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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4507, 31 August 1875, Page 2

We observe that the immigrants ex Rodney will be ready for engagement at the depot after 10 o’clock this day. A meeting of the Wellington Education Board is to be held on Wednesday (to-morrow) at 11 a.m. We notice the importation by Mr. Show, per s.s. Phoebe, for transhipment to Wanganui, of seven horses, one of which is a handsome draught stallion. The Church of England Diocesan Bazaar will be opened at half-past 2 o’clock this afternoon. It will be held at the Odd Fellows’ Hall, and sanguine expectations are entertained of its financial success. The following correction must be made in our list of deaths during the voyage of the ship Rodney to this port. Under date July 18, “ Moßichards, infant, aged 30 hours, died from asthenia.” “Maria Mulloroney” was also incorrectly printed “ Maria Molony.”

Pone Te Waietiti was assaulted and robbed on Saturday last by Akuhata at the Hutt. The amount stolen was £2 10s., and a warrant has been issued for the apprehension of the thief.

During the boat drill on board the Rodney yesterday a serious accident happened to a man named William Cooper. An eyebolt broke and the hook attached to it flew up and struck him, causing fracture and dislocation of the jawbone. He was immediately conveyed to the hospital. A curious French clock recently imported by Max. Alexander, Lambton-quay, was exhibited for the first time yesterday, and attracted considerable attention. The plateglass dial, which has large silver figures, is about half an inch in thickness and 15 in diameter. The clock is worked by a most peculiar and delicate piece of mechanism in the lower part of the minute-hand, which is of platinum, and lOin. in length. The hourhand is 9in. in length. The patent timekeeper is suspended by means of loopholes in the glass dial, and bears the name and address of the firm. We are informed that the clock keeps excellent time. Captain Louttit, of the ship Rodney, courteously afforded us an opportunity of witnessing the very complete discipline which he has been enabled, by rare tact and firmness, to carry out on board his ship. At ten o’clock the Immigration officer, accompanied by the Harbormaster and several other gentlemen, boarded the vessel, and after some preliminary arrangement had been disposed of, the roll of the single girls was read over, the young women afterwards ranging themselves on the port side of the ship. After the single women the married couples and then the single men passed in review before the Immigration officer, the captain, the surgeon-superintendent, and the Health officer. All the immigrants appeared to be in excellent health and spirits, and expressed their cordial appreciation of the manner in which their comforts had been attended to by the captain and surgeonsuperintendent. This necessary routine being disposed of, the Immigration Officer was conducted by the captain over the whole of the ship devoted to passenger accommodation, and the visitor's were struck with the extreme cleanness of all the arrangements, which was obviously the principal cause of the healthiness of the passengers during the voyage. As was intimated in our issue of yesterday, the captain now seized the opportunity of showing to his visitors what can be done in the way of disciplining immigrants in what is technically called the fire drill and boat exercise. The order was accordingly given tor the ringing of the fire-bell, immediately on hearing which the passengers took their respective places at the pumps, the hose was got in readiness, the buckets were manned, and everything was ready for deluging the ship with water. As however some of the visitors expressed their entire approval of the drill up to this point without its fruition in a copious rush of water, this latter was dispensed with, and it is to bo hoped that the need may never arise on the good ship Rodney for the carrying out in stern earnest of the fire drill. The order was then given to man the boats, and in a very short time each boat was filled with its complement of men, each individual seeming a reliable life-belt to his shoulders, and then came the order to lower the boats, which order was promptly carried out. The disastrous fate of the ship Cospatriok, with its human freightage of hundreds of emigrants, has written in terrible characters a protest once for all against the neglect of the precautions which have been so wisely and efficiently carried out in the Rodney. For in that case, as our readers null recollect, as many or more lives were lost by drowning as deaths by suffocation in the burning ship. But apart from the actual necessity for instituting these precautionary measureson shipboard, and especially on board an emigrant ship, there is this further advantage, that the discipline gives employment to the emigrants, thus enabling them to escape from the ennui which overtakes an indolent life on board ship.

The Yen. Archdeacon Stock delivered a most interesting lecture on the “ Four Gospels” last night at the St. John’s Presbyterian schoolroom. The Rev. Mr. Paterson occupied the chair. The ven. lecturer quoted largely from the ancient writers of the Church, and, amongst others, from the writings of Justin Martyr and Irenius, to show Jhat an appeal was made in all cases of disputed doctrine to the Four Gospels by all sections of the Christian Church, while the authenticity of the Gospels themselves was very rarely called in question. The Gnostics and other heretics appealed to these Gospels in support of their peculiar views. He then showed that whatever verbal deviations might exist in the various Greek and other texts of the Gospels, the general meaning as a whole remained unaltered. With regard to the objection that had been raised against the authenticity of the Four Gospels that they were not written prior to the second century, and would be liable to be objected to as affording merely hearsay evidence of the facts narrated by them it was worthy of note that the writers of that period refer to them as having a prior existence, and quote largely from them. Under these circumstances, it appeared incredible that in the second century they should have been the common ultimate appeal of the whole Christian Church. The lecturer then reviewed some of the objections raised against the Gospel miracles, among which he named the common one of these being natural impossibilities, and showed thatsofarfromNature beingunchanging it is constantly evolving changes, as geology and the phenomena of animal and vegetable life abundantly proved. A vote of thanks to the venerable lecturer closed the evening. The Sydney Stockwhip has the following : “ ‘ When Greek meets Greek,’ as the old proverb states, a most interesting and obstinate conflict takes place. The people of New Zealand have now, as it appears, an opportunity of ascertaining whether the same result ensues when Governor meets Governor. Sir George Grey, the ex-Viceroy of that colony, has betaken himself to the head of the Parliamentary Opposition, and has signalled his advent to that important post by firing a terrific broadside into the castle of the Marquis of Normanby. It is the beginning of a war between the old regime and the new ; between a deposed potentate and the reimiinv one j and like most wars of the kind, it will probably be neither easily settled nor creditable to either combatant. Sir George Groy is a very excellent old gentleman who has done the State some service in the past, but who, with the infirmities of ago, seems to have some share of the rashness of youth. The course he pursues is very undignified. He ought not to have descended to the floor of Parliament ; least of all ought he to have assailed that Queen’s deputy who occupies the very seat in which Sir George himself once sat. It is like Charlemagne putting off his crown, and going out in a flannel nightcap, sans culottes, to slang King Pepin. It is like a rickotty old Emperor, who has been put out to nurse, blaspheming against the Empire because his porridge is cold.” The Journal dc Gand, in an article on the subject of the religious disturbances at that city, says : —“ The tumults which signalised the clerical manifestation a short time ago, organised under the false pretence of a pilgrimage, are the direct consequence of our opponents’ conduct. We affirm that religious liberty was in no way involved in those uprisings of the people ; the exorcise of Catholic worship, even when talcing place outside the church, excites neither protest nor murmurs. Parish processions circulate in our streets without requiring a single polioo agent as escort. More than that, innumerable troops of pilgrims visit daily amid general indifference the grotto of Oostacker, dignified by the name of Lourdes. No one dreams of disturbing the devotions of those who have faith in the virtues of that miraculous locality. Why was not that the case on Monday ? The reason is simple, and was obvious to all the world—that the people found themselves, not simply in presence of an act of worship, but face to face with a political demonstration of vast proportions. The object was to parade before the liberal inhabitants of Ghent a part of the clerical forces of Flanders, to make a display of them in the character of a menace and a challenge, to inflame the ardor of those ‘ Car-

lists of the interior,’ to train them to act in unison, and to prepare an army for struggles which will cease to be merely electoral.” “Mr. Shuter, P.M., has ruled,” the Ballarat Star states, “ that a parent going to a school for a child under detention by the master, is guilty of trespass if he refuse to leave the school when the master so orders.” The Portland Express (Victoria) says;— “ The first large parcel of wrapping paper, manufactured from the sword-rush by Mr. Ramsdon, of Melbourne, arrived by the Rob Roy on Monday last. The paper is of an undeniably superior quality, and far surpasses anything of the kind we have seen in use, both as regards color, toughness, cleanliness, and finish ; and as it can be manufactured and sold at the usual trade price, there is nothing to prevent an extensive business being done in the article. To be in the fashion, a deputation should at once wait on Mr. Berry, asking him to exclude from the colony all paper produced by every other country under heaven ! ” All the world is now hearing of Signor Babrini, the Italian tragedian, who, as stage cant has it, has just “ knocked ’em” in London. Writing of his earlier life, a correspondent of the Melbourne Argus says :—“At Florence, where the Marquis of Normanby—whose taste and cultivation are well remembered—was ambassador from England to the Tuscan Court, he was received with immense enthusiasm, and Lord Normanby, who was his strenuous friend and admirer, is said to have decided him to add “Hamlet” and “Macbeth” to the “ Othello” which he had already rendered famous,”