NEW ZEALAND : GENERAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 49, 6 December 1900, Page 19

NEW ZEALAND : GENERAL.

All persons having books of tickets in connection with the art union to be held in aid of the funds of St. Patrick's Church Waimate, are requested to send in blooks and remittances before Christmas to the Rev. Father Regnault.

Holders of tickets in the Oamaru Convent art union are urgently requp«tort to send in blooks and remittances before December 6th to the Rev. Mother, Dominican Convent, Oamaru. The drawing takes place on the Bth inst.

Lord Ranftjuly and the Hon. J. G. Ward yisited the .Hon. John M'Kenzie at Heathfield on Saturday morning last, and remained with him for over two hours. They both left by the northern express. Mr. Ward was greatly pleased to find that his old friend and colleague was much better than when he last saw him.

We have to thank the Government printer for a copy of the New Zealand Statutes for 1900. Last year's volume contained only 247 pages of matter, this runs into 764, and is the bulkiest issued for several years. The contents comprise 73 public, 34 local and personal, and three private acts ; total, 110.

The Government have decided to call for tenders for the proposed steam service to South Africa. Tenderers are to state the subsidy required ; the steamers are to be capable of carrying at least 4000 tons ; to be fitted with freezing chambers, and be of a sufficiently light draught to enter all the most important South African harbors. The service will be a six-weekly one.

At the last meeting of the Ashburton Catholic Literary Society the president reported the receipt of a number of books which had been ordered for the library. The members debated the question 'Is the Press a reliable guide for public opinion. 1 Mr McSherry took the negative and Mr Moison the affirmative side of the question. The debate proved the most interesting yet held by the society, several of the speakers, more especially the leaders, delivering lengthy and telling speeches. After the members had spent over three hours in aguing the question out, a vote was taken on the subject, and resulted in favor of Mr McSherry's party by a majority of one vote.

An Australian contemporary (says the New Zealand Time*) states that Miss Amy Castles, for whose vocal training at Home money was publicly raised in Victoria, has changed her teacher at Paris. The young lady was studying under Madame Marchesi, but as latterly she had been receiving the tuition for a mezzo-soprano instead of soprano, she became displeased, after having consulted the best of critics as to the quality of her voice, which they aver is a pure soprano. Madame Marchesi in a recent letter stated that her pupil was most amiable and diligent, and likely to become an admirable singer. If the examiner sent out by the Trinity College, London, to conduct practical examinations be any judge there is in Wellington a young soprano— Miss Kate Connell— of even o- re ater promise than Miss Amy Castles.

The following pupils of Catholic teachers (writers our Timaru correspondent) passed the recent Trinity College examination held here by Professor Edwards :— Senior division— Pianoforte : G. Dorm, honors ; M. Hoare, honors ; J. Hoare, honors ; Eily Twomey (Miss E. McGuinness). Intermediate division— L. Stewart, honors (Miss E. McGuinness) ; K. Earl (Convent, Temuka) ; E. Spring (Miss Fitzgerald) ; E. Jonea (Convent, Waimate). Junior division— V. Farnie (Convent, Temuka) ; E. Dore, honors (Convent, Kerry Town) ;T. Wareing (Miss McGuinness). Preparatory division— M Ardagh, C. Park (Convent, Waimate) : D. Farnie, H. O'Donoghue, and C. Tarrant (Convent, Temuka) ; M. Scannell (Convent, Kerry Town) ; N. Fitzgerald (Miss Fitzgerald). In the senior division Miss McGuinness was very successful, securing honors for three pupils, Mr G. Dorm being complimented by Professor Edwards, who advised him to persevere and go in for the higher degrees. Mias Eily Twomey's pass is a very creditable one for a child of her age.

A Greymouth correspondent writes : St. Joseph's Catholic school, conducted by the Mariat Brothers, was eramioed by Mr. W. L. F. Fetch, M.A., on November 17, with the following results:— Beading, very good ; spelling, excellent ; writing, very good ; composition, good ; arithmetic, ye -y good ; geography, very good ; drawing, very good ; singing, very good ; recitation, excellent ; elementary science, very good : grammar, good ; manners, excellent ; discipline, excellent. General result— I'asa subjects, very good ; class subjects, very good ; additional subjects, very good. In Standard VII. two boys did Standard VI. work, the remainder taking Civil Service work for high school pupiß The Inspector's note on the passes in Standards I. to V. was— 'The passes are very satisfactory indeed. An excellent standard of work is maintained throughout the school.' At the recent drawing examination the subjects taken were model, freehand, and geometrical drawing. Two pupils obtained certificates in model, seven in freehand, and' 22 in the geometrical. The Marist Brothers are to be congratulated on their record this year. For the past three years 100 per cent, has been secured.

The reputation of our Premier is not confined to the British Empire, it has even extended to the Continent. In a recent issue the Paris newspaper, Le Temps, had an article dealing with the Right Hon. R. J. Seddon and the legislation of this Colony. In the oourse of the article it said : 'In the midst of the winter session M. Richard Seddon, Chief of the Government of New Zealand, presented his Budget to Parliament. This is the iMinister of the Antipodes, whom they call in his country " King Dick." We have had a king-citizen ; the Antipodes produce a citizen-king. The Budget of a small country of less than a million inhabitants, presented even by a oitizen surnamed the king, would not court the attention of two or three continents, would not merit, for example, being

fully and expensively sent by telegraph to all corners of the world. were it not of general interest. But New Zealand has undertaken a most complete, and, consequently, very extensive trial of that which may be called a practical collectivism, or socialism. Compulsory arbitration, total suppression of strikes, a day's work of eight hours, compulsory rest on Sunday, and, in addition, a statutory half-holiday for employees, jealous protection of labor againßt capital, limitation or destruction of great individual ownership of estates, slow nationalisation of the soil, perpetual lease to cultivators of State lands, exemption from taxes for small proprietors (90,000 out of 103,000), power to r«duo« or abolish the sale of alcoholic liquors to each electoral district, finally political rights and votes to women, this is what seven or eight years of legislation by the people has realised in New Zealand. It is, indeed, aB we see it, a general and practical attempt at all that is applicable in the socialistic doctrine.'

Should the settlers in the Taieri Beach district succeed in getting the Government to erect a bridge over the river, they ought to remember with gratitnde the part which the old punt played in the matter. The Hon. J. G. Ward went down to the district to see how the punt worked, and having got on board with his party a start was made for the other aide, where a number of settlers, primed full of facts and figures relating to the absolute necessity of a bridge at the place, awaited him. Matters went well until mid-Btream was reached, when the punt, meeting with a convenient mud bank decided to take a rest. For fully half an hour the crew did their level best to get it to move, but they might as well have tried to start a South African mule that had resisted the entreaties and copious and florid language of an Australian bushman. It is presumed, too, that the crew used nautical expressions, but the punt did not seem to mind. Just as the Minister and his party were getting anxious, and perhaps angry, and the enjoyment of the speotators on the bank had reached laughter point, the boat, finding that it had succeeded in convincing Mr Ward of the sweet reasonableness of the Bettlers' request, quietly slipped off its resting place and quickly got to its destination. Barely, if ever, has a Minister received a deputation that had such convincing arguments to gupport its prayer, and the only note of sadness about the proceedings was the fact that the speeches prepared for the occasion were not required, as the action of the punt was more to the point than the remarks of the most polished orator.