INTERCOLONIAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 14, 2 April 1903, Page 31

INTERCOLONIAL.

It will be at least seven years (says the ' Catholic Press') before Amy Castles returns to Australia. She has urmed in Paris, accompanied by her sister Dolly, and her companion, Mrs. McDonald, a Catholic lady who was well known in old world society, and who had of recent ■sears been living in a convent at Ballarat, where her daughter is a nun. The annual procession of the League of the Cross was held m St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, on Sunday afternoon, March 15, and was one of the most successful demonstrations of the kind held since the foundation of the league by his Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne some dozen years ago. The weather, an important factor in affairs of this kind, was all that could be desired. No little stir and surprise was aroused in the mind of the man in the street at seeing contingent after contingent of happy boys and girls mak,ing their way in troops to the Cathedral. The beautiful banners and bannerets added an element of strength to the pageant. The whole of the members, some 5000 men, women, and children, filled the Cathedral, to which only members of the League were admitted before the procession. A number of beautiful Catholic temperance hymns were sung, the Cathedral organist, Miss E. S. Anderson, presiding at the instrument. The much-debated question (says the Perth correspondent of the Adelaide 'Southern Cross 1 ) as to whether State-controlled hotels can be conducted successfully is to be given a practical test by the James Government. Gwalia, a flourishing mining settlement, just emerging Jrom the camp penod of its existence to the more permanent state of a township, has been chosen for the initial trial." Already the new hotel has been built, and will commence business in a few weeks. A manager has been engaged who has had a successful career in conducting privately-owned hotels, all spirits and liquors in stock are to be subjected to an analysis every month, no barmaids are to be allowed, and several other new departures in hotel management are to be introduced. The profits of the hotel are to be devoted to the establishment of a public- library and club rooms for the town. As this will be the first experiment of the kind yet made in a British community, and as a solution of the liquor traffic question is engaging the attention of most civilised countries, the coming experiment should be of widespread interest Mr. Jarries is not, so far, being deluged by showers of praise or good wishes for his undertaking, but by it he will make for himself the name of being the first Premier in Australia who carried his ideas of the control of the liquor traffic into practice, none of the other liqaior reformers, upon reaching power, ha^e allowed their ideas on this subject to pass ' the talking stage.' A resident of Hobart, who had been on a visit to Melbourne, contributes the following interesting particulars regarding the new Catholic church at Clifton Hill to the Monitor.' Ihe Church of St. John the Baptist,' ho writes, ' is a superb one, ranking in beauty with the Chinch <>t the Jesuits at Richmond, and the Church of St Mary, Star ol the wSea, at West Melbourne. St. John's owes its existence to the efforts of one man — Mi T I-]. Verga, an Knglish Catholic from Cheshire, a pait of 1 nglai'd which has given numerous martyrs to the ancient faith In the long ago the Government of Vnuria le-scrwd a site for a Catholic church on the suirmit ol Chiton ilill There were then peihaps not a d<)/< n hoiM'n in the neighborhood Now the place is a small ritv A cht>r<h was not requiied there at the time; St JoM'ih's, Collingwood, was close at hand where the population had settled So tor .years the site on Clifton 11 ill remained vacant But in the middle of the seventies the land l>< omer and (1 regret to say) the religious bigot weie abioad An individual who combined loth characters got up a petition to the Government .isking them to forfeit the site as no use was being made of it Mr Verga then as now lived opposite the ground, lie was known to be an Englishman, and it was taken for granted he was a Protestant, and the petition was tnkt n to him for signature. r l he conspirator had, to use i\ vulgarism, "fallen in ' " Mr. Verga qiuietly reii sed to si£.n the petition, and when the man had left, he put on his hat, walked up to the palace, and told the Archbishop that the first stone of a new church must ho laid theie at once An adv ci tisement announcing the date of the ceremony appeared in the papers the next day A marquee was erected on the spot; Mass was said there the following Sunday ; Archbishop Goold laid the first stone ol St John's, and the Rev. William Kellv, S J . a noted preacher of the day, preached the sermon Almost single-handed Mr. Verga labored to timid the chinch, and in 1882 a poition of it was o| ened when the Rev Father Shaffney, a distinguished Caimehte, pieachcd the sermon. The splendid church is now completed, except as to the spire It is a noble Cot hie church, with nave, aisles, three chapels, sacristies, and an orpan loft. The ornamentafion and furniture are exijuisite in detail The new chapel has been rtected at the sole cost of Mr. Verga. The whole church has cost £20,000, and only £1 500 remains due upon it. A couple of \oais ago Mr and Mrs Verga were presented to the Holy Father, Leo XIIT . by the Archbishop of Melbourne : and T think many will ho disappointed if this woithy couple do not find a find resting place in St John's ' ____________