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Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 166, 19 February 1878, Page 2

Dr. Bulmer, recently of Akaroa, but now a resident of Fitzroy, near Melbourne, delivered a lecture before the Eclectic Association of Victoria, in the Royal Society's Hall, Melbourne, on the 3rd ult. The lecture, or rather paper read by the Doctor, is thus spoken of in the circular issued by the Eclectic Association on the 2nd inst:—"Dr Buhner, M.D.,read his paper on the "Origin of Man, as taught by Evolution and Science," in which he maintained that there is less actual difference between the highest brute and the lowest savage, than there is between the savage and the most advanced types of humanity, and that the whole weight of scientific evidence goes to prove that as is the origin of the lowest animals, so is that of man. Life was defined in Spencerian terms as a result of the harmony of external and internal relations, and is the same in its nature under every form."

Mr F. Priest, of Okain's Bay, informs us that he has collected, in that bay, the sum of £7 Bs, in aid of the fund being raised to assist the widow and orphans of the late John Bunny. We hope to hear of as good a return from most of the other bays on the Peninsula, as the object is one deserving the aid of all those who ate charitably inclined.

As showing the destructiveness of rabbits in the Southland district, a Dunedin friend of ours has told us that; he knows of a firm who recently received an order for seven miles of wire netting, to be used for fencing cultivation paddocks, belonging to a large landowner in the south. So bad is this pest that no garden, in some places, is safe except it has wire netting along the fences. We hear from the same authority, that the rabbits are rapidly coming north, they having crossed the Clutha river, and made their appearance at different places on its northern bank.

Among the telegrams from the north, one from Napier informs us of the recent death of the late Bishop of Waiapu, Dr William Williams. Bishop Williams in his early days studied medicine,- and after graduating at Oxford, and having been ordained to the Ministry of the Church of England, proceeded to New Zealand about the year 1826 to join his brother, the late Archdeacon Henry Williams as a Missionary to the Maori race, amongst whom he laboured assiduously for nearly fifty years. The late Bishop was appointed first Archdeacon of Waiapu, which office is now filled by his son Yen. Leonard Wiiliams. As Archdeacon of Waiapu Bishop Williams visited England, and in 1859 was consecrated in Wellington under letters patent, first Bishop of Waiapiu being the first Bishop consecrated in this colony. The See of Waiapu being then a purely Missionary diocese, Bishop Williams lived on the east coast near Poverty Bay, where he remained at imminent risk during the Hau-Hau outbreak in 1864. Being compelled to seek refuge at last, he proceeded to Auckland, and the whole of the Hawke's Bay Province being severed from the diocese of Wellington and thrown into that of Waiapu, his Lordship jiroceeded to Napier which he made the episcopal centre of his large diocese. The good Bishop's last official act was the ordination to the priesthood of the Rev. Messrs Marshall and Anderson, the latter beifg tho present Curate of Akaroa, in March, 1876, on which occasion his Lord ship appeared in his usual good health but in less than a fortnight afterwards he received a slight stroke of paralysis which eventuated in his lesigning the See of Waiapu. Another paralytic stroke attacked him in a short time, but up till very recently Bishop Williams was well able to cultivate bis garden, which was his usual pastime, and was keenly alive to church matters generally. He has now passed away from us at the age of 78 respected by all who knew him, and much beloved by those who enjoyed bis more intimate acquaintance. His venerable and dignified presence, sound wisdom, and kindly manner, together with his fine parts as a scholar and linguist will not easily be forgotten, and his loss will be felt by many outside Jof his date diocese. Among the lasting monuments to his memory is the New Testament translated by him from the original Greek into the Maori language. Last Tuesday, when on his way from his station at Flea Bay to Akaroa, Mr Holdsworth Rhodes observed what appeared to be the hull of a capsized vessel floating some distance away from the shore, and, he states, from the fact of his seeing 'white water between the supposed hull and something apparently dragging astern, that it looked as if a dinghy was in tow. The schooner Excelsior, bound from Timaru to Wellington, having been missing for some time, there is a probability of what is stated being true, and that we may have to record another casualty on tins coast, already so fertile in maritime disasters. •■

There was no business transacted at the office of the Akaroa and Wainui Road Board Last Saturday.

We have to thank Mr James Wood for telegraphic news received from Christchurch, by his pigeons, on the mornings of the lust few days. Mr Wood has been sending relays of pigeons to Christchurch, so that when the morning papers are issued the cable and othei news is cut from them by his correspondent, attached to the pigeons, and oftentimes in less than an hour the news is to be seen at Wood Bros, and Co.'s store.

We understand that Mr St. John's property, situated on the left hand side of German Bay hill leading out of Akaroa, and which was lately advertised as being for sale, has been purchased by Mr H. S» Bushel!, of Akaroa, for the sum of £1425.

We colonials are a long way behind " Cousin Jonathan," and have a deal to learn from our inventive and enterprising relative. We, of Banks Peninsula, pride ourselves on the superiority of the 'cheese manufactured in our dairies, and think the article turned out by our dairymen is second to none. However, even in this Jonathan beats us; what local producer will dare to say that he can bring to market an article such as is described as follows :—" In Minnesota is a most extensive manufactory of Limburger cheese. One hundred and twenty cows contribute to the formation of the article. It is said that the cheese is considered ; ripe' when a piece the size of a bean will drive a dog out of a tanyard."

We take the following statistical information relative to disparity in the sexes, unalienated lands, and stock to the square mile, in the different Australian colonies, from a New South Wales contemporary :— "In Victoria there 118 males to every 100 females; in New South Wales, 123 ;in Queensland, 155 ; in South Australia, 108 ; in Western Australia, 144 ; in Tasmania, 111 ;in New Zealand, 130. Victoria has 45 million acres of Crown lands not yet alienated ; New South Wales, 175 millions; Queensland, 426 millions ; South Australia, 578 millions ; Western Australia, 638 millions; Tasmania, 13 millions; and New Zealand, 54 millions. New Zealand has 118 head of stock of all descriptions to the square mile ; Tasmania, 75 head ; Western Australia, 1 head ; South Australia, 7 head; Queensland, 14 head ; New South Wales, 90 head ; and Victoria, 144 head to the square mile. In our advertising columns will be found the handicap weights for the different events to be competed for at the Little River races. From what we hear, Mr Duxbury's awards will be found satisfactory to the owners of competing horses, the weights being so arranged that the public are bound to see some good sport for their money. We understand that the recent valuation of the Borough and the Akaroa and Wainui Road Board district has caused considerable dissatisfaction on the part of some of the burgesses and ratepayers respectively, and that a great many objections have been lodged, which will be heard before the Assessment Court in due course. Considering the repeated complaints made by visitors to Akaroa, of whom, perhaps, it is no exaggeration to state that we have seen more this year than formerly, some being still present among us, with regard to the want of proper bathing accommodation, it seems like a slur on the place that what is so much required is hot done, and that there is either an insufficiency of energy on the part of the inhabitants to move in a mat+er, the carrying out of which must eventually prove to be to their advantage, or else that we are suffering from a chronic state of impecuniosity, which does not admit of even a few of those who have vested interests in the town, forming a company, and, while making money themselves, also enrich the district. Had this place been an American town, with equal advantages and similar opportunities to those with which nature has endowed Akaroa, there would not have been a finer harbor or a more perfect watering place in the world.

It is really too bad the way Akaroa is treated by the Union Steam Company. Last week we were told by advertisement that the Taiaroa would sail from here for the South on the 22nd instant; yesterday forenoon the agents informed us that instead of the Tairoa the Hawea would call and sail as to-day ; later in the day we are again informed that the Hawea will go past, with the English Mail, and that no steamer for Dunedin will call here before the 26th instant. This prevaricating method of doing business is the cause of serious loss to the district and its business men. We are told that the latter are partly the cause of the Union Company's neglect of the wants of shippers from and to this port, but fail to see how this can be proved. How can the company expect to have goods ordered to come by their boats when they twist and turn their time table about in the manner we have recorded above ? We know of goods ordered from Christchurch to come by the today; these goods will now have to be stored in Lyttelton, at the consignee's expense, until some other vessel leaves for here. Is it feasible or reasonable to expect that business men will, under such circumstances, reserve their goods to be brought just when it may suit the caprice of the Union Company to do so ? We decidedly think not.

Mr Hardy Johnston, C.E., Engineer to the Lakes Ellesmere and Forsyth Reclamation Trust, paid a visit to Akaroa on Saturday last, in company with Mr Brown who is attached to his staff. Mr Johnston expresses himself as having no doubts of the feasibility of the scheme for draining the lakes and further states, that the formation of a line of railway to Little River, the survey of which has already been commenced, would occupy merely a term of six months, the proposed route presenting no difficulties whatever and being simply a question of money. If, however, the line was further extended to Akaroa, a delay of two years would be caused by the formation of the tunnel through the range. Mr Johnston was much pleased with the nature of the country as far as he had seen it, a remark which is unanimous from all visitors to the Peninsula.

We have heard that, with his usual liberality and readiness to promote the welfare of the district, either in a religious or secular way, Mr W. Montgomery* M.H.R., has contributed the handsome donation of £5 toward the purposes of the Congregational Church on the Peninsula, and that Mr Hemingway has also given the same amount, the receipt of which sums that body desire to thankfully acknowledge.

A petition to His Excellency the Governor is being circulated, and, already contains numerous signatures to the effect that the foreshore should be handed over to the Borough Council, according to a resolution passed at the last meeting of that body.

A meeting of committee of the Banks Peninsula Pastoral Association was held at the Somerset Hotel, on Saturday last the 16th inst. We will publish in our next issue a full account of the business done and prizes voted by the meeting, and regret our inability to do so in this publication. From the Lyttelton Times of yesterday we take the following : — The funeral of the late Honorable W. B. Rhodes, M.L.C., which took place on the 14th instant, at Wellington, was very largely attended, especially by the old settlers in that locality, with which Mr Rhodes has been so long associated. His Worship the Mayor and many of the leading citizens were present, in order to show this mark of respect to the memory of one of the pioneers of the colony. The chief mourners were Mr Robert Rhodes (the deceased's brother), Mr Studholme of Canterbury, and Mr W. S. Moorhouse, M.H.R. On the funeral coitege arriving at the cemetery the burial service, in the mortuary chapel and at the gray«, was read in a very impressive manner by the Rev. Mr Harvey, of St Paul's, and the coffin, on the top of which were laid wreaths of immortelles, was lowered into the brick vault prepared for its reception.

We have heard invitations to partake of whisky given in many different kinds of phraseology ; we have seen the same subtle fluid recommended, under different names, as an antidote to disease, and a cure for the numberless ills to which flesh is heir ; we have read and heard its virtues belauded, but never, no never, did we see it recommended as it is in the following advertisement which wa clip from the San Francisco News Letter:- " Mr Michael O'Shaughnessy got very much interested in the perusal of an expose of Chinese leprosy. He also got very indignant, but failed to comprehend the exact purport of the article. ' Lepers is it,' he remarked. ' Lepers is it, that the Chinese are ? It's an old man I am, begorra! and I'll bet twinty-foive dollars that I'll lep agin any Chinaman in the city. I was the foinest leper in County Cork in '37, and I'll tread on the tail o' my own coat if I can't lep a five-fut hurdle this same minnit." Golden Plantation Whisky, from F. and P. J Cassin's 523 Front-street, enabled him to leap like that." We hear that it is the intention of Mrs Walter Hill and company, assisted by Mr C. Wallace, to give one or two of their dramatic entertainments in Akaroa, within a short time from now. Mrs Hill's well known reputation as an actress should in itself be sufficient to draw crowded audiences, and as a truthful exponent of the drama this lady has scarcely an equal in the colony. We observe that at the late Intercolonial Regatta at Wanganui, one of the crew who pulled in the winning boat in the champion whaleboat race was one of the brothers Brough, George, formerly a resident of Akaroa, and well known among us as a first class oarsmau. It is satisfactory to observe that the art learnt and skilj acquired upon the waters of Akaroa harbor, have thus enabled Mr G. Brough to give so good an account of his prowess. We also observe that another brother, Mr J. Brough was one of the crew in the second boat in the senior four-oared race.