Intercolonial

New Zealand Tablet, 11 May 1916, Page 43

Intercolonial

The Rev. John Barry,the respected pastor of Balaclava, met with a most generous response in the parishes of Nuraurkah and Yarrawonga. The collection for the Catholic College within the University of Melbourne in each of these parishes reached nearly £llOO, or a total of close on £2200.

His Grace the Archbishop of Sydney has made the following pastors irremovable rectors:—The Very Rev. Father Peter Byrne, P.P. (Strathheld), Very Rev. Dr. H. McDermott (Leichhardt), Rev. Father Richard Collender (Surry Hills), Rev. Father James Furlong (Enmore), Rev. Father Richard O’Regan (Redfern), Rev. Father J. J. O’Driscoll (Kogarah).

By last mail his Grace received a letter from Father Fahey, D. 5.0., who has rejoined the famous 11th Battalion. He is in the best of form, and sends kindly greetings to his many friends (says the 1F..4. Recordi. In the course of an interesting epistle, Father Fahey says:—‘l have to thank your Grace for the congratulatory cable sent on behalf of yourself and the priests while 1 was in Ireland! also had one which I value very much from General Birdwood, the brave and capable little General whom all 'Australians love.’

The annual conference of the Catholic Federation (says the Catholic Press ) was opened in the Southern Cross Hall on Easter Monday night, in the presence of his Excellency the Apostolic Delegate, his Grace the Archbishop of Sydney, and a large number of delegates from the various country centres. The president, after welcoming the Apostolic Delegate and the Archbishop of Sydney, made a short statement of the work done during the past year, and outlined the programme for the coming year. To organise and inspire 264 branches in all parts of the State meant continuous and vigorous work, he said. Members of the executive addressed 239 general meetings and eight public meetings, and most of these meetings were fully reported in the local papers. This amount of work would have been impossible if we had not at command a staff of capable speakers, the fruit of our fine colleges, ready to sacrifice their time in the cause of justice.

Rev. Father E. Pigot, S.J., has been conducting experiments recently with a view' to devising some means for the photographing of the earth’s motion. At Riverview College the other day, Father Pigot gave an interesting demonstration relating to the measurement of the earth's rotation in the presence of a small gathering, which included Mr. Nangle, F.R.A.S., Director of Technical Education Professor Vonwiller, Professor of Physics, Sydney University; Mr. L. F. Heydon, M.L.C.; and Mr. G. H. Halligan, F.G.S. On the principle that a pendulum set swinging from north to south will gradually change its direction in relation to those points of the compass, owing to the rotation of the earth, Father Pigot has been experimenting with a 45ft pendulum at Riverview', and recently, by permission of the Lord Mayor, with an 85ft pendulum at the Queen Victoria Markets. He has placed in the specially-constructed ball of the pendulum accumulator cells a small electric lamp, which shines through a lense in the bottom of the ball, striking a sheet of sensitised paper spread beneath the pendulum. An electricallytimed exposure takes place every five minutes, clearly tracing the movement of the earth on which the paper rests as compared with the plane on which the pendulum swings. Catholic Press.