HAWERA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2, 11 January 1900, Page 6

HAWERA.

(From a correspondent )

The audience that crowded the Opera House on the occasion of the Caledonian Society's concert on New Year's Night had an opportunity of appreciating and were loud in their applause of the work done for musical culture in the colony by our convent schools. The praise so lavishly bestowed upon the schools of the middle ages by Guizot, Froude, Lecky, Ranke, and others is equally merited by these institutions which are still carrying on the same work within the bosom of the Catholic Church. All the vital and productive energies of human culture are united and mingled in our Christian schools to-day as they wer.' in the brightest ot the ages that are passed ; and the children who year by year come forth from these store-houses of real knowledge arc not only well equipped with what are considered the necessaries of education, but are al«o possessed of those accomplishments which enable the pupils to fill any position in life. There is a growing demand in the Colony for these accomplishments, and it is a i-ati.sfaetion and a source of legitimate pridu to know, on the authority of examiners from the leading Home colleges, that our convent schools are supplying the demand. The gentleman who distributed the prizes the other day at the Girls" High School, Wellington, thought it a pity that religious schools should be established in the Colony. It is ;i good thing for New Zealand that Archbishop Redwood was not vi that opinion when he established St. Mary's Convent, for without that convent New Zealand- would not to-day enjoy the fame which she does enjoy in the great musical institutions of Great Britain. Did not the vicepresident of the Royal Academy say publicly in England that the most artistic singing he had ever heard was in Wellington, New Zealand, at St. Marys Convent .' Did not our Colony, through the same convent, secure on another occasion all the honours granted in Australasia by the same Academy? And if Mr Graham Mo< re, on his return to England, can speak well of New Zealand, is it not because, as he paid, ' St. Mary's Convent had achieved such a success as no other institution with which he had hitherto been acquainted had achieved.'

The world-renowned baritone, Mr. Santley, remarked to me some years ago that New Zealand should produce --ingers quite as good as the countries of soutlurn Europe And lam quite convinced that should Miss Kate Connell, who delighted us all at the Caledonian concert, follow the advice of Mr. Graham Moore and spend some years in Paris, she will soon rank with the Australian artists who have gained a world-wide fame, and that she will not be the least amongst them. She is a credit to the Wellington Convent, as her sister, who accompanied her. ami who also secured honours at the Royal Academy ex urinations, ih a credit to the Hawera Convent. Miss Tuohill and Miss B"-s <■ Flynn, al.-o from the Wellington Convent, though not gifted us Mi h Connell is, are nevertheless very capable singers, and can a'ready, though very young, take a high place amongst the vocalists of New Z-^nland. Their items were a surprise and a treut to the large audience We had in addition a family of ten Flynnw, boys and girls, all convent school children from WellingtO'i,Wanganui and Hawera. who, under the skilful baton of their eldest sister, contributed some very fine orchestral selections, one, and this, too, of some im-rit, being, I believe, a composition by Miss Flynn.

The whole concert was a treat from its intrinsic merit, and also from the fact that the items were contributed chiefly by Irish Celts to honour in a spirit of goodwill and friendship the annual gathering of their cousins the Celts of Scotland.

The new school, which Messrs Pacey and Son are building for the Rev. Father Power, will be completed in about a fortnight. It is rumoured that several vocalists from Wellington are coming 1 to take part in the opening ceremony. The building, which ia to be up to date in every respect, will cost £450, and will, with the old school, give ample and much-needed accommodation to both teachers and children. Father Power has decided to hang in the porch a framed list of all the subscribers. This. I think, is a capital idea, and dpeervea imitation.