Interprovincial

New Zealand Tablet, 7 December 1916, Page 56

Interprovincial

, Major T. M. Mclnerney, C.M.G. (unattached list), Provost-Marshal for the Victorian Military’ District, has been gazetted honorary lieutenant-colonel. The Uozettr. notice states that the promotion is made for meritorious service in Australia during the war. He is a brother of Dr. T. P. Mclnerney, warden of th& Melbourne University. ' His Lordship, the Right Rev. Dr. Dwyer, Bishop of 'Maitland, when preaching at St. John’s Cathedral on All Saints’ Day, reminded the parishioners that it was on that day fifty years ago their late Bishop, Dr. Murray, arrived at the Cathedral, and that the Catholics and diocese had a lot to be thankful for during these years. The late Bishop Murray was consecrated in Dublin on November 14, 1865, and died on July 9, 19D0. ' ,

The golden jubilee of the arrival of the Presentation nuns in Tasmania was celebrated on November 1, at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Hobart, with Solemn High Mass. The occasional sermon was preached by the Right Rev. Monsignor Gilleran, V.G., who outlined the history of the Order. Of the devoted band of Presentation nuns who landed in Tasmania fifty years ago, only one, Sister Evangelist, is to-day in the land of the living. Her pioneer companions. Sisters Mary Xavier Murphy, Stanislaus O’Brien, Regis Murphy, wavier Beechinor, Joseph Russell, Ignatius Murphy, Benign Keller, Evangelist Cronin, and Martha, all hailed from Ireland.

The present industrial stress was referred to by Archbishop Kelly last. Sunday afternoon at Woolwich, N.S.W. ' You see,’ he said, ‘ what strength the democratic Government has—none at all. It must have the people at its back ; otherwise it cannot carry out its duties. The first duty, of the members of any society is the observance of the law.’ The Archbishop went on to say that if they did not keep a careful watch, their unions would become tyrants. Let them have men of sound principles at the head of their unions otherwise they would become like a wild beast seeking its own destruction. Let them avoid any desire to push matters to an extreme, for no one would suffer more than the wage earners and their families.

His Grace Archbishop Carr, Chaplain-General for the Catholic Church in Australia, has received flattering testimonies regarding the valuable services rendered as military chaplains to the A.I.F. by Rev. Father Hearn, S.J., during his two years of service at the front, as well as in the hospitals in Egypt. Lieutenant-Colonel Bennett placed on record the fact that Father Hearn had performed magnificent service, and had been recommended for the D.S.O. ; and -Lieutenant-Colonel Griffiths, A.A.G. and A.1.F., wrote: ‘On parting with Father Hearn, General Bird wood wishes to express the regret of all ranks of the A.I.F. in losing such a friend as they have had in him during the whole period the A.I.F. has been at the front.’.

Rev. Father J. F. McCarthy, of St. Brigid’s, Red Hill, Brisbane, whose eloquence was of - considerable value in the wav of securing recruits for the Queensland committee, has a trenchant criticism in the Daily Standard, Brisbane, of the unscrupulous and base methods adopted by a bigoted section in Melbourne in posting thousands of documents through Queensland in which it was alleged that the Catholic community had been ordered to vote ‘ No ’ on the recent Referendum by the ecclesiastical authorities. ‘ Never in my time,’ writes Father McCarthy, ‘ even once, was I approached officially or unofficially by an Archbishop or any representative of his, by any ecclesiastical authority, with regard to my views on any question of political interest.’ Father, McCarthy thus answers for the whole of the priesthood and Catholics of the Commonwealth.