INTERCOLONIAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 1, 3 January 1901, Page 15

INTERCOLONIAL.

The wheat crop of New South Wales is estimated at an average of about 12$ bushelß per acre. During the sojourn in Europe, on a twelve months' tour, of Mr Robert Barton, the Deputy-master of the Melbourne Mint, his duties were discharged by Mr Wardell, sou of th« late eminent architect of St. Patrick's and St, Mary's Cathedrals (Melbourne and Sydney). The Dowager Lady Howard of Glossop han arrived in Sydney, having come out for the benefit of her health, Lady Iloward, who is the widow of the late Lord Howard of Glut-wop is a daughter of Ambrose de Lisle, so that all her family have been Catholics. When the Marquis of Bute married the Dowager's daughter, he made the significant remark, 'I would rather marry a Howard than a Guelph.' The Sacred Heart Convent, Malvern, has just celebrated the oentenary of the foundation of its Order with appropriate festivities and ceremonies. In 1882 the mother house at Paris established a branch at Rose Bay, and in 1888 the Rose Bay foundation established the Sisters at Malvern at the request of his Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne. During their residence in Melbourne tLo nuns have acquired their present convent at East Malvern at a coat of £2500, and a second house near St. Joseph's Church, where ' hey have expended £4000 in providing primary schools. They are about to build a new convent and schools also. There recently passed away at Pekina, South Australia, a patriarch who, if he had lived another mouth, would have had tlv* rare distinction of having seen three centuries, says the ifroj*,*, r Mr Patrick Daly was born in Glen Isna, Bally vaughan, County Clare, Ireland, in November, 1799. He came to this colony in lsi'l, and Bettled first at Kapunda, where he worked at the copper mi»^' Subsequently he carried on farming at Bagot's Well. Until at< w weeks of his death his faculties, bodily and mental, were wonderfully preserved. His eyesight was keen. He was capable of chopping wood and doing odd jobs about the farm. He has left & yen ohildren and twenty-nine grandchildren, all settled in the colony. Among the passengers by the steamer Barbarossa, which arrived at Freemantle from Bremen recently, was the Ripht Rev. Dr. Coappe, M.S.H., Vicar-Apostolic in New Britain. Dr. Coupp6 was aocompanied by a band of missionaries— eight priests, six Brothers, and two nuns— all of the Order of the Sacred Heart of Mary Immaculate, to secure whose services the Bißhop had recently returned from the islands to Germany. The headquarters of the Order in this hemisphere .are in Sydney, where they have recently erected at Kensington a handsome monastery. Their mission ground embraces, as well aa New Britain. New Guinea. In both their mission fields the success of the missionaries has 'veu notable, and they have succeeded under difficulties requiring <<f fh m the'most arduous labors and heroic sacrifices. In New I. mam tueir converts number 7300. Mr. Townaend M'Dermott, the veteran B Ularat barrister, who is probably the oldest practising counsel in Australia, was, on November 3, presented at the Ballarut City Hall with a purse containing 150 sovereigns and an illuminated address, couched in very complimentary terms. The testimonial was mainly subscribed by Mr. M-Dermott's frienjs in the legal profession of Ballarat and Melbourne. Sir Henry Cuthbert, who presided, referred to the long and brilliant career of Mr. M'Dermott. who, as a graduate of Trinity College, DubliD, wan admitted as a practitioner over GO years ago, and was subsequently, as a junior, prof jß«ionally a^sooi.ited in the' Four Courts with the great Daniel O'Connell. Mr. MDermott, who is over 80 years of age, thanked the various speakers for the kind and complimentary things said regarding him in proposing his health. In his report on the primary schools of the archdiocese of Melbourne the Rev. Father John McCarthy, Inspector, states that on September 30 there were in operation 103 sepante primary schools with an attendance of 20,(i02 children, under 14S tuichers. of whom 178 are religious. Of these 20,(J02 children attending the primary schools, 725 are non-Catholics. Above one-fourth of the children attend schools conducted by the Sisters of Mercy, and one-eighth those in charge of the Sisters of Charity. The expenditure on new parochial schools during the year was £1280, and tne coat of alterations, repairs, and appliances was £250(J, making a total outlay of £2786, independent of salaries to teachers. The salaries of the 448 teachers fer the year amounted to £20,987, which, added to the expenditure on new schools, alterations, etc., make a total of £24,773, which gives £1 4s as the average cost per pupil. The average expenditure for the last nine years was £22.119. Large aa are the sunn already spent in providing school accommodation further expenditure must still be incurred in order to provide suitably for the ever increasing attendance at the parochial schools. Of the oonvent high schools there are 20, with an attendance of 253 junior boys and 1495 girls, making a total of 1748 pupils, of whom 226 are non-Catholicf>. Twenty-five pupils of these schools passed the matriculation examination of the Melbourne University ; 12 matriculated in music, and 395 were auccesi-f ul in winning other distinctions, amongst them being very many honors and passes of the Royal College of Music. The diatiny: uidhed professor who presided at these i examinations, Mr. A. Somerveil, was loud in hia admiration of the musical work done in the convent schools. • There is one thing I noticed in the school examinations,' he said to an interviewer, 11th October, 1900, ' and that was that the teaching in the convent schools was far superior to that of other schools. Why it should be so I do not know, but I have seen it not only here, but also in Sydney, and in some cases the contrast haa bean wonderful. It was just the same at Sale a few days ago, and wherever I go I notice it.'