WESLEYAN DISTRICT MEETING. NOVEMBER 19th.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 279, 24 November 1877, Page 2

WESLEY AN DISTRICT MEETING. NOVEMBER 19th.

On meeting again the record of the financial meeting held on Friday was read, and the accounts of the various Church Funds found to be: — 1. The Home Mission or Church Extension Fund.— lncome £90, inclusive of the sum of £31 proceeds of the sale of furniture at Motueka. A full report of this fund is given in Wednesday's issue. 2. Contingent Fund.— From this fund are paid travelling expeuses of Ministers to Conference and district meetings, printing minutes of Conference, and meeting auy other district meeting or Conference expenses. It was raised by a levy upon the circuits at the rate of £8 for every Minister employed in each, now, the expenses as ao levied being found to pres3 too heavily on those circuits whose income is small, the levy is 3 per cent on the total income of each circuit, thus bringing about a fair distribution of expense according to the wealth or otherwise of the circuit. Income, £49 11s 3d; expenditure, £37 16s 6d. 3. Supernumerary and Ministers Widows' Fund. — From which allowances by a regular scale according to the length of 'ministerial labor are made to ministers who may be laid aside from work, and provisiou made for ministers' widows is raised by levies on both ministers and circuits. Income from circuits, £66 3s; ministers, £63 ins; total, £129 13s. ' 4. Children's Fund.— lncome, £68 8s; expenditure, £100. 5. Education Fund. — Income from circuits, £12 12s 7d; ministers, £9 9s, total, £22 Is 7d. 6. Foreign Mission Fund.— lncome, £18 10s 7d. Recommendations to the Conference were then proceeded with. The Rev. H. Bull, Secretary to District meeting, was elected representative to accompauy the Chairman to Conference. All the Ministers in full connection received permission to attend the next annual Conference. The District Meeting recommends:— 1. That Conference take immediate steps to establish a Connexional Fire Insurance Company. 2. That circuit invitations to Ministers be sent from tbe September quarterly meetings. 3. That Conference should aa early as possible publish a new Sunday School Hymn Book to contain many of the new and popular hymns now in use. 4. That Conference no longer delay the formation of a Sunday School Union. 5. That lay representatives to the aunual Conference be elected by the September Quarterly Meeting, and that such representatives be members of the Financial District Meeting. 6. That the desirability of admitting laymen as members of the Annual Conference, and District Meeting, to deliberate upon all questions affecting the temporal and spiritual work of our Church be again considered by tbe Conference. That Superintendents of Sunday Schools when members of the Church be members of the Quarterly Meeting of the circuit in which they reside. November 21. After the usual devotional exercises tha Probationers Brethren Purchon and Russell were advised regarding their studies and preaching. The Twelve Rules of a Helper were read, and a conversation ensued on the state of our Churches, and the work of God through tbe district; the statistics of the Church were also made the subject of coimuent, and it was felt that though a slight advance in most particulars was with thankfulness to God recorded, from the labor expeuded and agencies at work in the pulpit, the Sabbath School, aud general intercourse of men, we ought to have realised larger results. I A vote of thanks was recorded to those friends who so kindly entertained the Ministers during the District Meeting, and the ! Secretary instructed to write to each thanking them for their hospitality. The Benediction by the Chairman closed the session which throughout had been marked by an evident desire to promote the glory of God in the prosperity of His Church. r .

{ iDr.Wallis,MiH;R. f in addressing the public meeting held ia Auckland on Tuesday night for the purpose of discussing the political situation, said:— "The session had been a failure. It was true that what was called in mechanical science 'unstable equilibrium ' had delayed business. This unstablybalanced state of parties had stopped the progress of public business. But what was the remedy? The remedy was a dissolution. There was another evil which the ' unsettled equilibrium' produced. This was that it gaveto the unprincipled, unscrupulous*^ the political triuiuierstaud traders an opportunity to .turn matters, to their, private advantage. Qne ; out of every four were political trimoiers and rogues. An even balance of parties was an opportunity these political trimmers rogues— it was their sunshine, and he never heard of any of them refusing to make hay. He had heard of only one who had turned his hay, jntocash,he could not depose to the fact before a magistrate, but it was the couimpn talk of the place, and there were, many who believed it. The present Parliament was elected to decide the question of life or ; death of the provinces. Sir Q. Grey fought for the provinces, aud lost the battle. But j the provinces were now dead; provincialism '■ was gone, and Sir G. Grey now said if the : Provincial districts *ere to be regarded as a part of the colony let them share alike the benefit of Colonial Government; let there be '■■ one purse and one policy for all. The sooner Parliament was dissolved the better for the i people. The session however had been a'< success in oue political point of view, it had • manifested the streugth of parties. He (Dr , WalUs) had a tear iv his eye for its failure, > but there was a smiie for the hope that things were becoming better— that public, affairs would soon be conducted with a view ; to the interest and benefit of the colony as a whole." : The Auckland Herald says:— The gratitude . ■which is generally manifested to the Acclimatisation Society for importing sparrows and other birds, was well shown by a conversation which took place in the street yesterday, between a resident in one of the suburbs aud a builder. The gentleman asked the contractor to send a man with a ladder to plaster up a gutter, and continued, "It is full of sparrows and starlings and other abominations introduced here by the Acclimatisation Society. They spoil my water, and eat my peas, and destroy my temper." Complaints of a similar nature, if not expressed in the same words, may be frequently heard. Ulysses Grant was the guest of Queen: Victoria lately at Windsor Castle, and was given rooms next adjoining the Royal sleeping apartments The Queen was much surprised at hearing him ring his bell violently about one o'clock in the morning, and still further startled when the Royal housemaid woke her up, and asked her for the keys of thecellar. The General sent hiscoinpliments and could not sleep without a good stiff toddy, and if they had any mint he would be glad of it. To show what a perf et lady the Queen is, she got right up, and put on her slippers and a wrapper, and went down into the kitchen herself, where she mixed the exPfesident a bowl of old Jamaica punch from some splendid rum that had just been sent to the Prince of Wales. With a delicate appre- '■ ciatiotfof the General's habits, she also placed a pack of cards on the tray, and apologised in a pencil note for their being a little dirty. General Grant says, of all the kind compliments which he has received in England, this touches him the most deeply in the right spot. He thanked Her Majesty in the name of the American nation the following moming, stating that he accepted her compliment, not as directed personally to himself, but as an evidence of the perfect harmony exist- • ing between England and the United States. ' — San Francisco Newsletter. Says the Auckland Star.— A mania for starting insurance compauies i 3 now passing over the country. Within the few past days we have had various intimations respecting new companies to be floated on the waters ;of public favour, and we observe by our telegrams of to-day that the cry is still they come. Every place seems to consider itself large enough to be the headquarters of a prosperous insurance compauy, down to Oamaru aud Invercargill. We have now at . least six insurance companies in this colony . —the New Zealand, the South British, the National, the Standard, the Union, the Alliance — and if all those spoken of are commenced, we will soon have as many more. In a leader on the " situation " the Auckland Herald says: — Telegrams from well-in-formed persons in Wellingtonaretothe effect that the members of the present Government feel confident that if they are defeated by a vote in the House of Representatives, they ■will obtain the Governor's consent to make •. an appeal to the country, by which the Ministry expect to gain eight or ten votes. Town and Gmntry states that a gentle- < man iv England, writing to a friend in Sydney, says: — "You must have wonders in your new home. Trickett opened our eyes in the boating line, not ouly showing his superiority as an oarsman, but behaving in so straightforward and rnauly a way as to command universal respect. Now comes homely Coates, and if there ever was a born cricketer our new friend is one. If the eleven Australians who visit our shores are of the same stamp as Coates, we are likely to have a sorry time of it. He has been imi mensely successful in all his recent matches, his cunning bowling being a terror. In Midwinter we have also a warm opponent.; in his usual quiet way. Midwinter saunters round the Oval and Lords when a match is in progress— asks for nothing and says still less. If your 16,0U0-iniles away men are of his staudard, then England's cricket laurels v are in great danger." During the past year the number of original advertisements for " missing friends, or next of kin," in the London Times, was 700, and the number of persons named therein about 3000. The Treasury Solicitor advertised for the next of kin of 26 persons. The amount of money reverting to the Crown by reason of these intestacies is seldom stated; but in one case, Mrs Helen Blake's, it amounted to £160,000. From one of these advertisements it appears that the heirs of a person who emigrated to America iv 1633 are wanted to claim £400,000.

A correspondent sends us the following extract from a sermon of the Rev T. De Witt Talmage: — " For keeping the times hard we give a recipe. Let everyone talk depressingly. When anyone fails in business, put it in all the papers. Let business men keep up perpetual complaints. Let us have occasional editorals inciting bread riots, and political speeches on the ■ wrongs of the laboring classes. Let every body prophecy a hard winter, a very hard winter, an awful winter. Let us all talk down instead of up. Let us take no account of the fact that flour is cheap, and that the harvests are large and God is good. We shall in this way be able to take another faggot from the poor man's earth, and knock another pane of glass out of his window, and hinder the manufacturer from employing him. Alltogether now— ministers, editors, capitalists, and labourers —let us give a long, deep groan, and keep it going till next spring, and the times will be as hard as we could reasonably expect." The Hon Colonel Brett is very severe on " our volunteers," and he protests most vehemently against the continuance of the anuual prize firing contest. In the course of his speech in the Legislative Council on ttie question of colonial defences, the gallant colonel said:— "He also wished to do away with that foolery and clap-trap— prize firing. It was a very expensive toy, and a most useless oue. In former days they never had such a thing, and it was "only intended for armies like those of Great Britain and of other old countries. As to having prize firing among a lot of boys and undisciplined troops, he objected to it in toto. When a man was well disciplined, knew hia company drill, and the use of his arms, and had arrived at a state of efficiency in those respects, by all means let him take part in the prize firing; but he objected to the system in this colony. He had raised his voice several times in the Council against expenditure on prize firing. It was nothing else but a toy. It was intended to blind them, and to throw dust into their eyes. There was an immense amount of money expended uselessly in this foolery." It is reported in more than one quarter (says the Post) and apparently on good authority, that in the event of a dissolution taking place Sir Geoegb Gket would stand for Wellington City at the general election. The object of thi3 is obvious. In the first place, if the result of the general election were in favour of Sir Geouge Grey's party, then it, of course, would remain in office and Wellington would be represented in the Cabinet by Sir George Grey. As to the seat for the Thames, that could be filled by some supporter of Sir George Grey. Of course the whole thing hinges on a dissolution being granted. We believe there is something in the report, and that a few people have been laying their heads together on the subject. The rejection by the Upper House of the Oamaru Reserves Bill has. provoked much resentment amongst the townspeople against the Hon M. Holmes who was the chief opponent of the measure. The Mad suggests that on his return from Wellington he should be accorded a reception befitting the occasion; and that every man, woman, and child should turn out to chaperon him from the breakwater to the town. A writer in the Oamaru Evening Mail is particularly funny on the lambing season, and considers that the little lambs that skip and play in the musical vales of the locality form the most interesting sight that can greet one when travelling through a pastoral country. Throughout the district of Oamaru, he says, " The increase seems to have been plentiful. Nature's music assails one's ears, as the little lambs say " ba," each to its particular ma, and the older sheep fill in the bass and alto parts." There is poetry in this, and a touch of Wordsworthian simplicity in the whole of the pastoral par. A really curious printing order is reported by the Petite Presse, under the heading " Turkish Cuirasses " :— " One of the largest manufacturers ofy Paris has just received an extraordinary order. It consists of several thousand men's shirts, on which are printed extracts from the Koran in blue letters, and white, woollen vests, on which are represented the face of the great Mahomet, with a really divine grace. This order is destined for Turkey, whose superstitious soldiers will not venture under fire unless clothed with these articles, to which they attribute the virtues of a talisman." Keferring to the breach of privilege case the Pa tea Mail says:— "When Sir George gets from sis to a dozen correspondence wars in full swing he will no doubt begin to feel happy. Then he will have good excuse for being unable to attend to the business of the country and to carry out promises of reform." A lady while engaged in the pursuit of domestic duties encountered a mouse in a flour barrel. Now most ladies under similar circumstances would have uttered a few feminine shrieks, and then sought safety in the garret. But this one possessed more than the ordinary degree of feminine courage. She summoned the man servant, and told him to get the shot gun, to call the bull-dog, and to station himself at a convenient distance. Then she climbed halfway upstairs and commenced to punch the flour barrel with a pole. Presently the mouse made its appearance, and started across the floor. The dog at once went in pursuit. The man fired, and the dog dropped dead. The lady fainted arid fell down the stairs, and the hired man, thinking that she was killed, and fearing that he would be arrested for murder, disappeared, and has not been seen since. The mouse escaped.