COMMONWEALTH NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, 17 March 1921, Page 30

COMMONWEALTH NOTES

VICTORIA. Recent examination successes achieved by St. Kevin’s Christian Brothers’ College, Melbourne, for the University Leaving Certificate, include 43 complete passes, of which 12 were first-class honors 27 secondclass honors, and 32 third-class honors. There were three honors distinctions unclassified. In addition to the above three exhibitions were gained to which prizes by the University were attached for first place in senior honors. Included in the subjects for these exhibitions were Geometry, Trigonometry, and Geography. This magnificent achievement puts St. Kevin’s in the first rank of the public schools of Victoria. Speaking at the reception given to him on his return recently from Rome and the Homeland, his Lordship Dr. McCarthy, of Sandhurst, referring to the reign of terror in Ireland and.the bad government of the country, said:—“lf the truth of the present situation in Ireland were adequately known, I at least am of opinion that the present reign of terror in the country of my birth would be swept away by the fury of the outraged public opinion of the great honest masses of the people of Great Britain and of her powerful Dominions. The spirit of the majority of the Irish people is unbroken, and their demand is—“lreland a Nation.” I will not harry your feelings with a recital of atrocities and almost innumerable acts of “frightfulness” which terrify and torture women and children, but I say that if the statesmanship shown in the case of the Boer Republics was exercised in behalf of Ireland, and if, instead of a paltry measure of Home Rule befitting a Crown Colony, an Act of Dominion Homo Rule, such as New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and Australia enjoy, were, without conditions placed on the Statute Book, the present trouble would be near solution, and the two countries would live in harmony and good-will.”

NEW SOUTH WALES. The Irish Self-Determination League of Australia was launched in the presence of, a vast and tlmult-uously-enthusiastic gathering at the Hippodrome on Saturday evening, February 26. Mr. Neal Collins (president) occupied the chair, and the members of the provisional executive were on the platform. By the Sonoma, which reached Sydney the other week, there arrived his Grace the Coadjutor-Archbishop of Hobart, Most Rev. Dr. Barry, and his Lordship the Bishop of Wilcannia-Forbes, Right Rev. Dr. W. Hayden. Chatting with a representative of the Catholic Press, his Lordship Dr. Hayden said; • “I spent about five months in Ireland. At the time of our arrival there things were fairly quiet, but the conditions were much worse before we left. It is> really impossible to describe the condition of affairs in Ireland today. We came face to face with burned, down towns, burned creameries, and homeless victims of the “Black-and-Tans.” The worst feature of the situation is the lies told by Ministers of the Crown in the House of Parliament — unblemished lies. They would deny anything. Things were so bad in Ireland .that one of those “Black-and-Tans” can shoot a man, or burn down a house, or rob a store, and there seems to be no one to ask him why he did it. The military hold inquiries, but they inquire only into their own deeds. You can imagine the result. In conclusion, his Lordship said: “Dr. Mannix is in excellent health, and was never in better spirits. He has all the workers of England at his feet, and all the Irish in America at his back, and everywhere he has legions of friends.”. Under the heading “Triumph of Catholic Schools in New South Wales,” the Catholic Press writes: Any scheme of education, therefore, which would aim simply and solely at the passing of examinations, and the gaining of places in the honor lists, must, judged by the above standard, be found wanting; but it is also true that one may include the lower in the higher, and while hitching their waggons to a star may yet bring very saleable goods to a good market. The num- ’ -W tJiVV i. I ■■ * iVAif

ber of the boys,and girls who have distinguished themselves this year compares very favorably with those from other schools, while the places gained in honors show even more clearly what excellent .and thorough work is being done by our teachers. ' What is the blue ribbon of the Leaving Certificate? A "double first" in Latin and Greek. Then the blue ribbon is ours, for Anthony McCarthy, of the Redemptorist College, St. Clement's, Galong, has won the first place in the first class in both subjects. From this college two students distinguished themselves. Anthony McCarthy got first place in the State in Latin and first place in Greek, and first-class honors in English. James Green won •honors in three subjects. We are glad to see that those who are preparing for the missionary life in Australia, and to whom the people will later look up for leadership, are already distinguishing themselves among those who are going m for the worldly professions.. Ninety places in all in the class lists were filled by our pupils, and they gained one-fourth of the places in Latin, one-half of the firstclass m Greek, practically one-fourth of those in French ; they took the second place in history, while the coveted first place in mathematics was almost theirs When we bear in mind that barely one thousand candidates passed, we shall see that our percentage is more than creditable, especially when it is remembered that success at examinations is not, and cannot be, our chief aim. Surely, then, the passes, the places, the exhibitions, are but a few of the things that are to be added to those who seek first "the Kingdom of God and His justice."

QUEENSLAND. In his address at the opening of the new Samaritan Convent at Oakley recently, his Grace Archbishop Dnhig, referring to the progress which Catholic education was making in Queensland, stated that in seven years no less than 30 new schools had been opened, and into these schools had been received 4000 pupils. In Brisbane alone they were educating between 14 000 and 0,000 children. Within the last seven years they had got from the south 100 nuns to assist in carrying on the work of education and charity. There was, continued his Grace, no work of greater importance than the education of the young, so that there was no work that repaid the Church or State better than the work ot educating the future generations. The children of to-day would be the men and women of tomorrow, and it was due to them that they should prepare them for the great work they had before them as citizens of Queensland, and as members of the Church 0 • God * They must not only prepare them for the C 'f' and religious life, but also prepare them for the alter life to which they would return one day to their 1 ather s house, the Kingdom of Heaven.