LYTTELTON.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 664, 13 December 1851, Page 3

LYTTELTON.

[From the Lyttelton Times, December 10.] It will be seen that a large number of persons have this week left for Port Phillip by .he Canterbury. To prevent any unfair inference being drawn from this circumstance by the enemies of the Canterbury settlement, we may state, what is well known here, that of the cabin passengers the majority are Port Phillip settlers returning, some of them intending to re-visit this place, and that a large proportion ol the steerage passengers is compose i of persons whose departure no one will regret, and of whom many are from the neighbouring settlements. There were of course manifest exceptions to this sweeping description, but their number was few. More Coal.——A bed of Coal has at length been discovered which promises to repay the trouble of working. The seam ciops out in the bed of the Selwyn, upon Mr. Deans’s sheep farm, about 35 or 40 miles from Christchurch, some miles lower down the river than the vein visited by Mr. Wakefield. It appears to be from six to ten feet in thickness, lying in an E. and W. direction, and dipping to the southward at an angle of 30" or 40\ At the time ourinformant visited the spot, the coal was about a foot underwater, owing to afresh in the river, but it is generally exposed. From the position of the seam, there can be little doubt but that it wou'.d be found at a short distance below the ground, on both sides of the river. There is no obstacle to prevent carts being brought to the mouth of the mine upon level ground the whole way from Christchurch. This valuable discovery is due to James Robinson Clough, Mr. Deans’s herdsman. We understand an expedition provided with

proper tools has started from Christchurch, and that a dray load of the precious material may shortly be looked for in the capital. The discovery of this coal is invaluable; chiefly because the want of wood on the plains will be now a matter of comparatively little importance, and again, because the line over which the carts engaged in the coal trade will have to pass, runs nearly centrally through a country occupied by the sheep stations. The expence, therefore, of carting goods to those stations will be diminished one-half, as the carts could always get a back freight in coals, and any of the squatters wishing to send his dray to Christchurch, by sending it a few miles out of the way to the coal mine, will be able to obtain a freight which will pay the expences of the trip. The Lord Bishop of New Zealand held a Visitation on Friday se'unighl at Lyttelton, which was attended by the following clergy;— The Rev. B. W. Dudley, M.A., Incumbent of Lyttelton, the Rev. H. Jacobs, M.A., Tutor of Christchurch College, the Rev. G. T. B. Kingdon, M.A., Incumbent of Christ* church, and the Rev. E. Puckle, Assistant. Minister of Christchurch, and the Hamlets adjacent, all of whom took and made the usual oaths and subscriptions, at the last Visitation, and the following clergymen, all of whom signified their desire to assist as opportunity might ofler, and their ministrations be acceptable under the dire-ction of the bishop or under the sanction of his lordship:—The Rev. W. W. Willock, the Rev. J. Wilson, the Rev. O. Mathias, the Rev. R. B. Paul,, and the Rev. G. Cotterill. His lordship having expressed a wish to that effect, there were present also, J. R, God'ey, Esq., Agent of the Canterbury Association, and C. A. Calvert, Esq., Secretary to the Bishop Designate of the intended See of Lyttelton. The most important portion of the ecc!esi= ast'.Cai uusmesa tiausacied on this occasion related to the direction of the clergymen in the temporary absence of the Bishop Designate. Biship Selwyn, whose every proceeding was marked by the greatest delicacy, and who stated that any arrangement made by him was to be considered as only temporary, and until the election of the settlement diocese, proposed to nominate two of the clergy, to be chosen by their brother clergymen, his Commissaries, and whose direction and opinion should be taken as that of himself, in all matters in which such aid was required. The unanimous choice of the ministers present fell upon the Rev. O. Mathias and the Rev. R. B. Paul, who have accordingly, we understand, received the necessary powers. His lordship stated that after conferring with the Governor-in-Chief, he had recommended the division of the islands into three dioceses, one of Auckland and the northern portion, another of Wellington and the central portion, and a third of Lyttelton, extending southwards from the 43rd parallel of south latitude.

In order to give the settlement the benefit of the ministrations of those unbeneficed clergymen who had expressed a desire to be useful, and also to meet the wants of the dwellers on the plains, the Bishop recommended that the sum of £“5O proposed to be granted by the Association, together with the contributions of the people themselves, towards the erection of a durable church at Christchurch, should be expended in the erection of four or five decent buildings for public worship, in which the clergymen referred to might minister/and thus every inhabited pait of the plains might be supplied with a church near at band. His lordship expressed himself favourable to the erection of the Collegiate Grammar School, and to that of the church at Lyttelton, upon the plans proposed. Upon every point mooted, the most perfect unanimity prevailed among all the clergy present. The Bishop alsoappointed the Rev. B. Paul to bo 2 for censes within the Canterbury district; and C. A. Calvert, Esq., M.A., to be his Lord ship’s Secretary for Local purposes.