People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 24 June 1915, Page 41

People We Hear About

, u £ brother of the Holy Father, Giovanni Antonio de a Chiesa, is a Rear-Admiral in the Italian fleet and will no doubt be engaged in the naval operations against Austria. a The new Queensland Ministry, formed by the Hon. T. J. Ryan, contains two Catholics, in addition to the Premier Messrs. Lennon and Theodore. There are 14 Catholics among the Queensland Labor members; and the Ministry was chosen by the Labor caucus. Sir Thomas Hughes, M.L.C., K.C.S.G., has received many congratulations on his new honor of Knight Bachelor, more especially as the distinction conferred by the King came so rapidly- after his Knighthood from his Holiness the Pope. He celebrated his 52nd birthday last month, and is a solicitor by profession. He made his first incursion into politics in 1898, in support of the cause of Federation, and in the following year accompanied Sir George Reid, then Premier of New South Wales, as his secretary to the Conference. of Premiers in Melbourne. In December, 1900, he was elected Mayor of Sydney, and in November, 1902, when King Edward elevated the city to a Lord Mayoralty, he became first Lord Mayor, being re-elected for 1903, 1907, and 1908. Seven years -ago he was appointed to the Legislative Council. He has been president of several important commissions. A leading Catholic, he 1 has been closely connected with the building of St. Mary’s Cathedral.

His Lordship Bishop Dunne, of Bathurst, celebrated recently his seventieth birthday. His Lordship (says the Freeman's Journal) is still in the full enjoyment of all that bodily and mental vigor which has marked him from the first moment that he entered on the scene of his beneficent labors in this country. For Bishop Dunne, each successive stage of the strenuous life has apparently meant the application of fresh energy to the task which has awaited him. Now, in his seventy-first year, he bids fair to enjoy many more years of active endeavor in the cause of God and His Church. If good wishes could help towards the attainment of that blessing, those that greeted his Lordship’s seventieth birthday were sufficiently abundant. His Lordship was born near Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland, and received his early education in Mitchelstown from the Christian Brothers, and later at Mount Melleray Seminary, County Waterford. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 24, 1870, and arrived in Sydney in 1871. His noble work in the country in the promotion of religious training for the little ones, and his untiring efforts for the faithful, are monuments; of zealous labors never to be forgotten.

Very general sympathy is expressed for Archbishop O’Reily and Mgr. Byrne, both of whom have been very ill for some time (writes a correspondent of the MountBarker Courier). Indeed, Dr. O’Reily has been physically weak for years. He entered with such vigor and enthusiasm on the task of wiping off the legacy of debt left him by Archbishop Reynolds that he completely prostrated himself, and he went on working at high pressure long after he had completely sapped his energies. The Archbishop is one of the State’s best citizens — full of civic loyalty and national patriotism. He is the son of a soldier, and he spent his boyhood in a garrison town, and he is thoroughly permeated with military ardor. He proved that during the Boer war, and he -has manifested the fact also now. A fearless and devoted son of his Church, he is still ever a broadminded Christian gentleman, and all classes of the community delight to do him honor. He is still, comparatively speaking, a young man, and Mgr. Byrne is much his senior, but he has never possessed the physical stamina of the latter splendid ecclesiastic, who has gone on quietly performing prodigies of work until after the three-score* years and ten, which were once named as the limit of a man’s greatest action. , S