TRAPPISTINE.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 206, 19 April 1865, Page 3

TRAPPISTINE.

(From the 'Canterbury Press.') The revelations made by this singular trial throw a novel light over monastic institutions, and would have been of great service to Mr Froude, when, in the course of his Life of Henry VIII, he had to treat of the suppression of monastries in England. If from every one of those buildings there was wont to flow a perennial stream of deliciously sweet and highly inebriating liquor, it may be that it was an outburst of teetotal rather than of Protestant zeal which brought about the destruction of those time-honored edifices. We can readily understand, too, why the England of olden days is always so emphatically alluded to as "merry" England. If this theory is correct, we may also see in the result of the trial another instance wherein that oft-repeated saying holds goods, " They manage these things better in France." We must confess to feeling highly delighted that the monks got the best of it. It takes us by surprise to find in a body of men shut up for life in the inviolable seclusion of the cloister from the contemplation of mundane affairs so tender a solicitude, so thoughtful a regard for the feelings of their less favored brethren without. Monachism has been said to engender selfishness, but the holy fathers of LaTrappe devote themselves second only to their own spiritual concerns to increasing the comforts of their fellow-men, and knowing how much his happiness depends upon a regular supply of pleasant and wholesome beverage, they have concentrated the energies of years on the production of this inestimable liqueur, the name of which, as is most just, recalls to the mind of the enraptured drinker the memory of those to whom he owes his enjoyment. The name of Bass is honored in all lands; let his votaries henceforth not forget to quaff a passing cup to the health of the monks of La Trappe.

But a close observer may discern another and characteristic reason for the peculiar form in which the philanthropy of La Trappe is allowed to display itself. The rule of that convent, as is well known, is one of unmiti* gated strictness. Whoever enters is required to take two vcvs—one of perpetual silence, the other of perp tual attempts of self-mor-tification. No scheme could be devised more cleverly adapted to strain to the utmost the harshness of both these vows than that of employing the devotees in the manufacture of strong drink. Are they allowed to taste it or not ? If not, what greater mortification could there be than to be continually inhaling the incense that arises from their steaming coppers, yet not allowed to taste one drop of the nectar which their senses assure them is so supremely sweet. On the other hand, if they are allowed to taste, what a fearful penance the vow of silence must become. Imagine a number of cowled and shaven figures sitting around a spacious table in the middle of which stands a lofty punch-bowl filling the air with its rich and fragrant breath. At a sign from the prior a brother ladles out for each a brimming glass of the delicious fluid, and as each drains his glass to the dregs and eagerly holds it out to be refilled, we can mark from his expressive looks and gestures that the time will soon come when it will cost him a direful struggle to signify his appreciation of the liqueur solely by those mute tokens of applause to pass beyond which would be a breach of his solemn vow, and entail a bitter and long-enduring penance. Imagine a neophyte taking his place at the table, and for the first time exposed to the tempting influence of the Trappistine bowl. The first whiff, as he approached the table, would probably give rise to an ejaculation, scarcely suppressed before the frowning look of the prior and the startled glances of his fellow monks, but, warned by this narrow escape, he would subdue his feelings, and partake of his first bumper with not more than those irrepressible symptoms of exultation which need no words to make themselves intelligible. But as glass succeeds glass, and the sweet spirit steals into his brain, we can fancy him losing his self-pos-session, The prior looks less and less austere, the faces of the monks Mash brighter and brighter with merriment, the restraint of expressing his convivial feelings only through the dumb signs of good fellowship becomes every moment more intolerable, till at last the fatal instant is reached when nature can endure no more, the warnings of prudence are cast altogether to the winds, and with a sudden impulse he springs to his feet, lifts up his voice, and makes the hall re-echo with a bacchanalian chant.

Let us drop a veil over the following scene, nor attempt to depict the frightful "next morning that awaits the unwary wassailler. And, in truth, if Trappistine is so good a gift, it becomes us not to scrutinise too closely the means whereby we become possessed of it. Let it suffice that the secret remains in good hands, where it will not be suffered to remain unused. And as for the ex-prior, M. Stremler, we can only hope that his profits during the months that his brewery was at work in Paris, before the law-suit which stopped his career, will enable him to resume his interrupted mission to the New World. Converting infidels should be a more satisfactory employment to a monk even than brewing Trappistine.

The weather still continues unusually strong and boisterous. Although a witness of the gales of '3B and '44, we hardly remember the equinoctial current lasting so long in any country, north or south of the line.

The following description of the much talked of Murphy's diggings is from the Hamilton correspondent of the « Daily Times' :— " A rush of considerable extent will take place, I think, to Murphy's Flat, or Macrae's Flat, as it is now called. Within the last ten days fully 100 men have gone there, and live new stores have been erected. The place of large extent, aud the gold known to exist through a large area, the resources of the places for camping a population are great, and the only drawbacks to scientific working are the want of water, inadequate supply to commence operation with. There are, however, the Stoneburn and another creek at hand, which can be made available, the miners think; and I have no doubt, in a short time, a water-race will be applied for from one of the two. Gold is being got; and I have heard, on good authority, that the amount paid by one bank alone, would give over three-quarters of an ounce per man a-week. Lignite and peat are both there for the trouble of digging for the one, and making the other. The diggings are about fourteen miles from Hamilton and Wayne's lower station, and four miles from Douglas Alderson and Co's station, at Highlay. The washdirt is gravelly, mixed with mica—very like the Kyeburn—and is from eight inches to three feet, and at a depth of from four to fifteen feet. The groud is slightly dangerous, and a second accident took place last week, by which a man named John M'Donald, a native of North Hist, Western Islands, aged about forty years, met with his death. He had been paddocking, and his mate was on the top cuttiug sods. Whilst there he saw the earth caving in, and sung out—--1 Look out, John ;' but the deceased rushed unknowingly to the place where the ground was caving in, and about a ton fell and enveloped him up to the shoulders and head, which \*ere free. On his mates coming to his assistance, and digging him out, he was found dead—death having evidently been caused by suffocation. The • Daily Times' exposes a cool way they have of doing things at Nelson:—" The Wellington 'Spectator' notices that 10,343 ozs of gold were despatched from Nelson by the s.s. Tararua, and that paper, which partially bases a leading article on the circumstance, remarks that this amount was * chiefly the produce of the West Coast, procured during the last month.' A statement of this sort is very likely to be the cause of some misapprehension. The Tararua sailed from Port Otago on 29th March, taking 9350 ozs of gold, the produce of the goldfields of this Province, and it is more than probable that the actual amount shipped by her at Nelson was 993 ozs only, as an addition to her original shipment from this port."

The ' Sydney Morning Herald' thus reads us a lesson from our statistics:—" The chief woolproducing Province is Canterbury, then Otago, then Wellington. The Middle Island is better suited for pastoral pursuits than the Northern Island, or at any rate than the portions that have been available for colonisation. The progress that has been made is very great, and the export of wool has nearly doubled in three years, and the advance is still going on at the same rate. This is a striking proof of the wealth-producing power of pastoral colonisation. Nothing surpasses it but gold-mining, and the prosperity induced by that is apt to be evanescent, lo colonies capable of pastoral industry, the lesson is taught as clearly as can be to let that industry have a fair field, merely taking care that it has no special privileges that would be unfairly adverse to the intrusion of other industries."

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