Intercolonial

New Zealand Tablet, 18 May 1916, Page 47

Intercolonial

At the conferring of degrees on April 14 by the University of Tasmania, the degree of Bachelor of Laws was conferred on the Rev. Bro. P. S. Mulkerns, 8.A., who received, in addition, the Backhouse- prize for having shown marked proficiency in his course.

News has been received in Sydney by cable from dhe British War Office that Lieutenants Bryan and JGilbert Hughes, of the Bth Battalion of the Royal T)ublin Fusiliers, sons of the late Mr. John Hughes, M.L.C., of ' Rockleigh Grange/ North Sydney, were wounded in action in France on April 27. The friends of the Redemptorist Fathers (says the Adelaide Southern Cross) will regret to hear of the death of one of their Fathers, the Rev. John Magnier, C.SS.R., who died recently at Manila in his 33rd year. The deceased Father, who served on the Australian

mission, and gave his last Victorian mission at Northcote, was a native of Cork.

The Very Rev. W. J. Lockington, S.J., has been appointed rector of St. Patrick's College, East Melbourne. He is succeeded at St. Ignatius', Richmond, as Superior by the Rev. Joseph Brennan, S.J., of Xavier College, Kew, professorial staff. Father Lockington spent some years in Ireland, where he was engaged in educational and -.missionary work. He was master of novices at the Jesuit Novitiate, Ireland. He paid two visits to America to study educational and social questions and to lecture on the drink question. He has only been three years in Australia, and has given a number of lectures on religious, social, patriotic and educational problems.

The first visit of his Excellency the Apostolic Delegate to Bathurst was made on Saturday, April 23, and was the occasion of great rejoicings on the part of the Catholics of the city. His Excellency was presented with addresses'in the Cathedral from the Bishop, priests and people of the diocese, and also from the A.H.C. Guild and the Hibernian Society. In the course of his reply, his Excellency remarked that the fact that his visit coincided with the golden jubilee of the Church in Bathurst, gave him exceptional pleasure, and there was no closing one's eyes to the phenomenal progress which had characterised the work of the Catholic diocese of Bathurst during the past -century. On Sunday the Cathedral was crowded to the doors, when his Excellency presided at Pontifical High Mass. In the afternoon his Excellency blessed and opened the. new orphanage at Holmwood, and on Monday morning he presided at High Mass in the Cathedral in connection with the golden jubilee of the Sisters of Mercy, and later on was tendered a civic reception by the Mayor.

Speaking at the obsequies of the Rev. Mother Xavier at St. James's, Elsternwick, his Grace Archbishop Mannix (says the Melbourne Tribune) referred to the constantly recurring succession of nuns that is ever taking place in our convents, not alone in Australia, but all over the Catholic world. This wonderful succession, said his Grace, seemed to him a miracle of the highest order. He often thanked God for this wonderful event on which the welfare of the Church so largely depended. There was nothing in nature to explain the succession of our nuns. It was clearly the grace of God that touched the souls of the young and innocent, and urged them to devote their lives to God. Had it been the moving of the old or of those for whom life had not such attractions, the miracle would not be so manifest. But God touched the young heart and gave the nun His holy work to do. She taught the Jiittle children and trained their souls for God. She tfbecame a nun not without long preparation and much meditation and deliberation on what she was about to do. If this dedication of the young heart to God happened but once, it would be a wonderful thing. But it happened not alone in one country, but in every part of the world. It was clearly a miraculous event.