Seasonable Notes.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 24 December 1891, Page 2

Seasonable Notes.

Christmas Day is derived from I tJlutut and the Saxon hmenae, signi fying th-3 muss and a fjast. The festival i.s said to have been iii-sfc kept ia th.i yea i- 9.\ and was ome red to ha held as a solemn feast by Pope I Telcsphorus about 137. In the Eastern Church, '• hmtinas is kept on the Oih January, and the Amcnian.i celebrata it on the 18th -January. The hilly and mistletoe are said to be the lvnmins of the religious observances of the Druids. /Uioufc the year 137, Diocletian, the Roman Emperor, keeping his ''curt at NiconiKlia, boing informed that the Christians worw assi-mbled i on this day (Christmas) in giv-at j multitudes to cclfb;att) Christ's i uativity, ordered the doors to be ! shut, and t.he ' hurch set on fire, and 600 perished in the burning pile. Oaptaiu Cook passed two Christ- • mas days in this portion of the globe. * In 177-1 he passed • hristnms day at , Christmas sound ; in 1777 he passed the day on Christmas island, the one

bat lies midway between the Maruesas islands and the Sandwich slands. To the south of Java is nother ' hristma-s island. New Zealand was discovered by he Dutch dv ing December, 1642, nd was by them named Staaten jand. Mr Marsden opened his spiritual rusade at the I 'ay of Islands on hristraas day, 1814. The natives lad made rude preparations for the svent by enclosing half an acre of and with a fence, erecting a pulpit Li-.d reading-desk in the centre, sovered with native mats dyed black, tnd using as seats for the Europeans iome bottoms of old canoes, which vere placed on each side of the )ulpit. A flagstaff was erected on he highest hill. Mr Marsden writes : "On Sunday morning vhen T was up on de6k I saw the English flag flying, which was a leasing sight in New Zealand. I jonsidered it as the signal, and the lawn of civilization, liberty and reigion in that dark and benighted and. I never viewed the British jolouis with more gratification, and lattered myself they would never be amoved till the natives of that island enjoyed all the happiness of British subjects " The first British Consul for New Zeaknd, Captain Hobson, E. N., irrived at New South Wales in FL'M.B. "Druid" and landed at Port Tackson on the Christmas eve >f 1839, and arrived at the Bay of Islands in January. 1840. On the 29th December, 1847, a charter, founded upon an Act passed in 1*«46, creating powers municipal, legislative and administrative was granted, but was not acted upon till the 20th December, 1848. The celebrated Maori chief, William Thompson, died 28th December, 1866. .