from the Agent-Generalship of New. South Wales in London, has been succeeded by the Hon. B. R. Wise, K.C. Sir Timothy Coghlan has accepted the Chairmanship of the War. Office Trade Committee. This 4 important appointment is honorary. He is a Catholic of Irish descent, and was at one time connected with the H.A.C.B. Society in N7S.W. Mr. William Lennon, Queensland’s Minister for Agriculture, who is a Catholic, was born in Dublin in 1849. He was for a time in the Mines Department, Victoria, and in 1874 joined the Bank of Australasia in Melbourne. When he severed his connection with the bank in 1885, he occupied the position of subinspector in Sydney. In 1886 he became manager of the business of Burns, Philp,. and Co., in Townsville, from which he retired ten years later to start on his own account as merchant and auctioneer. Captain and Adjutant Geo. E. Weatherhead, son of the late Anglican minister, Canon Weatherhead, Seacombe, Cheshire, who has been killed at the front, was, writes ‘ Ulster Scot,’ a great-grandson, through his mother, of the late Matthew Steele, the kindly old Protestant of Hannahstown, near Belfast, mentioned by the late Father Laverty in his book on the diocese of Down and Connor. In the troublous times of ’9B the old man allowed his Catholic neighbors to have Mass celebrated in a valley on a part of his estate, and used to warn them in case of danger by blowing a horn. -He also sheltered and fed hunted priests in his hay loft. Of the eight Royal Knights of the Garter now 1 degraded ’ only one, the aged Emperor of AustriaHungary, is not directly and closely related by blood or marriage to King George V. (says the Glasgow Observer). The German Kaiser is the King’s first cousin. King William of Wurtemburg is related to the British Royal Family through his marriage with Princess Marie of Waldeck-Pyrmont, who was the sister-in-law of the late Duke of Albany. Prince Henry of Prussia is the Kaiser’s brother, and is, therefore, a grandson of the late Queen Victoria. The Grand Duke of Hesse is a first cousin of King George and a -brother-in-law of the Czar and of Prince Henry of Prussia. . Mr. Asquith’s notable record of having been Prime Minister without a break for a longer period than any ’other statesman since the Reform Act, renders it of interest to mention that the two oldest members of the Government are the two Irish Ministers who sit in the House of Commons. Mr. T. W. Russell is the oldest member of the Government. lie is now in his 75th year, and he has only secured the distinction of seniority in the ranks of the Ministry since the war broke out, as Lord Morley, who then resigned from the Cabinet, will be 77 years old on Christmas Eve. Next in age to Mr. Russell is Mr. Birrell, who in his 66th year. Lord Kitchener comes third. lie was 65 in June. Mr. Asquith is comparatively a junior amongst them, as he will not be 63 Until September. The venerable Cardinal of Baltimore has his name not writ in the water on the annals of history (says the Catholic Record). We are well within the bounds of propriety when we say that no American Churchman has rendered such services to the faith, and has exercised such compelling influence over thousands not of his creed as Cardinal Gibbons. Gentle always with the strength of a virile manhood, knowing when to speak and when to be silent, clear-visioned as to the needs of the age, and clad as with a garment with the kindness that disarms suspicion and wins hearts, he goes his way a sower of infinite seed. He may be remembered by his books; but his enduring monument is, in our opinion, his success in convincing his fellow-citizens that the Church encourages the legitimate aspirations of the age and blesses' any thing that can be conducive to the good of the world. I