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New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 179, 1 September 1876, Page 14

The Church Temporalities Commissioners have notified to the public their intention to sell the residue of the Church estates now vested in them. This announcement is made after the tenants have been offered the right of pre-emption, and the fact is interesting in different points of view. It shows that the commissioners are resolved to put an effectual stop to the complaints which were made on the part of the public as to the delay in disposing of the land, and so facilitating the process of winding up the commission, and realizing the long coveted surplus. It will be seen by the public notice that the lands now offered for sale are situated in the counties of Armagh, Tyrone, Derry, Fermanagh, Louth, and Monaghan. Some lands are to be sold in their offices like the Landed Estates Court, others by auction in different parts of the country; and, as regards the rest, they invite proposals to buy by private contract. This course will afford an advantageous opportunity to landed proprietors having adjacent estates who may desire to extend them, and to local merchants and traders having money to invest in the most attractive and substantial of all securities — " a bit of land." They are offered the estates on comparatively easy terms. If the purchase money exceed £200, only one-half must be paid in cash, and there may be a mortgage by which the rest, with interest at four per cent., can be paid off in ten or twenty half-yearly payments. If the purchase money exceed .£5OO, only one-fourth need be given in cash, and mortgage for the rest, with interest at four per cent., is to be paid off in half-yearly instalments at decennial periods up to 40 years, at the option of the buyer. If the result be to increase the number of small landholders in Ireland, one of the professed objects of the Church Act will be realised, and a larger sum will be added to the surplus from private sales. The ' Propagateur Catholique' publishes the following from a reverend co-respondent in Bernese, Jura. The account it contains is cheering, after the stsrm of persecution that has so long raged in Switzerland: "The religious excitement in Switzerland, and especially in Jura, happily begins to subside. We hope soon to be able to resume our functions, and recover some of our churches. At Asuel there is now but one apostate, Jules Chiquet, besides the school-master, who is a stranger. The Perfect of Porrentruy, who has done us a great deal of harm, has been attacked by a fearful and disgusting malady. The sub-prefect is dead. Many other leaders of the movement have taken flight, others have died rather suddenly, so that our position is considerably improved." A correspondent of the 'London Weekly Register' gives the following account of the pious uses to which the most sacred precincts of the Cathedral of Breda, in Holland, are devoted : — " The nave alone is used by the colonists, to whom it belongs ; and the only use made of the whole choir and transepts, as far as we could discover, was ' to air the linen of the pastor and his family/ as a very extensive line of very clean linen was suspended from one end to the other cf the transepts. There was a very suspicious look, strongly suggesting the idea tliat the ' wash. ' had absolutely taken place in this part of the sacred edifice." Lucknow is at present afflicted with a plague of monkeys. They usually inhabit Aisbagh, at the further end of the town, but have recently taken to making raids on the crowded parts of the city, and if the unlucky persons on whom the monkeys fix their attention do not receive their advances kindly, the intruders do not scruple to use their teeth. Torn clothes, broken furniture, and wounds inflicted by them are of every-day occurrence, and the inhabitants of Lucknow are crying out for some measures to be taken against these mischievous animals. It is customary in Home during the month 'of May that the altars at which the devotions are carried on be at first very simply decorated. Then, from day to day, in proportion as the offerings^P* the faithful increase the number of candles is also increased, ana the altars are decorated with flowers and other gifts, so that at the end of the month brilliant illuminations and splendid decorations excite a holy rivalry in honoring the Holy Mother of God. The Holy Father was the first to conform to this pious custom and he has continued to give a noble example of filial devotion towards Mary. It is to increase this devotion, which is at the same time ; so tender and so necessary to tlie aspirations of our hearts that his i j Holiness has invited all the faithful of Home to prolong the [ I exercises of the month of May this year until the 3rd. of June, in . ! order that durinsr these three complimentary days a solemn triduum ; i of reparation for the outrages committed against the Blessed Virgin } in the city of Eome and throughout the world might be celebrated bl in all the parishes and principal churches. — ' Catholic Review.' t I Claremount, near, Claremorris, formerly the seat of the notorious Dennis Browne, is about to be purchased as the residence of a . J religious community. 3 j Twenty native Christians were killed and three hundred houses :, I burned by rioters at Chung Kuiglu, China, April 21.