NEW ZEALAND:GENERAL

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 27, 6 July 1905, Page 20

NEW ZEALAND : GENERAL

The) Wellington electric trams carried 9,437,924 passengers during the year ended Friday. The cars ran 1,082,911 milejs, and the receipts totalled £53^035. Mr. W. Gray, secretary of the New Zealand Postal Department, and Mr. J. B. Heywooa, secretary to the Treasury, have been made Companions of the Imperial Service Order. A gi\ ing evidence in a case ol vagrancy at the Chrlstchurch Maigisttriate's Court on Friday declared that all the work he had seen accused do was to carry a "bottle of beer. The usual weekly meeting of the Hokitika Catholic Literary and Debating Society (writes our correspondent) was held on the evening of June 27. The debate had to be postponed owing to the absence of one of the leaders till next Tuesday evening. The question of erecting a suitable club room was* discussed, and all agreed, that it was very desirable, and it was resoheS to gyve the matter further consideration at the next meeting. The Catholic school in Akaroa (writes a correspondent) was examined some weeks ago 1 by Dj:. Anderson, Inspector under the North Canterbury Board of Education. The results were most satisfactory ; all the children passed with one exception, in the lower standards Tn his report Dr. Anderson commended the Sisters for their earnestness in meeting the requirements of tne new syllabus, with results in most respects \ery satisfactory, some of the work submitted Leing distinctly commendable. A lengthy and very appreciative notice of the volume of the Secjowd Australasian Catholic Congress, written by the Rev. Charles Coppens, S.J., appears in an issue of ' The True Voice,' (Omaha, Nebraska), just to iiand. .' Our brethren under the Southern Cross (says the writer) are evidently wide awake ; it is the second time in fou/: years that they ha\e arrested the attention of the thinking world by a solemn meeting of their clergy and laity, combining their efforts foir the glory of Clod, the strengthening of His Church, and tne widening of her influence for the salvation of souls ;)and they announce tVe third congress for lPOfi. Theii" united action forms a notable spectacle not unli 1 c that presented to the admiring world by the glared Catholic party in Germany. The difference is eH fly that the latiber is a political organization, the former is not, but purely religious and social. Yet it is eUdently a power to be reckoned with if any would attempt to trample on the civil rights 'of Catholics there.'