Commonwealth Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 19 January 1922, Page 30

Commonwealth Notes

... VICTORIA.. - . A further statement on the Irish position was made by his Grace Dr. Mannix, speaking at the speech night of Xavier College, in the College Hall, on Thursday, December 15, his Grace said: “I had no intention of saying.anything about my own country only for the remarks made by more than one of the previous speakers. Last year I made an attempt to reach my native land, and my regret is greatly tempered now. I hope in the near future it will be possible for me to visit my own country, and that it will be a better place to visit than when I ; was near it last. It fell to my lot, if I was not allowed to go into Ireland, to plead for my own country and the cause of Ireland in many parts of England and Scotland, and though I am represented by many people as being an enemy of England and Englishmen, Scotland and Scotchmen, and Wales and Welshmen, I take this opportunity of saying that I have nothing , but grateful recollections of the time I passed in England and Scotland. , Everywhere I went I found that the cause of Ireland had many warm supporters, and where the people were not sympathetic they were prepared to hear both sides and gave me every opportunity of putting forward my views for what they were worth. It was more like a political tour than the one referred to to-night. The people who prevented me from landing in Ireland did not harm or discredit me in any way, and did not retard the cause of Ireland one inch. “At the present moment,” his Grace continued, “the situation in Ireland is at a critical stage, and the deliberations are such as every Irishman must regard as vital. Whatever may be said or done, this much at least is true, that in the last two years Ireland has made a stride toward freedom longer than*she has made in the past 700 years. This stride might be almost called a jump, for it is a great advance, and it is due to one thing and one thing only. It is due, under Providence, to those brave men who were prepared not merely to talk, but to give up their lives, for Ireland. These men regarded their lives as nothing, and all they held near and dear to them as nothing in their love for their native land. I hope that God will deliver the Irish people, and I believe that if the Irish people are given freedom it will bring about the eternal friendship of Ireland and England. Whatever I have been given credit for, that has been my prayer. I have always . hoped and prayed to bring about friendship between two islands which God placed together on the surface of the sea, but which man put asunder. I hope that when we meet here next year we will not see Ireland in the throes of a crisis, but Ireland erect and independent, and fulfilling and realising the great* purposes that I believe God had in creating Ireland and the Irish people.” (Loud applause.) - Speaking at the Irish Pipers’ entertainment in the Playhouse on Thursday night, 22nd ult, (says the Advocate, Melbourne), his Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne (the Most Rev. Dr. Mannix), said that the Irish Pipers and others, who had devoted themselves to the rendering of Irish music in season and out of season, had done more than any others, perhaps, to keep alive the Irish spirit. If some of those who had appeared on the stage were t<\ enter the Dail Eireann and sing the Irish militant songs - they had sung with such force and fervor that night, hfc , believed that they would convert the whole Dail Eireann. He trusted that God would continue to bless the efforts of the Irish people, who were rightly struggling to be free, and'that the sacrifices they had made would not be thrown away. (Applause.) They knew what he had said in regard to the proposed treaty, but people on the other side of the, world had been misled by those who were endeavoring to cloud the issue. Apparently, the treaty had been received'with open arms by the English people, but it was treated in a rather gingerly fashion by the Irish people., “To my amazement,” his Grace said, “I have been informed by cable that the papers in Ireland have represented mo to have been saying that I regard the peace terms as extremely liberal. You are well aware that I. have said nothing about the peace terms, " and at no time did 1 say they were extremely liberal. There can be no liberality where it is only a question of justice, and still less can

there be liberality when it is a question of less than justice. If ever you hear me speakig of any terms as being extremely liberal, it will be when something is offered to Ireland that will equal her just claim, and equal also the sacrifices that her heroic dead have made. When I was advised of the lying cable that had been sent to the other end of the world, I promptly cabled asking for a repudiation of the statement attributed to me. I trust that the same publicity will be given to the disclaimer as to the original lying statement. My attitude has been, all along, to leave the decision to,the Irish people themselves! There I leave it, and I hope it will be safe in their hands.” (Loud Applause./ %

WEST AUSTRALIA. It is with deep regret (says the Catholic Press , Sydney) that we record the death of the Right Rev. Dr. Wm. Bernard Kelly, Bishop of Geraldton, Western Australia, which took place in St. John of, God’s Hospital, Subiaco, from heart trouble. The deceased prelate was the first bishop of Geraldton, which was made into a diocese in 1898, having hitherto formed part of the diocese of Perth, until that time one of the largest in the world. Born at Newcastle (W.A.) 64 years ago, Dr, Kelly was the second Australian-born priest to be elevated to the episcopate, the first being the Righ Rev. Dr. Dwyer, Bishop of Maitland. He received his elementary education at Perth, and, evincing a vocation for the priesthood, he went, at the age of 18, to Ireland, where he studied at Wexford College, afterwards passing to All Hallows, Dublin, where he was ordained in 1883. Returning to Perth, tho young priest was given the pastoral charge of his native town. For four years he labored there, and, in 1887, on the appointment of Dr. O’Reilly to the See of Port Augusta, he was removed to Perth to take charge of the West Australian Record, which journal Dr. O’Reilly had founded, and had controlled for a number of years. For 10 years Dr. Kelly conducted the Record. In 1897 Dr. Kelly was deputed by Bishop Gibney to undertake a missionary tour of the north-west. This meant a journey of 2000 miles along the coast, where settlements were few and far between.' In traversing the great empty —which were later to form a large slice of his new diocese—he was often obliged to sleep in the open, with the saddle of his horse for a pillow. The experience he then gained of bush life proved useful to him in later years, when, as Bishop, he travelled the sparsely-settled parts of his extensive diocese, sleeping out, grooming his horse, and catering for his own wants like an ordinary bushman. Dr. Kelly was a fine type of Australian manhood, six feet in height, proportionately built, with a tanned and weather-beaten face sugestive of the simple, out-door life he led. Dr. Kelly’s next appointment was to Kalgoorlie and Boulder City, and it was while there that he received the call to the new diocese of Geraldtona territory covering 700,000 square miles, extending from Geraldton eastwards to the South Australian border, and including all the country to the northward. ‘Dr. Kelly’s consecration took place in St. Francis Xavier’s Cathedral, Adelaide, on August 14, 1898, The deceased prelate greatly interested himself . in the mission for the Christianising of the aborigines of the vicariate, which was founded in 1890 at Beagle Bay. For 10 years the mission was in the charge of the monks of La Trxippe. When, however, Dr. Kelly was in Rome, he secured the services of the Pallatine . Fathers—-otherwise known as the Fathers of the Pious Society of Missionsfor the continuance of the work which the Trappists were obliged to leave. The Aborigines Mission made satisfactory progress, and there are now flourishing branches at Broome and Disaster Bay. A Requiem Mass was celebrated at Perth Cathedral, and the remains of the dead prelate laid to rest at Geraldton.