INTERCOLONIAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 6, 7 February 1901, Page 20

INTERCOLONIAL.

Major Murray, of the Sydney Irish Rifles, who had been engaged in active service in South Africa, has returned to Sydney where he received a hearty reception from his many friends. A carnival in aid of St. Ambrose's Church, Brunswick. Archdiocese of Melbourne, resulted in a net profit of £700. Rev. Father E. J. Luby is parish priest. There are 17 Catholic members of the Victorian State Parliament. The most prominent are Mr. McLean (ex-Premier,) Mr. John Gavan Duffy (who was Postmaster-General in two of Turner's Cabinets), Mr Maeon (Speaker of the Houpe), Mr. Morrissey (Minister of Agriculture), and Mr. Duggan (Minister of Landa). Mr. Trenwith's colleague for Richmond (Bennett) is another. He is the more popular of the two in the constituency, and always heads the poll. The Freeman* Journal reports that a pretty wedding was celebrated at St. Joseph's Church, Woollabra, on Monday, January 21, when MiBS Fannie Quinn (youngest daughter of Mr. P. Quinn, of Darlinghurst, and late of Cobargo, N.S.W.) was married to Mr. John A. Griffiths (eldest non of the late Mr. Jeremiah Griffiths, of Brunnerton, New Zealand). The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Father Fitzgerald, 0.F.M., in the presence of a large number of relatives and friends. Three of our foremost public men (writes a Melbourne correspondent) are self-made. Mr. Isaacs, who was a school teacher, had the best Btart of the three. He quitted educating to go into the Crown Law Department, where he laid the foundation of a brilliant aw career, and made himself an almost necessary Attorney-General

in any Liberal Cabinet. Mr. Peaoock, who will Bhortly be Premier, started hard graft (10 and 11 hours a day) in a country store at the small end of his teens. Mr. Trenwith struck out manfully at 13 to get bread for himself and a younger brother. The three are members of the present Ministry. Trenwith's portfolio (Railways) was well earned. He saved the Premier, and made the Federal Treftrfurership a certainty for him. Bostmaking is his trade. The several religious and educational buildings now in course of erection in the suburbs (says the Melbourne Advocate), whose inauguration has been recently noticed in our columns, are being i*i.iJly advanced by the contractors. They inolade St. John's Church, East Melbourne ; Convent of the Good Shepherd, Abbotefui.l , school-hall and presbytary, West St. Kilda ; preebytery, Essen don ; additions to Presentation Convent, Elsternwiok ; Bohoolhall Kew. Chalmers' Church, East Melbourne, has been demolished as a preparatory step to putting in the foundation of the proposed new high school for the Sisters of Charity. The new St. Vincent's Hospital, as already mentioned, will be erected on the present site as noon as plans shall have been approved for the proposed new medical charitable institution. The Old Age Pensions Act (writes a Melbourne correspondent) has brought in the staggering number of 18,000 applications. The Act was drafted with an eye on a possible 6000, and the Premier it in somewhat of a quandary. Very many applications are, of course, not eligible ; but there will probably be a large excess over 6000. That somewhere about 20,000 people of 65 years of age and upwards should be in a condition of hard poverty in thiß petty State of a million inhabitants is a note that sounds a loud discord in the triumph song of the nineteenth century. Steam, electricity, eman* cipation, liberty, science, and the most progressive of countries— and a score thousand of aged, helpless, decrepit human beings creep out of the oblivion in which they hid themselves from the public gaze to get a dole that will alleviate the sufferings of their few remaining years. The will of the late Mr. Mr. E. T. Flanagan (says the Sydney Freeman:* Journal) is perfeotly consistent with his life. His purse was ever at the service of religion and charity during his life, and in death they are not neglected. The will of the deoeased gentleman discloses a generous thoughtfulness in favor of those charities which he was wont always to consider during life. The various bequests are as follows : St, Mary's Cathedral Building Fund, £100; St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, £100 ; Good Samaritan Refuge, Tempe, £100 ; St. Joseph's Providence, Cumberland street, £50 ; Little isiaters of the Poor, Rand wick, £50 : Lewisham Hospital, £50 ; St. Joseph's Orphanage, Kincumber, £25 ; Good Samaritan Industrial , School, Manly, £25 ; St. Anne's Orphanage, Liverpool, £25 ; Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, Waratah, £25 ; St. Vincent's Boys' Home, Westmead, £20 ; St. Vinoent de Paul Society, Burwotxi, £5. He has also devised to his Eminence the CardinalArchbishop for investment, the proceeds to be applied in establish* ing bursaries for the maintenance and education of students for the priesthood at St. Patrick's College, Manly, the sum of £2200. As announced in a recent issue, the Very Rev. J. Dunne, V.G., received the majority of votes of the clergy for the See of Bathurst. The nominations will be forwarded to the Holy See. Father Dunne is a native of Miteheletown, County Cork. Ireland. He studied at All Hallows College, Dublin, and was a class-fellow of Archbishop O'Reily, of Adelaide. When quite a young man Father Dunne was ordained pritst. He arrived in New South Wales about thirty yean ago, and has been known throughout the diocese as an active, selfsacrificing, and zealous priest. His first charge waa Dubbo, and while there he was primarily responsible for the fine Catholic ohurch and convent buildings. On the appointment in 1885 of the late Right Rev. Dr. Byrne to the Catholic Bishopric of Bathurst, Father Dunne was invited by the newly-made prelate to become Administrator of Bathurst. In January, 18%, he was made Vicar-General, his pastorate having been marked by the erection of churches, convents, and schools. He is mainly responsible for the Patrician Brothers' Monastery, the additions and completion of BS. Miohael and John's Cathedral, which embraces the new sanotuary, and the Bplendid brick church and convent at Perth. After laboring in Bathurst for some years as Vicar-General, he asked his late Bishop to allow him to return to Dubbo, so that he might undertake to wipe out the debt of £3500 remaining on church buildings. This he succeeded in doing, and also in effecting substantial additions and improvements to the Dubbo convent. He remained in Dubbo about three years and returned to Bathurst to relieve the late Bishop Byrne, when the latter's health commenced to fail him. It is understood that the seleotion has given general satisfaction amongst the priests of the diocese and his people.