Intercolonial

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8, 25 February 1909, Page 315

Intercolonial

The Very Rev. T. F. O'Neill, of Gawler, during his trip to Ireland, visited the aged mother of his Grace Archbishop O'Reily in Kilkenny.

The balance .sheet of the 'Eva' of 'The Nation* Fund, Melbourne, recently issued, shows a credit fund of £361 4s 7d, -which amount will be remitted to the trustees of the fund in Brisbane for Mrs. O'Doherty's benefit.

The Right Bey. Monsignor Barry, V.G., Ballarat, has suhscrihed £1000 to the Sisters of Mercy Central Novitiate Fund, Flemingfon, Victoria. This amount will supply the^ necessary education for those young ladies of the Bendigo parish who have vocations for the Order.

On his return to Gawler after an absence of twelve months in Europe, the Very Rev. T. F. O'Neill was entertained at a social gathering, and presented with a purse of sovereigns. The gathering included many non-Catholics. Father O'Neill . gave a very interesting account of his travels.

The' small offerings of the faithful- made by our poor people in response to the .Cardinal's appeal to the churches have mounted up well in the aggregate (says the Catholic Press). His Eminence last week forwarded direct to Italy £300. The Cardinal hopes to close the fund, which is intended for acute cases, and to forward the balance in a few days. We expect it will make about £200 more — say, £500 in all.

When tlie foundation stone of St. Mary's new school at South Brisbane was laid by Archbishop Dunne in August a considerable amount of the proposed expenditure. Of £1100. was in hand, and on Sunday, February 7, when the completed building was "blessed and opened by his Grace in the presence of a large gathering the sum of £302 was subscribed by the parishioners who, when occasion demands,-, prove themselves remarkably generous.

The Brunswick Town Hall was packed recently, when the parishioners of St. Ambrose's Church tendered a welcome to Rev. E. J. Luby, P.P., who had just returned after a twelve months' trip to the Home Land. Every available inch of space was occupied, and a very large number were xinable to gain admission, so great was the crowd that had assembled to welcome back their popular priest. ~ ,1. The last letter received from his Grace the Archbishop" of Melbourne (says the Advocate) states that audiences with the Holy Father were granted on November 24 and 25. On these occasions the Peter's Pence collected in the Province of Victoria last year was presented. The Archdiocesan contribution amounted to £2100 ; Ballarat, £1000; Bendigo, £700; and Sale, £300; the total being '■ £4100. This is the largest Peter's Pence offering that has ever been received from an Australian province. The Holy Father was highly appreciative of the generosity of the people of Victoria.

The anniversary of the first appearance of the Advocate took place on February 1. That excellent Catholic journal (says the Sydney Freeman's Journal) has now entered on its forty-second year of publication, the first issue being printed on February 1, 1868. During these years great changes have taken' place. The founders of the Advocate — the Very Rev. Joseph Dalton, S.J., the Very Rev. Isaac Moore, S. J. j Sir C. Gavan Duffy, the Hon. M. O'Grady, Mr. S. V. Winter, audits first editor (Mr. Gunson) — have all passed away. But Mr. Joseph Winter is ' still on deck.'

Before^ leaving for Rome last N year (writes the Melbourne correspondent of the Sydney Freeman's Journal) the Archbishop of Melbourne, Bishop Higgins,- and Bishop Reyille arranged to have an appeal made for the Central Novitiate of the Sisters of Mercy, which is to be opened at Flemingfon on February 28. A circular sent out to the parish priests by the Vicar-General, Dean Phelan, was read in the churches of the ,20 parishes in the Archdiocese in which the Order is teaching. It was stated that the high standard now required by the registration board could be attained only by two years' residence in a thoroughlyequipped training school. In two years' time every teacher in the Catholic schools must have this necessary qualification. In order to meet the requirements of the board, the Sisters of Mercy had incurred a liability of over £10,000. In concluding the circular, the Dean said : ' The repeated and desperate attempts to Protestantise the schools of the State should make all of us more zealous in providing for the children committed to our care, and in seeing that their interests are safeguarded.

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