COMMONWEALTH NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, 23 October 1919, Page 30

COMMONWEALTH NOTES

• NEW SOUTH WALES. - Most Rev. Dr. Barry, Coadjutor-Bishop of Hobart, preached the consecration sermon at St. Carthage's Cathedral ceremonies, Lismore. In the course of his beautiful discourse, he referred to the new spirit in Ireland as follows: —"Under the mysterious, mystic influence that at stated periods searches the soul of a nation, and calls to the imagination of her people, a new spirit is abroad in Ireland to-day. Pier youth is being renewed, her activities awakened, her energies vitalised. The spirit of springtime breathes upon her with all its transforming influences, rendering her young, strong, buoyant, self-confi-dent, aggressive. Whence this change, this rejuvenation ? Are we to seek for its cause outside her own shores ? Have some of her gifted sons come back from the new world to formulate new plans, to teach new methods, and seek new ideas ? No ! The change is to be found in the spirit of Ireland herself." VICTORIA. The successful mission to returned soldiers, which opened in St. Patrick's Cathedral on Sunday evening, September 21, was continued every evening till Sunday, September 28. There was a very large attendance of the returned men, notably on the Friday night. From the initial stages of the mission, large numbers approached the Sacraments of Penance and the Blessed Eucharist. The result must be very gratifying to his Grace the Archbishop and the Very Rev. Father Lockington, S.J., who gave the exercises of the mission. The concluding exercises of the mission were given on Sunday night, September 28, when there was a great assemblage of returned soldiers. After the Rosary given by his Grace the Archbishop, Father Lockington, S.J., congratulated the men on the whole-hearted manner in winch they attended the mission, and recommended them to attend the quarterly retreats at Xavier College. He preached on the Church and the Peace of Nations, taking as his text: "Honor all men; love the brotherhood; fear God; honor the King." (1 Peter ii., 17.) .' The first week in November has been selected for the holding of the first Australasian-Irish Race Convention in Melbourne. It is expected that the number of .delegates attending will be over a thousand, including representatives from New Zealand. The Archbishops and Bishops of both Australia and New Zealand are being invited, and it is to be hoped that they will all find it convenient to attend. Perhaps by then the alleged "patriotic" fervor which denied all mention of the true state of affairs in Ireland in our daily press will have so far disappeared as to allow the people of Australia some inkling at least of what will be said at this convention. With regard to the opinions of people dependent on the daily press for information re .Ireland, the Archbishop is reported to have made the following remarks at the garden fete at Brighton recently:—"Just now I am not going to speak of the disappointment that you and I feel very bitterly, the failure of the Peace Conference to see that justice is done to Ireland. We hope to have an Irish Convention in Melbourne soon. (Cheers.) It will, I hope, represent tho Irish race of Australia, and that will be the place, for Irishmen to speak their minds ; about Ireland. I will just say one thing which needs saying at the moment, and then I must not trespass on you longer. You read press cables about crime in Ireland. For a purpose, you, are asked to ; believe that there is no such thing as safety for life or property in Ireland. Now, I have no word of defence for crime or violence in Ireland or anywhere else. What I say, therefore, will not be misunderstood. In a newspaper just come by the last mail I read that an English

member in the House ,of P Commons asked recently what action the Government proposed to take in view of a murder, alleged to be political, that - had - been perpetrated in Ireland some time before. One of the few Irish ! members, without Raiting for the Minister's reply, asked what action the Government proposed to take in view of the 27 murders which had taken place in England in the previous month. The Minister's reply to the Irish member was that there was no parity between the two cases—that the murders in England were of quite a different character. That luminous English reply also accounts -. for the tact that the one deplorable murder in Ireland was. cabled, out to Australia, but that you would never, have heard of the 27 deplorable murders in England if I had not told you. Take another fact. An Irish paper that reached me this week tells of the experience of the Irish judges. In Co. Monaghan, the judge said the county was in a quiet condition"; in Co. Leitrim, another judge said the county was "satisfactory"; another said that Co. Louth was not unsatisfactory"; in Dublin City, the judge said that crime was "much less than the average for many years"; while the judge for Dublin Co. received white gloves for the fifth time in two years. (Cheers.) Perhaps I should explain that in Ireland the judge is presented with a pair of white gloves when there is no criminal case to go before him. I do not know if there be a similar custom here. But if there be, then I venture to say that, though Australia is a law-abiding country on the whole, still the price of white gloves is not likely to soar very high by reason of the demand for white gloves: tor idle judges. And yet, Australian papers would convey to unwary readers that Ireland is steeped in crime, instead; of England or Australia. Is it any wonder that I often speak of Ireland There are so many ready to tell, or suggest, lies about that country that there ought to be room for one man to tell the truth." QUEENSLAND. Few men in the community have their time more crowded with work or their minds more burdened with care than our own Archbishop (says the Catholic Advo-) cute). For over seven years now, without a break for even a brief holiday, he has carried on the work of the archdiocese, which has entailed immense mental and physical exertion. His journeyings alone have amounted to tens of thousands of miles. The physical strain is great, but the mental activity of his Grace has been truly remarkable. It is no exaggeration to say that he has transformed the whole archdiocese, and if to-day no city in the Australian Commonwealth is materially better provided than is Brisbane, this happy position is owing in great measure to the Archbishdp's keen foresight in perceiving tho needs of the Church and courage in undertaking to supply them. The choice building sites of Brisbane to-day are in the Church's possession just as they were in the Brisbane of Bishop O'Quinn's time, and most of the sites secured by his Grace have been crowned with handsome buildings that will last for ages ~as a testimony of the strength of the Catholic Faith in Queensland in the 20th century. During his recent farewell visit to Dunedin, the Very Rev. P. M. Lynch, C.SS.R., in- instancing in the course of one of his addresses the phenomenal progress of the Catholic Church in Queensland since the consecration of his Grace Archbishop Duhig, said that 23 more Masses had been now added to the already large number of Sunday Masses celebrated in the various churches of the city of Brisbane, with large congregations on each occasion. Churches, colleges, convents, hospitals, and schools were springing up all over the archdiocese, like mushrooms. Speaking of Ipswich, an important town in Queensland, of which Right Rev. Mgr. Byrne is pastor, Father Lynch said that during a recent mission there the average attendance at the exercises was 1600; even 2000 being present on some occasions. Continuing, Father Lynch said that during the same two weeks, the Nonconformist bodies there had an united evangelistic mission, and the best attendance night was on the occasion of a special sermon being delivered on the "Wowser," when the attendance recorded was 43. It will be thus seen, concluded the eloquent Redemptorist, that the 1 old Church holds its own, ,; •'