Untitled

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1632, 27 November 1874, Page 442

The Alexandra natives at, Kuiti are reported to be in desperate straits for food. They are trying to raise advances on their crops.

A lady correspondent writes from Lon. don to the Australasian:—The Queen is to make a long stay in the Highlands. The precautions to ensure her privacy during her journey were quite unusually strict, and at Leith such peremptory orders were issued for the exclusion of the public from even the precincts of the railway station, that the train moved off amid a dead silence, broken by hisses; and the announcement of Prince Leopold's illness was received with incredulity. It is, however, quite true that Princo Leopold is much worse, and that he is quite unable to walk. The liberal grant of Parliament to the invalid Priuce is regarded with some discontent, as it is asked what can a young man in his state of health want with £15,000 a year ? The King of Denmark has paid us an entirely unexpected visit. On his return from the Icelandic festival, which was in all respects successful and interesting, he came to Leith, where he was joined by the Princess of Wales. The Royal father and daughter visited Edinburgh and 6ome other places of interest together, and then, to the surprise of everybody—no 6uch intended visit having announced—the Princess, attended by a small suite, embarked on board her father's ship and accompanied him to Copenhagen. The Prince of Wales did not accompany her Royal Highness, did not see the Kiug of Denmark, and having declined the invitation to hunt at Exmoor, remained at Osborne Cottage until after the departure of the Princess and her father. The Prince has now arrived in town, and will, it is said, join the Princess at Copenhagen in a few days. The Royal children have sailed for Copenhagen in the yacht Alberta, and the Prince remains in town for a few days. The general feeling is that the Imperial visitors have been badly treated, and it is much to be regretted that the Queen did not receive the Emperor Francis Joseph. All the circumstances indicate the Queen's determination to persevere in the seclusion from which it was hoped she was about to emerge, and the "party of discontent" (to use a French phrase) are disposed to see in them a lowering of our national prestige.

The writer of " Under the Pulpit," in the Melbourne Leader, in the course of one of his articles makes the following remarks aud comparisons on the religions of Victoria :—Sydney Smith projected the idea of a map of England according to its religious varieties, upon a geological pattern —green for one theological extremity, sepia for another, skyblue for the Presbyterian chalk, red for the Episcopalian sandstone, and so on. To judge from Mr Archer's tables, Victoria would certainly seem to offer no inferior field for a similar experiment. As Butler exclaimed,

What rerolut'ons and rel'gions That) are not in our native regions.

Since his time the list has been enlarged by the addition of several new sects. For instance, Positivism was unheard of even as a philosophic formula. Spiritualism, though lurking in the seed-beds of mediaeval mysticism, had not organized itself into a full-blown creed. Both of them have a place in Mr Archer's catalogue, which I gave in extenso, as affording in a compendious form an interesting compilation of the plias'js of faith of which the Victorian mind is susceotible:—-Episco-palians, Presbyterians (eight varieties), Wesleyan Methodists (nine varieties), Independents, Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Lutherans, Moravians, Plymouth Brethren, Dutch Reformed Church, French Reformed Church, Countess of Huntingdon's Connection, Morrisonians, Swedenborgians, Spiritualists, Unitarians, Theists, Pautheists, Atheists, Posilivists, Roman Catholics, Catholic and Apostolic Church, Greek Church, New Catholics, Arians, Christ-Adelphians, Rosicrucians, Universalists, Jews, Nazarenes, Christian Socialists, Mormons, Druids, Hindoos, Mahometans, Dickinites, Peculiar People, Cosmopolitans. As Emerson says, what a fertility of projects for the salvation of the world! But for my part, as a Victorian, I am not at all embarassed by the contemplation of so many religions, all struggling to secure a foothold on this large and bounteous soil of ours. The cynic may possibly find food for his disparaging temper in the thought that there should be such a surprising variety of opinions in the world on the subject of its spiritual destiny, some of them vitally opposed to each other, but very many of them separated by not more deeply-seated or vital distinctions than those which distinguished the controversies of the Bigendians and Little-endians in Lilliput. Personally I do not care much what end I break the egg at, and I am rather content to pride myself on the fact that this young country has extended its hospitality to so many spiritual aliens of the earth, and offered

Free space for every human doubt That the whole world might orb about. Every church is good enough that answers the purpose of a church, says the Rev, Ward Beecher. Rivalries are good."

A Ten-dollar Wife.—Parson Allen, of D., was quite a wag and a peculiarly interesting preacber. He was often called upon to perform the marriage ceremony, and his peculiarities on such occasions often furnished a supply of merriment long after the parties had retired from the parsonage. On one occasion, after the marriage knot had been tied, the bridegroom, supposing that the parson was entitled by law to a certain fee, and would therefore return the change, handed the minister a $lO bill, which was carefully fol'ed and placed in his pocket. The old parson having noticed the X in the corner of the old State bank note, kept up a lively conversation on the ups and downs of life, till the groom became somewhat nervous over the delay in relation to his change, and ventured to say : " Parson Allen, that was a ten dollar bill I gave you." " Yes, so I perceive. You are very generous. It is not often that I receive so large a fee. A comfortable thing it is to have a bank note in one's pocket," and then he gave some amusing illustrations of selfishness, and another ten minutes of precious time was consumed. Again the groom ventured to remind the parson that he had not returned the change he had expected, and he hesitatingly suggested : " Perhaps you did not think the bill I handed-you for your, service was a ten, did you, Parson Allen ?" " Oh, yes. I noticed.that it was. I assure you that I have not been so agreeably surprised for a long time. I always think on such occasions that the husband' has an appreciative regard for his worthy partner, and I presume you regard your wife that now is, as worth at hast $lO, and I doubt if you would have the knot untied for twice the sum, would you, Mr N?" " Not I," said the nonplussed bridegroom ; " but is there no regular fee which the minister is allowed to take for marrying people ?" '• Not that I, am aware of," responded the parson. '• We always leave the fee to be fixed by the parties who get married." And so the bridegroom, evaded at all points, gave up the effort to get back any change.