LETTER FROM CHRISTCHURCH.

Mt Benger Mail, Volume I, Issue 44, 2 March 1881, Page 6

LETTER FROM CHRISTCHURCH.

Trade is improving and the prospect brightening generally. The harvest has been a bountiful one, and if prices wero somewhat higher, our agriculturists would be all the better pleased. An Association has bean formed here called the British Israel Association. The objects of the society are, to receive and disensa original and selected papers, tending to identify the British nation with the lost tribes of the House of lareah It has created a great deal of Interest in Canterbury. Some of the promoters are said to profess their ability to trace the lineage of Queen Victoria to David, King of Israel. Unlike some of the societies started in this oolony of late, this Association have adopted the Bible ae their text-book, and open their periodical meetings with praise and prayer. In another direction, others of the community are seeking to gratify the innate longing for religious novelty. There is amongst us a small but fussy number of Mormons who hold forth on the publio streets every Sunday evening. The audiences are "fit though few," usually consisting ef a handful of middleaged sad looking men and women, and a plentiful array of the larrikin element. The meetings are not calculated for edification, and the general opinion is that, if left alone, they will ppeedly die of inanition. The agricultural oommnnity are on the qui vive to see what is to be the upshot f.f the movement now on foot in various portions of the Colony, re co-operation to export farm produce to the British market. The movement has extended to various parts of Otago I notice; and, with a little good management, it is bound to prove a success, Julius "V ogel is reported as saying that ho would prefer the English people to come to New Zealand for their cheap food. And if | the right class were to take his advice, far good. But if the mountain refuses | to come to Mahomet, the prophet must i go to the mountain; and so, the j efforts of those engaged in the meat* I freezing aud co-operation schemes have my best wishes for their success. Bi>e-keepir.g is rapidly becoming a J leading industry in this quarter, An association having sprung up in order to regulate and perpetuate the movement. Thin, by the wav, is a great place for ! Associations. Everything must have its Association.

A restaurant has been opened here on temperance principles where meals are J served at all hours for sixpence each, ! plentiful and well cooked. It is doing a large business. Now that the harvest is almost over, and business slack, there is a somewhat dreary prospect of employment, for the winter months. It is no gond preaching economy, otherwise it would be a good text. During the summer month?, men make good wages ; and with careful husbanding they should be able to save what will bring them through the winter, and something over. But in many cases, I fear, they are still to" commonly found " knocking down their cheques," and taking to a vagrant life till times improve. This will always be so, I fear, to some extent, but the opening up of the public lands should help to wean them from the habit of wandering, and they will by-and-bye settle down on the land and beoome useful citizens. Everything that can be done to secure this, should be tried, for it is a misfortune to the State not less than to the individuals, to see human energy needlessly wasted. Should the echeme for making the Railway into the Interior of Oago be floated, it would provide work for many unemployed, and if the promoters were to engraft on the scheme the principle of part-payment in land, the result would prove a great boon to many. I commend it to thsir careful consideration, knowing sufficient of the country to be traversed to know that there are many spits where men could make themselves comfortable homes in a few years, and be independent of those who prey upon the working men. Mr Watt. R.M. (Dunedin) appears to have gained some temporary unpopularity in certain quarters by his action in some fruit-pilfering cases of recent occurrence. Here it is generally thought.he was not too severe. The larrikin element most be terrified into keeping within the law, and Mr Watt deserves praise rather than blame.

Tbe newspaper " fanny men" are passiug all kinds of iofeea npon the wall* prints supplied to tbe public schools, and

describe them aa bideona epeciroena of tha lithographic art. One teacher who refused to usa them in bia school "deserves the thanka of the parents of hia pupils for his firmness and common sense." 25 th February, 1881.