DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 46, 16 November 1899, Page 5

DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND.

(From our own correspondent.) November 9. A collection is now going on in the Cathedral Pariah with the object of reducing the presbytery debt. The concert recently given by the pupils of St. Patrick's Convent schools, under the able management of the Sisters of Mercy, was. I am pleased to relate, a financial success. Rev. Bro. John, Provincial of the Marist Order in Australasia, arrived from Sydney by the Waihora last Monday. Brother John is making his annual visit to the houses of the Order throughout the Colony. The annual examination of our city schools by Mr. Gerald Peacocke is now in progress. During the last few days the pupils of St. Patrick's Convent Schools have been put through their examination with, I am told, satisfactory results. The monthly procession took place in the Cathedral last Sunday evening. Dean O'Reilly preached a very fine sermon upon the great Catholic duty of praying for the repose of the souls of tne dead. There was a very large congregation. The Rev. Father Gillan, assisted by the Rev. Fathers Golden and Buckley, commenced at the church of St. Francis de Sales, Devonport, last evening, a week's mission. Mass and instruction are to be given every morning, and Rosary and sermon every evening. The large and beautifully stained glass window behind the grand altar of St. Benedict's Church was, on last Saturday morning, during a heavy westerly gale, blown from its place, the fragments filling the sanctuary. Rev. Father Darby was saying Mass at the time, and was compelled to finish the ceremony at one of the side altars The concert last Friday evening in St. Benedict's Hall, in aid of the funds of the parochial Christmas Fair was most successful. The hall was filled, and the performers acquitted themselves most creditably. The details were arranged by Rev. Father Darby, Miss Coffey, and Messrs. Oallaghan, Knott, Corbett, and Stead, to whom every credit is due. A most disquieting rumour was circulated last week to the effect that our dear Bishop had died in London, and that a cablegram announcing it had arrived in the city. Some mischievous person actually telephoned this news to the Bishop's Palace at Ponsonby. It is much a matter for regret that punishment cannot be meted out to those who circulate such false and alarming news. At the Sacred Heart Church, Ponsonby, on last Sunday, the choir performed very creditably Weber's Mass in G. The choir was assisted by Miss Annie O'Sullivan and Miss Hickling, of Pollard's Opera Company. These two ladies divided between them the soprano solos. During the offertory Miss O'Sullivan, with flute obligato, gang Gounod's 'Aye Maria.' At Vespers Miss Hickling also contributed a solo. Mr. T. H. Bosworth ably conducted the choir. The arrival of William of Orange in Torbay, November 5, 1688, was commemorated by a handful of Orangemen in yellow sashes, who paraded the streets last Sunday evening in the twilight, and halted at a conventicle wherein the Grand-Master, a parson, harangued them. Here we have the spectacle of Bounding the praises and honouring the Dutchman, while in another corner of the globe they are engaged decimating him with Lyddite shells and Maxims. So far the Catholics of Auckland city have not, collectively speaking, moved a little finger upon the question of education, though the political combat is now several weeks old. In the various committees for promoting the interests of those seeking Parliamentary honours numbers of our people are busily engaged. If, while so employed, a united effort were made to secure pledges from those for whom they so assiduously work in the matter of obtaining State inspictorship for our schools, much good would have been accomplished. In this connection, however, our Catholics are like the Irish soldiers in that they fight everyone's battle successfully but their own. His Lordfhip Dr. Cowie, Anglican Primate, thus spoke last Sunday : — ' November sis a memorable anniversary in bur British annals. On November 5, 1605, the King and the Houses of Parliament were to be blown up, in retaliation for the oppressive laws that had been put in force against members of the Roman Church. By such a holocaust it was hoped that they would be redeemed from submission to the sovereign power of England Such laws of religious intolerance would not be endured by any British subjects to-day ; but, after the favours shown by the Pope to the projectors of the Spanish Armada, and after his iniquitous absolving of the Roman subjects of Queen Elizabeth from their allegiance to her, extraordinary precautions were considered necessary. In any case, let us have no anniversaries of that sth of November observed in New Zealand, where the members of all sections of Christ's Universal Church are equally loyal and patriotic' The series of socials inaugurated by the St. Benedict's Club in aid of the hall fund, were brought to a close last evening with a most enjoyable entertainment and social. During the course of the evening the members presented the Very Rev. Dr. Egan, the club's organiser and late president, with an illuminated addrves, in a handsome carved oak frame, in recognition of the invaluable services he had rendered the club during his term of office, and as a token of the esteem in which he was held by those with whom he had been associated. The address, which was presented by the. Rev. Father Darby, was as follows: — 'To the Very Rev. D. Osmond Egan, 0 S.B. — We, the members of St. Benedict's Club, take this opportunity of thanking you for your numerous acts of kindness and hearty co-operation in all matters concerning the progress of our endeavours. This club was organised by you in 1891 for the purpose of promoting social, physical, and spiritual knowledge to those who wished to avail themselves of such

advantages. We are proud of the esteem and respect extended towards you by everyone with whom you are acquainted, and if by our sucoess in various branches we have given pleasure to our patrons, it is because we possessed in you, our president, a faithful guide and director, whose loving friendship will ever be cherished by our members.' Dr. Egan responded in feeling term*, referring to the pleasure it afforded him to assist the club, and assuring the members that he would continue to watch its future with a keen personal interest.