Local and General.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume IV, Issue 317, 22 September 1875, Page 2

Local and General.

We have to acknowledge the the Govrr'-ment Fi infer peryerterasj land Mail u! a large batch of Fa pew. |

An open lodge entertainment was given with great success by the members of the lauranga Lodge of Good Templars at the Irwporance Hall on Monday evening last. lao doors wore thrown open for the admission of the public at eight o’clock, when the proceedings were opened by singing the Good Templars’ ode as an opening chorus. Mr Wood ruffe, the Worthy Chief Templar of the Tauranga Lodge, thou lead a very sensible address on the subject of Good Tern pi ary. The remarks made by Mr woodruffo were terse and sensible, and free from biaotrv, and were made in such a manner as evidently appealed to the sympathies of those present. Mr Woodruff* also made special reference to the arrival of the special settlers for the Katikati, and on the part of the Good Templars gave them a hearty welcome to the district. Songs, recitations, and readings were then given by several members of the Order; and a closing address was made by Mr Shepherd, an officer of the Grand Lodge in Auckland. The evening’s entertainment was concluded by the performers singing the Templars’ Closing Ode” and ” God Save the Queen;” and, if the extent of the apprecia lion of theseopen lodge meetings may be judged by the number of visitors who were present on this occasion the members of the Order have every cause to congratulate themselves on the result of their efforts.

Mr Vcsey Stewart and the party of special settlers who proceeded to Katikati on Thursday last for the purpose of selecting their land, returned to town, a portion on Saturday night and the remainder on Sunday. We understand that during their short stay the settlers walked all over the land and made a rough selection of their respective allotments. Since Monday morning they have been busy making their definite choice from the plans prepared in tho Survey Department. Kearly all the settlers have now made their selection, and Mr E. C. Goldsmith, government surveyor, is shortly about to proceed to the Katikati, to finally survey and mark out tho several allotincuts. It is satisfactory to learn that the new arrivals arc very much pleased with tho land, and are going to work on it at once.

There is a popular idea that anything to be good must come Irom the Old Country, but the idea is undoubtedly as fallacious as it is popular, as now-a-days there are many articles which are equally well manufactured in the colony as at homo. Among others, we may allude to the simple article of “soap,” Wo have lately visited the establishment of Mr «). Allendcr, in Auckland, am! have seen soap of all descriptions, which is equally as good apparently as any to be procured in any part of the globe. Under these circumstances, therefore, it certainly appears strange to us that any one should think it necessary to send some 13,000 miles for an article which can bo procured as good if cot better at our own doors. Church music has of late received considerable attention in Auckland at the hands of incumbents, the music at St Paul’s being especially noticeable. The cultivation of Church psalmody in St. Paul’s has in its results more than equalled the most sanguine anticipations of the worthy incumbent, the Kcv. C. M. Nelson, who has so earnestly advocated incrcascdaUcntion to this important part of the Church service. The Sunday before last at evening service the anthem “Call to Kemembrance” was beautifully rendered by the choir. The solo was given by Miss Leal in'her best stylo, and the several parts of the quartette and chorus were also given in excellent voice. Wo wish a little more attention was accorded in Tauranga to the musical portion of the services, and we can but hope that when our new church is opened this will ho the case. The Queenslander asks: “Ought Captain Cook to have a statue ? The people of the neighbouring Colony, five years ago,answered this question in the affirmative, and have ever since been trying to make good their opinion by elevating, in a pnblic place, an effigy of the great navigator. True, they are either lukewarm about the matter, or else they find Cook a difficult subject, for the memorial has, in the course of many years, only got to the height of its pedestal. There is no statue. Some persons think there never should bo a statue, and reply to the question put at the commencement of this paragraph with a most emphatic ncgati.o. They say that a statue couldn’t be of the least possible use to Cook, and that if, from the shadowy regions which ho now inhabits, he permitted to look upon this earth, the sight of his own eidolon mounted on a granite hiock, in constant commemoration of something ho didn’t do, will make him very uncomfortable. Nobody who has ever deserved

praise likes to get praise that ho doesn't deserve ; and as Cook did many noble deeds and proved himself a hero, ho should bo honoured for his nets rather than made ridi> culous, as the founder of a colony which ho didn’t found, or the discoverer of a harbour that ho never saw. Cook was a great Englishman, and worthy to bo remembered with pride 5 but there was nothing in his connection with Australia which should make him especially revered by Australians. This con* tiuent was discovered a century before Iso was born, and, according to his own account, he was, at the very moment when these shores were sighted from his vessel’s deck, engaged in an elaborate argument to prove that no such land existed. Then ho misdescribed Botany Bay, so that in after years, when Phillip conveyed his fleet hither, ho caused the death of many of the people who attempted to live on land, which ho said was healthy and fertile. Ko; our praises are not in any great degree duo to Cook. If courage and firmness, and steadfast wisdom that was never daunted and that never faltered, are worth recording in stone and bronze, then the heroic Phillip is the man, who of all men should have an honoured place on the costliest pedestal Australian gold can buy. Too little has been thought or said of his grand struggle with the wilderness, with crime, and with famine; but when the true history of this continent shall be written, posterity will rank Arthur Phillip high among tho great minds of the world.”

An enterprising journalist is in quest of special attractions to sell his paper. He says, ({ T(V 1 4 4 * / What we want for this column are personalities, as mean as possible. Expenses of libel suits to be defrayed by the writer, iuneral expenses by us.” A son of Erin, being told of the American who was so tall that ho got up a ladder to shave himself, replied, ” An’ isn’t that as asy walking ? Why wouldn’t the ginlleman git up a lather to shave himself F-—lhaiffis, kurin’ he wore a beard.”