COLONIAL NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 21, 31 May 1851, Page 2

COLONIAL NEWS.

SYDNEY.

"We resume our extracts from the Sydney Morning Herald, necessarily curtailed last week through press of other matter. On the evening of Easter Tuesday, the fifth anniversary meetingof the committee and subscribers to the cathedral of St. Andrew was held in Sydney; the Bishop of Sydney in the Chair. The Rev. Dr. Jackson, Bishop Designate of Lyttelton, was also present. The report of the meeting contains many excellent speeches, chiefly, however, of local importance. We select from them the following, as more likely*to interest our fellow-colonists. "The Bishop designate of Lyttei/ton said, that he should be wanting in every sentiment of gratitude, if he did not deeply feel all that had fallen that evening from the reverend Primate and Metropolitan of the Australasian Church. In returning his thanks for the cordial welcome with which he had been received in Sydney, his lordship, before he proceeded to the chief topic of the evening, would say a few words in reference to the appeal made to him by his honor the Chief Justice, as one who was expected to bear a living testimony when he arrived in England, as to the condition, religious, moral, and social, of the people of this great city. Reclamations most^assuredly would have to be made by any who may have spoken slightingly of that people. But his lordship firmly believed that words, seemingly spoken in slight, had been spoken when the true friends of colonization at home were lifting their voice against that most pernicious practice (too long practised by their countrymen) of inoculating great colonies with the gathered mischief of their own country. Thousands of people, growing up in ignorance and vice, Socialists (as in political theory they must be termed), neglected by those whose duty it was to educate and prepare them for the labour of honest industry, whether at home or in distant colonies; these people, who were the most dangerous class in any country, when they robbed and plundered, when they committed the most heavy offences against both person and property, what did the mother country want to do with them ? Why ship them off, and with such materials found a people at the antipodes! "We have said," continued his lordship, "desponding, and, it may be, slighting things of you, when we have seen some ofourcountrymen bent on perpetuating this great evil. I have said, but I will say it no move, that if Sydney \veve to become the centre of buccaneering in the South Seas, in place of being as she is, the centre of a princely and honourable commerce, no one could wonder at the ; result, when to her noble ports were freighted ship-loads of the neglected crime and vice of the United Kingdom. In such a sense as this I am sure that my noble friend Lord. Ashley spoke when he denounced the enormity of pouring crime upon these beauteous: shores.

He could never have meant to calumniate the virtuous families of the colonists; this, I am confident, I can assure my excellent friend, the Chief Justice, the eldest and best of whose amiable family is beside me on this platform. He could never have meant to speak slightingly of the enterprising and industrious people, whose natural energy and perseverance are visible the moment that the noble waters of Port Jackson are entered. I was naturally prejudiced in favour of a Port of the same name as my own, and probably so called after some former member of my peasant-sprung family. I had never seen a colony before my last departure from England. I had talked of colonial churches, and shaped them as log huts in my eyes. I had lamented their scanty supply of means, and had often lamented my inability to enlist powerful support in their favour. But when I arrived in Sydney, my wonder grew, and still my wonder grows. Mansions of stone, that would have done no discredit to Palladio himself; villas, in your delicious suburbs, which, had such been built three centuries ago on the banks of the Bretna, the wealthy patrons of art, the Burlingtons of those days, would have hastened to gaze upon and copy. I see broad streets, whose shops and marts are piled with all that European luxury can supply: carriages vying with the handsomest equipages of the proudest thoroughfares of the old countries; in a word every sign of opulence, industry, and luxury, meets my eye; and lam again left to wonder, how, in sixty years, this great metropolis has grown, and prospered with this surprising growth. But another and a far different sentiment was awakened whilst I was wondering at these things. As I proceeded down Georgestreet, a wooden building, which I was told was the metropolitan church of St. Andrew, met my eye; and looking beyond, I saw what, at first sight, appeared to be the noble ruin of some stately abbey, which, like another Netley, had been destroyed by the anger of those who" wage the war of extermination against corruption and error. But I was soon undeceived. I was told that the unremitting exertions of a few members of the church had made this progress in their most admirable design of a cathedral; but whilst I was inwardly applauding their zeal, to my shame and confusion my informant added "Ah, sir, if this had been a "Roman Catholic Cathedral it would have been finished long ago." At that moment, a scene, in which I, as a parish priest, was an actor in London, forcibly occurred to my memory. It was in a magnificent house, in a gorgeous apartment in which, furnished with all that wealth, and taste, and fashion could provide, a woman was bitterly weeping on her knees. A season of trial and sorrow was hers, and to my efforts at consolation, she could only exclaim in agony," Do you think sir, that my husband will be saved ?" Now, had I been a priest of Rome, armed with pretentious power to assure the dying man of a place in paradise, and, had promised masses for his soul, and had wished to have built a chantry to a Romish Cathedral in Sydney, gratefully and confidently would a draft for 5000£. or 6000 Z. have been given upon the banker of that Christian woman. But I had no such power. I could only, in accordance with the doctrine of the primitive church, preach repentance for sin, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have recurred to this painful scene, because it is necessary to remind the members of the Church of England that they must rely upon their own exertions, if they desire to finish the noble temple which they have begun. That lukewarm members of our Church are not so fond of their religion = as those, who. worship under a false system, lam afraid must be said. When the late papal invasion aroused the apathetic from tbjnr sleep, their indignation, and their promises of sustained vigilance were, at the time, doubtlessly, siucere ; yet when solid and substantial labours were required at their hands, how many relapsed into their apathy. In addition to the deep religious feelings which should urge every true Churchman to aid with energy, zeal, and patience in the erection of such edifices as the one which we are now considering, there are other incentives (as was so well urged by the Chief Justice) which ought to weigh with every thoughtful man. Amid the reflections which pressed heavily, upon myself when I was contemplating, the leaving England, and passing the remainder of my days in New Zealand; the saddest was the thought that my little children Avould never see anything old or grand in art, in that young couutry. And young as they are, I have promised my two boys and two little

girls, that, before they sojourn in a distant land, (where weather boarded huts, will, of necessity, be all that for many years their eyes can turn to, after contemplating- the wondrous works of God,) they shall visit Paris and Brussels in the hope that, from beholding the great works of painting, sculpture, and architecture in those cities, they will ever bear with them a recollection, dim soever it may be, of the glorious creations of the highest schools of art. There is in magnificence in art and design, a great power, (not sufficient certainly as a moral power, but nevertheless a great one) to control evil tendencies. Whilst I gaze with reverence and gratitude at the beauties of nature; and in wandering through botanical gardens, muse on the goodness of the Creator, I also look with respect and admiration on those splendid piles, the Bourse of Paris, and the lloyal Exchange of London, over the stately portico of the latter of which is inscribed the motto," The Earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;" a motto which I would earnestly recommend to your merchants who are, lam truly glad to hear, about to build a commercial mart in Sydney. These being my views, in respect to the advantages of. beauty and magnificence in design, I am truly anxious that the chief edifice of your city should, in every attribute of art, be worthy of the sacred and solemn purposes to which it is to be dedicated. It may be long before one of our native born youth may drink of the deep well of which Milton;, drank; but like that great bard, they may gaze at the beauties of their Cathedral, with its Windows richly dyed, Casting a dim religious light, Rely upon it, you will be working influences for good, if your merchants and traders, like the merchants of London, do not, in the eager pursuit of gain, forget to make some portion of that gain subservient to the glory of God ; arid the future prosperity of your port and city will assuredly not retrogade, if the stranger upon landing on your shores, beholds the stately towers of your cathedral, with the cross upreared thereon, nobly standing above the busy marts of trade and the proud dwellings of luxury and wealth. The first impression of a stranger so landing would be this: " I am in the commercial capital of a Christian people, who possess knowledge, and have responsible duties to perform, and who know how to use the one and appreciate the other." To one and all of this noble group of British colonies, the Cathedral of St. Andrew will appear as the blessed type of union. It will represent the Church of Australasia, which, missionary in its character, will not relax in its efforts to diffuse Christianity throughout this hemisphere, so that not one infidel shall be found in the beautiful isles of the Southern Pacific. The Churches at New Zealand look to Sydney as the central scene of their operations; and as allusions have been made to myself so unexpectedly appearing as the seventh Bishop of Australasian sees, likening me, as it were, to " the seventh pleiad lost so long," let me add a hope that an eighth will soon appear in the person of the Bishop of Western Australia. But Sydney, let me repeat, will be the seat of our Metropolitan; it will bejour Canterbury; and as you have adverted to your intention to include the see to which I am about to be elevated among those which are inscribed on the six pillars in St. Andrew's, I can assure you that I shall hope for a large pillar to represent the first experiment iv church colonization ; and I pledge myself that something worthy of record shall be inscribed upon it in commemoration of the Canterbury Settlement. Let me make a practical suggestion to your Committee. I promise to use all the influence in my humble power, with my friends and connexions in England, to obtain assistance to complete this great work; and I ask your committee to exert all their influence to double whatever sum I may obtain. And now it remains to. me to thank you with all my heart for your personal kindness to myself. I shall rely upon your prayers during the long voyages, and the progress of the arduous works, which are before me. And I will pray for you, and pray that by your faith and zeal the fabric may be completed, which is to be dedicated to the service of the living God ; that therein our venerated Metropolitan may minister, not with gorgeous processions and crucifixes, and rosaries, and arrays of pomp, and iinintelligible ceremonials, and language not understood by the people, but in the pure and simple mode prescribed by the Church of England ; that, pn the other hand, you, his flock, Will show your gratitude to Almighty God, not

by apathetic compliance, or neglect of your pastors' ministrations; not by shouts and professions on exciting occasions, forgotten when the momentary excitement is over; but by vigilance, and watchfulness, and active services, and grateful obedience to the Word. And fervently praying that the spirit of the men of Sydney may be stirred up even as was the spirit of the men of Judah, when they cried, " Thy servants Lord will arise and build," aud they came and did work in the house of the Lord of Hosts their God. I see before me the pledge of the success of my prayer. I see our Metropolitan walking up the aisle of the Cathedral, ascending the pulpit, and preaching of "righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come," and confirming the young, and comforting the aged, and placing this Cathedral on the same footing as the sacred sanctuaries o£ the older countries of the Christian world.

Extirpation of the Atjstealian Dog.— The letter given below is taken from the Iterald of April 25, and may be useful to our readers in the more uncolonized districts of the settlement. To the Editors of the Sydney Morning Herald, Gentlemen, —A writer in your journal of a late date has treated on the ravages committed by the wild dog of the colony in her northern provinces, and advocates some legislatorial mear sure for their extermination. Permit me to observe that these sanguinary pests of the sheepfold are to be extirpated with the greatest ease, and at very little cost, much more speedily than, any act of the kind alluded to would be likely to pass our chambers. One ounce of strychnia in chrystals, it being less subject to adulteration in that state, will clear any station in the colony. This remedy may, or ought to be, purchasable in Sydney for thirty or thirty-five shillings. So that whilst my old friends north of the Murruinbidgee talk of wild dogs, they might get rid of them. Strychnia has been tried in this district with astonishing success. A "brush"' is a thing now to be Avondered at. The result to myself alone has been a saving of at least £350 a year, not to speak of the annoyance and torture I am relieved from. The bait for a dog is a piece of fresh meat of about eight ounces, into which a small quantity of the poison has been inserted. This suspended from an over-hanging branch, beyond the reach of wild cats, by a thin piece of twine, under a "nosable" piece of carrion, is almost certain to secure any particular dog. But to " smash the breed" without mercy, attach a dead sheep, or kangaroo, or emu, or bullock's paunch, or any carrion to be obtained readily, to the axle of a light cart, and at sundown (to cheat the crows) take a road or a cattle track, through the parts principally infested, and as you go along leave a bait, in some such manner as I have described, at intervals of a mile or thereabouts. We generally drop a few pieces of unpoisoned meat around the bait, to arrest the dog in his rapid career on scent. It will be necessary to take up the baits which remain untouched at daylight, if you wish to economise. This is a simple way of effectually ridding a station of a most outrageous pest. I may observe, also, that strychnia is found to be an "admirable specific in attacks of the eagle hawk during the lambing season. No later in fact than this morning, I destroyed two in about ten minutes, which I observed hovering over the lambs of some imported ewes. Touch the heart and liver of a dead lamb with a pinch of the poison, and your success is certain. The extermination of the wild dog instead of being a matter for the interference of the Legislature, is in fact simply a question between the settler and his merchant^ or apothecary. If the writers on the foregoing subject were to urge upon the legislature the necessity for an act for the compulsory burning of the dead bodies of those animals which die from natural causes in the colony, that killing disease now prevalent in ' the County of Cumberland,' would be arrested. I have stayed the black-leg by such means on the farm adjoining, (strange to say !) that very estate of Leppington, on which it is said this new-faugled disease first appeared, and which black-leg broke out spontaneously, no other case at the time being heard of within one hundred miles of us. Ie is to be hoped, however, that when we have a few more men of common sense in our Councils, and fewer ravings on "patriotism, 31 "rights of the people," &c, we shall have less disease in the country, and the

Council reports of the Sydney Herald be worth the perusal. One is almost inclined to think that the " malignant pustule" had its origin somewhere else than on the estate of Leppington. Your obedient servant, H.S.WILLS. Lexington, Wimmeira.