The aboriginal inhabitants ot‘ this district hav great cause to rejoice in the recent visit of hi lordship the Bishop of New Zealand. Durin; the whole of his sojourn here, he manifested til greatest anxiety to promote the moral and phy sical welfare of the Maories. Dr. Selwyn hav ing been appointed one of the trustees for tin management of the native reserves, was enable* to take steps to render this valuable property available for the purposes originally intended His lordship has announced his willingness t< grant leises for twenty-one years, which wil encourage many persons to build substantia houses, who have hitherto held back from igno. ranee of the terms on which the land could b< rented. The funds will be immediately appliec to the erection of a few comfortable houses or Green Point, where the Maories may resort oi: visiting Nelson; and not lie on the beach, as they have hitherto, in all weathers, often with no other covering than a blanket, A small hospital is also to be built on the acre facing the Bank, where they can be lodged and attended to in sickness, and have the benefit ol Mr. Wilson’s medical experience, who is appointed their surgeon. As soon as possible, a school will likewise be erected, where the children of the Maories from two years and upwards will be clothed, boarded, and educated. It is hoped that, by this means, the rising generation may be trained to habits of industry, as from this school, at proper ages, boys will be apprenticed to learn various trades ; and his lordship expresses a hope that among them he may find some with sufficient talent, and with a desire to enter the church, whom he will be happy to ordain.— Nelson Examiner. To disperse a mob, pass round a contribution box, or play them a tune on the water-engines. Treasure Found. —For the last two days some curiosity has been excited in Lambeth, by the discovery of a vast number of gold and silver coins, gold rings, ancient teaspoons, and a vast variety of olher relics, in the bed of the river opposite the Lollards’ tower of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s palace. The first discoverers of the buried gold were two lads of the names of Phelps and Ellis, residing in High-street, Lambeth, who assisted their parents by collecting the coals, and iron, and other things, which might have fallen overboard and left on the shore at low water. On Tuesday morning they were so engaged at the place above stated, when one of them raked up a large silver coin. They were too elated to keep what might to them have turned out a very valuable secret, but ran to dispose of their prize, and the discovery soon spread in all directions. Other persons now eagerly joined in the search, and veiy soon several gold pieces were dug up, in addition to hundreds of silver coins. The search continued, as long as the tide would permit. It was found that when their labours were temporarily stopped, one man had succeeded in obtaining as much as produced him £l7. 125.; a lad got £5. 2s. for his digging, and another £4. 175.; besides hundreds of others who were not so fortunate in the value of what they found, though many had as many as 50 or 60 small silver coins in their possession. Thursday the work again commenced, and that part of the shore which extends from the pier in front of the wall of the Archbishop’s court-yard and garden had more the appearance of a ploughed field than the bed of a river. Nearly the first thing that was found was a very curious gold ring, of very ancient workmanship and very richly embossed, and very soon afterwards another one of apparently the same date, but more elaborate workmanship. The coins were found at intervals, but not in such numbers as on the previous day, and when the earth had been dug out to about a foot, a very old-fashioned teaspoon was taken out. The tide again put a stop to the search. The coins comprise chiefly those of the reigns of the Edwards, Henry VIII., some of which are in very fine preservation, and many Spanish. It is supposed that they formed part of the treasure of some one who was in “troubled times” a prisoner in the tower, and who, in the haste to escape, lost a portion or all of it. Colonial Bishoprics Fund.— The collections made on Palm Sunday, in compliance with the Bisbop of London’s pastoral letter, as far as returns had been made up to this day (March 28), amount to £6,400; and returns have still to be made from more than 200 places. Among the offerings made at Portman chapel was a very beautiful diamond brooch, valued at about £150: it was given anonymously, but with the text, Exodus xxxv, 21, 22. A few more such noble offerings would secure the early accomplishment of the great object in view—that of providing for the endowment of a bishopric in each of the other colonies of the British crown. Anecdote op a Clergyman. —When in the act of composing, a sermon, he made use of the term “ ostentatious man.” Throwing down his pen, he wished to satisfy himself, ere he proceeded, as to whether a great portion of his congregation might comprehend the meaning of the said term, and he adopted the following method of proof:—Ringing the bell, his footman appeared, and he was thus addressed by his master: —“ What do you conceive to be implied by an ostentatious man ?” “An ostentatious man, sir,” said Thomas; “ why, sir, I should say a perfect gentleman” “ Very good,” observed the vicar: “ send Ellis (his coachman) here.” “ Ellis,” said the vicar, •* what do you
• imagine an ostentatious man to be ?” “An ostentatious man, sir,” replied Ellis \ “ why, I should say an ostentatious man means what we calls (spying yourpresence) a realjollyfellow” A need scarcely add, that the vicar substituted a less ambiguous word* the schoolmaster not having been' atrihat time abroad. TroN)o;t Worm.—Among the novelties in nature which we saw in Charleston, was a small worm called the trinket-worm, characterised by this peculiarity, which gave rise to its name. On the leaves of a wild vine, called the trinketvine, is found a small worm, which looks at first like a small piece of white thread, and is almost motionless. If the leaf be taken off, and placed under a glass case in a room, this little thread will, in the short space of twenty-four hours, grow into a good-sized caterpillar, beautifully coloured, and studded with golden spots. When matured, it will climb up the glass, fasten one of its extremities to the glass roof, and leaving the other depending in the air, will curl itself into a variety of forms, presenting exquisite patterns for gold trinkets, such as ear-rings, brooches, clasps, &c., and varying these from time to time in great diversity—from whence its name.— Buckingham’s Slave States of America. BURNS. The following will be read with great interest by our Scottish readers ; indeed, by all our readers; for true genius is of no country, and Burns has almost become an Englishman : ( J
THE LASS OF ALBANY*: An unpublished Song. Tune —“ Mary’s Dream." My heart is wae, and unco wae, To think upon the raging sea That roars between her gardens green And the bonnie lass of Albany. This lovely maid’s of royal blood, That ruled Albion’s kingdoms three; But oh! alas! for her bonnie face! They’ve wrang’d the lass of Albany. In the rolling tide of spreading Clyde There sits an isle of high degree ; And a town of fame, whose princely name Should grace the lass of Albany. But there’s a youth, a witless youth, That fills the place where she should be: We’ll send him o’er to his native shore, And bring our ain sweet Albany. Alas the day, and woe the day, A false usurper wan the gree; Who now commands the tower and lands, The royal right of Albany. We'll daily pray, we'll nightly pray, On bended knees most fervently, The time may come, with pipe and drum We’ll welcome home fair Albany.
* The MS. of this ballad is in the possession of B. Nightingale; Esq. The. “ bonnie lass’ ’ is the Duchess of Albany, the daughter of the Pretender. The original has been shown to Mr. Allan Cunningham, who will attest the genuineness of the autograph. Extract from Preface to Hood’s Comic Annual for 1842. —“The truth is, that I seemed to have said ‘ Amen’ to the * Amenities of Literature’—to have deposited my last work on the library shelf. For a dozen successive years, some annual volume had given token of my literary existence. I had appeared with my prose and verse as regularly as the Parish Beadle—once a-year, as certainly as the parochial plum-pudding—at the end of every twelve months, like the Stationers’ Almanack. My show was perennial, like that of the Lord Mayor. But, alas! Anno Domini 1840 was unmarked by any such publication! A tie seemed snapped—a spell appeared to be broken —my engine had gone off the rail! Indeed, so unusual a silence gave rise to the most sinister surmises. It was rumoured in Northamptonshire that I was in a public prison—in Brussels, that I was in a private madhouse —and in Cornhill, that I was annihilated. It was whispered in one quarter that I had quitted literature in disgust, and turned fishmonger—in another, that I had enlisted, like Coleridge, in the Dragoons—in a third, that I had choked myself, like Otway, with a penny roll—in a fourth, that I had poisoned myself, like Chatterton; or plunged into the Thames, like Budgell. I had gone, like Ambrogetti, into La Trappe—or to unsettle myself in New Zealand. Why is a shepherd like an unfortunate .man ? Because he always has “ a crook in liis lot.”
Nothing is more dangerous to the youth of either sex than a companion, the levity of whose temper, or the strength of whose passions, disposes them to cast away the restraint of rectitude. Sympathetic feeling is soon engendered, and such is the infirmity of nature, that the contagion of loose principles is propagated with far more facility than the love of virtue. The virtuous are more easily corrupted by the vicious than the latter are benefitted by the society of the former. The wise and good Judge Hale said to this effect, “ I have ever found, through the experience of a long* life, that as I spent my Sabbath go it hath been with me during the remainder of the week, when my Sabbaths were not well spent, my affairs went ill duringmtn rest of the week’, and in proportion as the aedu proved, the,following days were prosperoyh i-s happy.”— Correspondent. The Mobile Mercantile Advertiser bestows a just meed of virtuous indignation upon one of his “ patrons,” of whom the Editor heard that he had been seen laughing heartily over a paragraph in the paper of the previous morning, but who had not paid his subscription for two years! How could any man enjoy a joke with such a weight upon his conscience ?
The woman who regularly reads the newspaper will be so much the more suitable a companion for a well-informed husband, and exert far more influence in the family than she otherwise could.— Moral: Every married man should take k newspaper. The statute-book, to the present minute, contains an unrepealed ordinance of the 10th Edward sec. 3. commanding that no man shall be served at dinner or supper with more than two courses, except on great holidays (those specified), at which he may be served with three. So obedient are Englishmen to the laws of their country, that the great majority of them rigidly keep within the provisions of this ancient statute.
“ If you don’t accept my challenge,” said one gentleman of honour to another, “ I will Gazette you—so take your choice.” “ Go ahead,” said the other, “ I had rather fill six gazettes than one coffin.” —American Paper.
The late Charles Mathews and the Income Tax. —Whilst the late Charles Mathews, the comedian, was performing in Tate Wilkinson’s company, at YorfcjJje took it into his heat to resist the income tax, which was then in operation, and which would at that time have pressed heavily upon his little income. He sent in to the commissioners a long and humorous list of the drawbacks upon his salary, and enumerated, with ingenious minuteness, his stock in trade. He began with wigs, and describee, them in all their infinite variety, thus—“ black
wigs, white wigs, brown wigs, red wigs, bush wigs, tie wigs, bob wigs, bishops’ wigs, wigs with a tail, wigs without a tail, lawyers’ wigs, judges’ wigs, parsons’ wigs, powdered wigs, old men’s wigs, young men’s wigs, &c.” Natural heads of hair—namely, red hair, grey hair, flaxen hair, countrymen’s hair, and bald heads of every description. Beards, whiskers, mustachios, eyebrows, &c. Stockings of every colour were then enumerated. After these regular requisites were given, came the miscellaneous part of his stock: such as “ hats, feathers, caps, cravats, stocks, ruffles, frills, neckerchiefs, pocket handkerchiefs, pens, books, ink, paper, music-paper, red ochre, rouge, carmine, hair powder, wax candles, Indian ink, camels’ hair pencils, hares’
feet, whiting, burnt corks, cold cream, soap, and huckaback towels.” The first covered several sheets of paper. While it was being read, the commissioners listened with imperturbable gravity at first, but presently, no longer able to contain themselves, they burst out into roars of laughter, and exempted the comedian, who heard no more of the income tax while in York.
A Popular Fallacy. —lt is dishonest to deprive me of my goods “ against my will.” It is dead robbery to make free with my live-stock. It is felony to abstract from dwelling-house. It is larceny to take my purse or my handkerchief, my watch or my snuff-box. It is picking and stealing to thin my apples. It is theft to walk off with my shoes or stockings. It is prigging to sneak away with a teaspoon. It is pilfering to appropriate my toothpick or my loose change. It is filching to convey my hat from its peg, or my cloak from the hall. It is breach of trust to absond with a few of my pounds, though I may have thousands still left at my banker. But it is only a joke, forsooth, to run away with my knocker, and leave me without a rap. A Caution. —Beware of angering a blind man: for he will strike you as soon as look at you. EPIGRAM. After such years of dissension and strife, Some wonder that Peter should weep for his wife: But his tears on her grave are nothing surprising,— He's laying her dust, for fear of its rising.
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New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 16, 23 September 1842, Page 4
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2,479Untitled New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 16, 23 September 1842, Page 4
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