Intercolonial

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 2, 28 February 1907, Page 35

Intercolonial

A Carnegie - , Public Library has been opened at Hobart.'lt cost. £7500. Two diggers at Poseidon- rush are malting £450 a week. Up to' date, ; the local gold buyers .have - purchased over 5000oz of gold. The -Majror and Councillors of Collingwood, - nonCathoflic ministers ajnd ' leading -__cit<i#ens, yisited - the Magdalen Asylum, Ajsbatsford, .recently at the' invitation of the Rev.' -Mother Provincial. Tlie result i- ~of their inspection is to give the lie- direct to Mr! Tregear's slanderous charges. .* The visitors, one and all, were loud; in their praises, of -the, -institution, An entertainment ..was given -by the inmates, and "an address was presented to the Mayor' and' Councillors.Never in the history of Perth Christian ..Brothers' College (says the -' W. A. -Record ').. has itjhad such a year of successes as during the year 1906. Of the- two "University. Exhibitions '-the .college secured one, • and of the five Senior Exhibitions " the college boys secured two. The success of the school "was still more" marked in' the "results for the Junior Exhibitions, of which eight are annually given, the college securing no- less than half of them.- - In the Hamilton district a .' 'divining rod ' expert is engaged in putting; down bores for landholders on the principle of 'no water no pay. 1 During .the last twelve weeks (writes, the ' Leader ') he has discovered underground flows and erected . wind-mills on eleven bores on tftie properties of district landowners.- The deepest bore was 114 feet. In one^ place an unsuccessful attempt had previous, y - , bTeen made to find water by boring, and the expert, Mr. JM'Lennan,. went to one of the highest rises about >he place hear- by, and struck a good flow at 22 feet.- He state's that his process never fails, and that he * has used it successfully in Western Australia as well as. in Victoria. A review of the work of Sydney hospitals in ' S.M. Herald ' shows" that St. yinoen<t!s_oc*npared very favorably in every respect with the State-aided institutions. In noting, the large Government subsidies to Prince - Alfred and other hospitals, the 'Herald 1 in a -half-asjhamed way remarks :— ' In fact, J St. Vincent's Hospital was the only one of the five institutions that did not receive Government aid. It was, as usiiial, entirely maintained by private" subscriptions and patients' fees, and .the expenditure in this hospital was considerably reduced by tjie fact" that the "Sisters of Charity, who do most" of the • nursing, carry on thielir work -wjHhjout fee or._ mojnetajry „ •rewards and purely as a labor of love.' " ■ - ' Arrangements- for the shipment" of this season's Tasmanian apples to England and Germany have been completed. Altogether 21 steamers will -load at Hobart, and the total shipment will- exceed half a million cases, ajlmqsit douible the' quainti'ty of last year, when the crop was short. -A new departure will be the shipment of 20,000 cases to Antwerp and Hamburg by the German-Australian line, of steamers. The freight will hp 3» o.|d. per case to Germany, a saving of< from ,9d to 10d per case on the cost of ' shipment from ~"-*"London. "The allround cost of shipment will be equal to a reduction of 2d per case on last year. The first-- shipment was despatched by the ' Orontes ' on February 12: .' Steamers will call regularly thereafter for fruit till April ' 27. " " " : ' . . : / The Rev. Dr. Rentoul (says the Melbourne correspondent of the 'Freeman's Journal-) has returned from his holidays abroad. In an interview 'he said : ' Perhaps the first thing to strike one on -"returning to England after a -number of years' absence in relation to the English public and political life is the immense personal popularity of the. preselnt- Kin/g. -It" is. v hot - easy to define the various reasons ■ for t.his -^.great popularity and the confidence reposed in- him. -it exists .in every section of the United Kingdom, and- in 'lreland also. Jf "Irishmen are dissatisfied, with the method of England's rule in Ireland, the feeling .certainly is -not 'at ' all against King Edward personally.- The striking thing is that all the Roman Catholic Irishmen believe that he himself is disposed to grant a, friendly hearing towards the national aspirations of -the Irish peaple. Ar.|l another thing which .strikes one about the public and social life in England, . and also m a degree of Scotland, .is the change of . mood produced by the wonderful dispersion ' of; -wealth,' bringing with it a more luxurious mode of ' living. - • ;