0)StA VAA
itC.'4)t\
oq
ILL.U.1(qca
The 1?ecot No. 2968.
Perth, Thursda y, March 2. 1961.
(Registered at the O.P.O., Perth. for transmission by post as a Newspaper)
Immigration Minister Lauds Catholic Migration Day National Director of the Federal Catholic Immigration Committee, Rt. Rev. Mgr. G. M. Crennan, P.A., has received a message from The Honourable A. R. Downer, Minister for Immigration, in which the Minister expressed his wish to be associated with the Church's commemoration of "Migration Sunday" (February 26). THE
Mr. Downer said warmly welcome the institution of Immigration Sunday in the Catholic Church and I
deeply appreciate the very active work the Federal Catholic Immigration Committee performs in the interests of Australia." The text of the message is as follows: Australia has recently need for our prayers and taken its share success- friendly help for the newfully in a worldwide affair comers to Australia's the Inter- shores. of humanity national Refugee Year. Christianity is not a With the help of our faith to be brought out and exercised once a week. It churches and of all people of good faith, we made a should be a living faith humble contribution to the encompassing every mospread of human happiness by bringing to a new life in Australia many souls for whom the light of hope was fading fast. But this was not a work that should be, or is, conDURING the refined to the calendar for a cent national special year. The title "International Refugee Year" convention of and the co-operative effort of various countries draw the Democratic Labor attention to a continuing Party, the point was need and a steady task in bluntly made that the which many have been, and will be, engaged for State should give financial aid to private years. Thus, Immigration Sun- as well as to public day, introduced in the schools. Roman Catholic Church Party members meeting as an annual event of great significance, illumi- in Canberra claimed that nates with a powerful it is unjust to make edubeam the continuing daily cation compulsory for all, but free only for those who accept the State system of secular education.
-
ment of our being. I feel that the concern of the people of Australia for the welfare, spiritual and material, of the new people in their midst is a practical application of Christian love. It is a vibrant thing, and by its daily exercise our people have helped hundreds of thousands of migrants towards a better meaning of life in their new. land. No force in Australia has played a larger or more important part than the major religious denominations in giving the migrant a continuity of spiritual interest, and in spreading the spirit of Christian charity towards our new citizens among us older Australians. I am deeply grateful for the notable work of the
Missions For Cathedral Parish
Roman Catholic Church in assisting immigration, caring for the migrant and teaching tolerance, patience and hope. Immigration Sunday, in the Roman Catholic churches, draws attention to the spiritual nature of the endeavours of the Australian people to invite many others to join them in the full life our country offers. It brings, I pray, a blessing upon all those engaged in this great adventure and upon all our people who, by acting as true and friendly hosts, are making the migrants happily part of us. For this special day and for the thought which inspires it, on behalf of the Government and the people of Australia, I offer my gratitude.
0.4.4.44.44,04.4+00.0.0041.444.04spooevyrow.....
No Answer On School Needs
Pageant Will
Catholic schools in Aus-
Replace Irish Concert The sons of Erin all over the world will observe this year the 15th centenary of the death of St. Patrick. It has become known as Patrician year. As usual there will be the Solemn High Mass in the presence of His Grace the Archbishop at Subiaco oval, and the St. Patrick's Ball at the Pagoda Ballroom. However, by way of special celebration for Patrician year, the annual Irish National Concert will give way to the presentation of a moving and spectacular pageant of St. Patrick. This pageant, the script of which has won unstinted praise, was presented before 100,000 in Irelands' magnificent Croke Park. St. Patrick was portrayed by the famous Shakespearean actor Anew McMaster. Director of the pageant will be Father Peter McCudden with the Cathedral choir supplying the music. Producer will be Coralie Condon who needs no introduction to the theatre in Perth. An associate producer, the choreographer and the wardrobe mistress will be named at a later date. The pageant, with its cast of 60, will be presented in the open-air during the month of November.
tralia face a growing problem in providing added space for the thousands of new students registering in the schools each year. In 1946 about 93,000 students attended Catholic schools in New South Wales, 65,500 of them in primary grades. By the middle of 1960 the total had risen to 167,049. Secondary school enrolment
"conspiracy of silence" on aid to church schools. The Premier said: "I think Father White was underestimating when he said you had paid hund-
State
By KEN SCULLY
from Canberra
reds of thousands of pounds in taxes for education with no return. The amount runs into millions. "The estimate of expenditure on education in the State for the year is 72 million pounds. This will give you an idea of what the State is avoiding by the contribution you and your schools are making." On the question of reimbursement by the State to Catholic schools for their
expenditures,
Premier
Heffron said the solution is not a matter for any individual but one of general policy for all of the
Price 9d.
State's political parties. The Archdiocese of Perth produced figures which should give cause for grave concern. In 1939 (as the Archdiocese is now constituted) there were 66 Catholic schools enrolling 9,087 students. By 1960 the number of schools had increased to 103 and the student numbers to 19.929. What with the prospects of increased and continued immigration to Western. Australia, a stronger emphasis on financial participation in parochial life, and the ever -rising cost of living, the strain on Catholic parents in educating their children in the Faith becomes ever more burdensome. Thus with the growth of this State and the attendant expanded need for Catholic education the anomolous position of the doubly - taxed Catholic parent must demand that in common justice the State play its part in equalising its aid to ALL schools.
MISSIONS in the churches of the Cathedral parish will be preached by the Oblate Fathers during March. From March 5 to March 12 the spiritual exercises will be given concurrently at St. Patrick's, Havelock Street, and at St. Francis Xavier's, East Perth. The mission at the Cathedral will occupy a fortnight, from March 12 to March 26. The mission is held during Lent to give the faithful an extra opportunity for prayer and penance in this Holy Season.
Bishop Jobst Buys Half A Million Acres JOHN JOBST, S.A.C., Vicar Apostolic of the Kimberleys, Australia's largest See, has bought, half a million acres of land as part of a programme to raise cattle and horses to help make his mission self-supporting and to settle aborigines on land the Bishop calls rightfully theirs. BISHOP
This huge land acquisition was made possible by the results of last year's Australia -wide "Kimberley Appeal," which was backed by the Hierarchy and the Catholic Press. Bishop Jobst received £65,000, the bulk of which came from New South Wales, £42,000. The Archdiocese of Perth contributed a total of £6,100.
The Bishop said aborigines will be trained in pastoral and agricultural pursuits on the new land with the aim of settling them on it. "With the extension of irrigation schemes, particularly of sub -artesian supplies, our neglected native people could transform the Kimberleys," he said. "To that end-and, of course, the salvation of souls-we have dedicated our lives." This mission in the hinterland of the North-West is mainly desert, where nine Pallottine Fathers and five Brothers are trying to bring the light of Faith to the primitive, nomadic aborigines who roam the region. The 142,000 square miles of the vicariate has a population of only 15,000-1,600 of them Catholics. Besides the aborigines and the few hundred white people living in the Kimberleys, the missionaries also have pastoral care of many mixed blocds, the offspring of native women and the oriental crews of the pearling luggers. Bishop Jobst said: "As fast as possible we are providing new accommodation for the aborigines, giving them homes instead of grass and tin wind -breaks. "The homes of our mission Sisters and lay missionaries are being repaired and provided with some of the normal comforts so necessary in that hot climate. "At last my mission is mobile. I purChased five new Landrovers so that the priests can effectively cover the vast, trackless diocese, and two new trucks to transport produce to and from such distant missions as Bargo and La Grange. "Best of all we have laid the foundations of a project which may some day make the mission self-supporting."
rose from 20,149 in 1946 to 44,772 in 1960. In Sydney, new schools or substantial additions to existing schools were opened in January, and more are scheduled for dedication in at least 12 other parishes. This is in addition to 12 schools that
have been opened since June, 1959. The tide of junior students passing into secondary grades is threatening to overwhelm current building programmes unless they are stepped up to meet the challenge. At the opening of a Catholic boys' school recently in a Sydney suburb Premier Robert J. Heffron of New South Wales cited
the large contribution made by denominational schools to the State's edu-
cation system. He spoke after Father Thomas A. White, director of the Catholic Enquiry Centre in Sydney, charged that there seemed to be a
PAT DEVEREUX (left) and MAUREEN BRYAN admire trophies won by Y.C.W. athletes JIM STEFFAN, TED HUSSEY and JIM SARGENT, following the presentation at the Catholic Centre on
Sunday night.