COMMONWEALTH NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, 13 May 1920, Page 30

COMMONWEALTH NOTES

'j,/' k NEW SOUTH WALES. " On the occasion recently" of the" blessing of additions to. the Christian Brothers’. . High School, Lewisham, Sydney, - the Very . Rev. M. J. O’Reilly, O.M. (Rector of St. John A College within the University), who officiated, said in the course of his . address: “We are living Under a ■ Hunnish Government, . not, the one represented here . by our young friend the Attorney-General, but the one that has its seat in Melbourne. I am not speaking at random, but with full deliberation, and with the knowledge that we are still under the War Precautions Act. ... Rev'. -Father Jerger, 0.P., has been sent back to Hbldsworthy camp. People .talk about the Huns in Germany; but we hare Brit-Huns in Australia .that would make the German Huns blush ■ with ; shame. Curing his internment. Father Jerger did hot receive the treatment of a priest, but was treated as a felonand an untried felon at that. It is well known that many Catholics died at Holdsworthy crying for a priest, and though a priest was there, he was not allowed to attend them. Similar treatment was meted out to other priests as prisoners of war. Men of culture when being brought from Colombo were exposed to the greatest indignities, and given the most disgusting tasks to perform on board ship. But,” added Father O’Reilly, “there is no use whining. We deserve what" we get. We put the Government in.” Dealing with the state of affairs in Ireland, Father O’Reilly' said the Germans never did anything in Belgium as cruel as the British are doing in Ireland. The military caste in Ireland was more brutal than ever in Prussia. What with tanks, aeroplanes, raids, and so forth, it seemed, to free Australians, a travesty on the principles we went to war to vindicate. Day after day, lies-deliberate —are beng sent out for consumption in Australia, about the. “dreadful atrocities” and “awful crimes” being committed in Ireland, and he would be an unworthy Irishman who would not attempt to answer the calumnies appearing every morning in our daily press, They also hear it stated that the Irish people'should settle . the Irish question themselves. That is another piece of British hypocrisy. Every man and woman of Irish blood has a right to voice his or her opinion. The Pommy Hemid and the Pommy Telegraph did not voice the opinions of Australians, but the men who fought for liberty in foreign —those 14 Victoria Cross heroes, four, of whom were non-Catholics, and those 10,000 returned soldiers who surrounded that greatest champion of Australian democracy, Archbishop Mannix, when he took the salute at- the greatest demonstration ever seen in Australia, and who paid a tribute to the man who was most" maligned and slandered —they spoke for Australia when they sent their message asking for freedom for Ireland. • • - In conclusion, Father O’Reilly paid a tribute to the -work of the. Christian Brothers in the cause of education. As., a member of the Bursaries Board, he had abundant opportunities of knowing tho character of the education imparted by the Christian Brothers, and there was nothing superior in Australia. He hoped . when they had the. opportunity they would recognise the sacrifices the Brothers were making on behalf of their boys. . Though the tax on the parents was great, and with free public high schools, the Catholic people who sent their boys to the Brothers’ schools knew that any change would be for the worse. . . • v VICTORIA. His Grace the Archbishop of Adelaide (the Most Rev. Dr. Spence, 0.P.), his Grace the Coadjutor-Archbishop of Hobart (the Most - Rev. Dr. Barry), his Lordship the Bishop of Armidale (the Right Rev. Dr. O’Connor), and his Lordship the Bishop of Wilcannia-Forbes (the Right Rev. Dr. Hayden) are passengers on the steamer Orontes for-. Europe. They are making their ad limina visit to his Holiness the Pope, to report on the state of their dioceses.- ” * . ' In welcoming his Grace Archbishop Mannix to officiate at the laying of the foundation stone of a new- churchschool, at Eden Park, " Middle Brighton, t in - the' Elsternwick parish, : of which he is pastor, the Rev. Father Gough said; —On- behalf of priests and people, he desired, to warmly -welcome his . Grace the Archbishop, whose 'presence at-, any function ; never 'failed to attract a " large crowd. -Hie-Grace, despite his big list of f engagements, found time to come to them, and they were delighted to give him a cead mile, failte from their inmost hearts. Very shortly, his Grace would bo leaving Australia on a visit'to the old countries, and they wished - him a pleasant voyage and a safe return to Australia. Of his Grace it

could truly be: said .’ that he not [ i only came and saw Australia, But 7 he bad also fought and conquered. The « good wishes of all the people ’ would accompany his Grace during his absence from Australia,. The Archbishop | had r' worked very hard; during. the last seven years in Australia, ' and a holiday would do him good. V : He was afraid, -however, that it would not be a holiday for- his Grace-in the proper sense of the. term. In the" establishment of Neirtman College his Grace had accomplished a -mighty work, and no other could have succeeded as he had in -bringing prelates and others from all parts of Australia ■ and ‘ New Zealand to the great Irish-Race Convention in Melbourne. The great success of St. Patrick’s Day demonstration; was largely attributable to his Grace, who was : acclaimed outside Parliament .House, on the festival: of St.; r Patrick, by the V.C.’s, 10,000 soldiers,., thousands of - school children, and members of the various Catholic bodies. , His Grace had- received a < J royal and loyal salute from the soldiers and Catholic^ people. »In acknowledging the references made to him (the Archbishop) by Father Gough, his Grace said: —I remember an occasion on which the Argus — like to call it the Orange organ-was particularly bitter in its attacks upon me. ~ The result was that a Melbourne gentleman, as a practical protest, sent me £IOOO to put to any purpose" that I might select.- That, of course, was very good. But when the Age newspaper devoted a leading article recently to my departure, . and said that the Catholic body shouldheartily rejoice at my going—(laughter) —the result 1 was still more astonishing, for immediately after . came to me the offer of £50,000 by way of a presentation and of an answer to the Ape. (Cheers.) I think it right to acknowledge my obligations to these leaders of public ‘opinion," the Melbourne morning papers, on the eve of my departure. ’ QUEENSLAND.’ ■ ’ ‘ “ Speaking on Easter Sunday at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Brisbane, his Grace Archbishop Duhig said that by the will of the late Archbishop, he, with other gentlemen, had been appointed co-trustee of the estate. It was provided in . the will that £SOOO . be. :set/aside for the completion of the Cathedral. That had been done, and with accumulated interest amounted now to £6OOO, which, with subscriptions in hand, totalled about £7OOO. The total cost of the plan would be something between £14,000 and £15,000. It was necessary to complete the Cathedral, but its completion would not interfere .with the- grander undertaking of building a magnificent Cathedral some few years hence, worthy in every way of this great city of Brisbane: Brisbane was a great city, and had a wonderful future before it. The present Cathedral, even when the extensions were completed, - would not -be adequate for their requirements. For instance, there was no room . for processions and the carrying out in its entirety of the splendid ritual which the Church prescribed for special occasions. It had been found necessary in the. past to curtail the ceremonies, which detracted considerably from their, instructional value and religious effect. The plans of the proposed extensions were completed, and the foundation stone would be laid by the Apostolic Delegate: next July, and the blessing and opening ceremony would take place on his (the Archbishop’s) "return from Rome, whither ho was going next year. •- TASMANIA. ?" . "?? In expressing regret at an unfortunate error which appeared in its columns wherein it was stated that Kimberley had not been visited for 74 years, the Catholic Press in a recent issue says:“That is not the case, as . his Grace the Archbishop of Hobart (Most Rev. Dr. Delany) has frequently visited the parish church 4of cDeloralne, which is the parish church of Kimberley. The fact is that, until his health broke down, no Bishop worked harder, under the trying circumstances of travel and - lodgings, than Archbishop Delany did in carefully visiting the parishes of his diocese. A Deloraine correspondent writes; ‘There is no parish of Kimberley; there is neither a town nor a village of that name. It is a small railway siding. Half a dozen families live around,- _ They belong 4tdVthe parish.; of Deloraine,, and . tl.iat.Jwas angularly- jvisited by the Archbishop. . ,He - was ." in .November, He broke down, at the, close of a- continuous - visitation from the end of January until Holy Week, along the north coast and west coast in 1917. While awaiting a Coadjutor, four parishes, were visited’ early in :1918—two By-the - Bishop of Sandhurst, and two,-,by, the;Archbishop of Sydney, and in September, 1918, Archbishopi Delany,. though in .dangerous health, did Cygnet and Franklin parishes' himself.’ ” ;