240 PAST AND PRESENT OF power of attorney, as he has been since it was extended to the Island, was elevated to the Executiveof the Association, being elected Grand Trustee on the first ballot. The aggregate membership of the Catho ¬ lic Mutual Benefit Association on Prince Ed ¬ ward Island is 1,200, made up as follows: , with twelve branches, 550; , with five branches, 350; Kings county, with seven branches, 300. In the branches of the association are as follows: Alberton , Branch , No. 214; Summerside , No. 215; , No. 243; Kensington , No. 254; Miscouche , No. 272; Tignish , No. 281; , No. 294; St. Anthony , No. 342; Mount Carmel , No. 343; St. Marks, 344; Kinkora , No. 379; Grand River , No. 418. In Kings County: Souris East , branch, No. 261; Georgetown , No. 275; Cardigan , No. 295; St. Peters , No. 350; St. George's, No. 351; Fairfield , No. 353; , No. 370. In : Charlottetown , No. 216; Vernon River , No. 333; Hope River , No. 338; Hope River , No. 338; Mount Stewart , No. 359; , 363. FATHER OF THE CATHOLIC MUTUAL BENE ¬ FIT ASSOCIATION IN THIS ISLAND. Grand Trustee Rev. Dr. Burke has long been a prominent figure in Catholic Mutual Benefit Association matters here. He may assuredly be regarded as the father of the association in the Island province, and a most enthusiastic supporter of the order. Indeed his is the first signature on the branch roll on the Island, and since then he has been con¬ tinuously Deputy, Grand Deputy and Trustee. Dr. Burke was born at Georgetown in the early '60s and after a successful pri¬ mary course at the high school of his native town, he entered College, where his progress was exceedingly brilliant. He went to Laval University for his theol¬ ogy and was known at that university as one of the cleverest and most forceful disputants. He was ordained by the late Cardinal Tache- reau in 1885, and appointed secretary to the bishop at Charlottetown for two and a half years. Since that time he has been pastor of Sacred Heart, Alberton , where every good movement finds in him an ardent friend and promotor, and whence, in church and state he wields an immense influence for good in Island affairs. He has long been prominent in every public movement in his native province, and is certainly one of the best known clergymen of any denomination in all Canada . He has successfully undertaken several important missions for the nation, in connection with colonization and other schemes, crossing the continent and visit¬ ing the American Northwest on several oc¬ casions in this capacity. Recognizing in his early pastoral career the entire dependence of his native province on agriculture, without any previous farm¬ ing experience of his own, Father Burke threw himself enthusiastically into the move¬ ments having for their object the more sys¬ tematic and scientific culture of the soil and in a marvelously short time became the re¬ cognized authority in agriculture, and es¬ pecially horticulture in his Island home, and a much-sought-after exponent of their prin¬ ciples in Canada and the States. For years Dr. Burke has been president of the Fruit Growers' Association of Prince Edward Island , which has prospered won¬ derfully under him; vice-president of the Canadian Forestry Association, Ottawa; vice-president of the American Pomological Society, Boston; vice-president of the Mari¬ time Bee Keepers' Association; director of