NOTES ON CURRENT EVENTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 26, 31 December 1884, Page 2

NOTES ON CURRENT EVENTS.

The Post says :— -The new regulations for the encouragement of association special settlements are, it appears, likely to be exteusivuly taken advantage of. Already a large number of communications on.'tho matter have reached the Minister of Lands, and steps are being taken to form associations m Wangauui and the Wairarapa. The chief difficulty is expected to be to find blocks of suitable land to supply the demaiidv; The Surveyor-Geueral, Mr. M'Kerrow, has been directed to give his attention to this point, aud will shortly personally visit and report upon all Crown lands throughout the colony which may be deemed suitable for association special settlements. The price of laud m these settlements is by the regulations left to the Minister of Lands to determine, and it is understood that he intends to make this as low as possible, probably not exceeding £1 per acre, the cost of snrvey, which will be about 2s per acre, being paid by the association. As one third of the purchase money goes to the local body, this would leave the Government a clear 13s 4d per acre to devote to road making and opening up the laud."

The Melbourne correspondent of the Catnberdown Chronicle writes : — " Dr Bromby's marriage to Miss Banks has been the cause of great social uprising among his paticular circle, Miss Bromby's class, m the Pro-Cathedral Sundayschool has been broken up by the desire of the parents, who will not allow their children to s attend. Mr Rosier, the superintendent of the Sunday-school; has resigned his position, and it is understood thatthe tnjctor is to .be removed from Melbourne, lie told the Bishop, when advised by that dignitary not to commit such a false step, that he was old enough, to junge for himself. This, of course, was quite true, but he can hardly have foreseen all the conseauonCC6. 11

Perhaps there is uo more touching feature of our lime than the zeal and enthusiasm displayed m the East-end of Loudou by the band of young Oxford men who are comiug to dwell m the large house standing within easy reach of Baruett's vicarage iv the dreary labyrinth of 'Whitechapol. Binding themselves to restrict their expenses to 30s per week, they live the laborious and self sacrificing lives of youug monks. "To learn to know the poor "is the lesson they have set themselves to acquire and to this end they live m the midst of the slums and back streets that are the haunts of the degraded and ueglectted. Many of these young men have no intention of joining.the Church ; they are simply actuated by a feeling of dedication to the needs of their feJlowbeings. They are iv a vow to do something towards lifting the burden of misery that weighs on the natioual conscience like a sin. Each labourer is allowed to do that which he feels himself best fitted to do towards ministering to the human needs that he meets — teaching, lecturing, organising, recreation, starting clubs ; m one word, makeing friends with the ignorant, the depressed, the thriftless, guiding them to reach sunnier spots m lifes circle by the hand of enlightened sympathy.