Native Missionary Services. (From a Correspondent.)

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 416, 10 April 1850, Page 3

Native Missionary Services. (From a Correspondent.)

On Monday the 18th ult., the fourth Annual Missionary Meeting of this district, was held on the Wesleyan Mission Station, Tangiteroria, for which purpose about two thirds of the entire population of this thinly inhabited part were collected together from their various and distant settlements. About three hundred and fifty persons weie present. The occasion was very gratifying, as exhibiting, in various ways, the progress of Christianity among the people, particularly as contrasted with their tumultuous assemblies in former days. The order, sobriety, and decorum of their general behaviour ; their very clean and respectable appearance — all being decently attired in European costume — and the lively interest which was manifested in the object of their meeting — appeared to great ad-

vantage when compared with the revolting sensuality, the noisy tumult, and the immoral consequences of mere native feasts. The preliminary services on the pieceding Sabbath were performed by the Rev. J. Kullkr, the resident Missionary, and the apparent de • votion of the people, and the marked attention they paid to the sermons and the intervening catechetical exercises, were worthy of any Christian congregation however civilised. The sacrament of the Lord's supper was administered to one hundred and forty communicants in the evening, and a liberal sum was collected for the benefit of the sick. Several simple Resolutions bearing testimony to the beneficial lesults of the Gospel of peace in this land — once covered with darkness — and the obligation resting upon them to endeavour to extend those blessings, were moved and soconded by some of the principal chiefs and native teachers, accompanied with a few observations by each of them expiessive of their determination to give their aid for the diffusion of the Gospel, and exhorting others to do the same, while they declared the pleasure they felt at being present on so interesting an occasion. The collection amounted in cash to the sum of £9 2s. lOfd. and a promissory note for the proceeds of a Kauri spar as soon as it shall be ready for delivery. Previous to the above meeting a general School-examination took place. In the Sabbath Schools of the natives, " both young men and maidens, old men and children," chiefs and slaves, are generally found assembled together, and therefore they all came forward to the examination. A great proportion of them could jead the Scriptures in their own tongue ; all could repeat the Catechism ; and the leading doctrines of Christianity, as well as the principal events of Scripture history appeared to be pretty generally understood. A few had made a little progress in the English language, and read the 2nd chapter of St. Matthew in the English Testament. These belong to the school on the Mission station, which is under the personal instruction of the Missionary. In this school seventeen boys and girls are fed, clothed, and instructed in the elements of the English language, writing, arithmetic, geography, &c, and trained to habits of cleanliness, order, and industry. The buildings for their accommodation were erected mainly by the aid of a portion of the grant awarded by the Government for educational objects in 1848 ; but the expenses connected with the maintenance of this and several similar schools in the Mission depend solely on the funds of the Wesleyan Missionary Society. Wairoa, Kaipara, March 19, 1850.

Bishop Pompalier, accompanied by a number of French and Irish Roman Catholic Clergymen, and nine Sisters of Mercy, landed here yesterday from the Oceanic, to the lively gratification of their numerous friends, who had for some time anticipated with pleasure their arrival.

A Government Gazette was published on Saturday. We copy into our other columns such portions of it as are of immediate interest.

The Band of H. M. 58th Regiment, by the permission of Lieut.-Col. Wynyard, C.8., will perform in the Grounds in front of the old Government House on to-morrow evening from half-past four till half-past six o'clock.

PROGRAMME. Overture — Op. " Les Diamens" Aube r Melange— Op. " The Crusaders" Benedict Cavatina — Op.' " I Lomhardi" Verdi Aiia— Op. '* La Donna del Ligo" Rossini Waltz—" The Fu«chia" B irrot Quadrille—" The Semirnmide Jullicn Galop— ' Prince Albert's" Lnbit2ky Ballad — ''Then you'll remember, 1 ' Op. "Bohemian Girl' Balfe Ballad—" There's a form iv which those eyes".. Rjdwell.