ELDER BATT'S DUCKS AND DRAKES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 3 August 1880, Page 2

ELDER BATT'S DUCKS AND DRAKES.

Mr. George Batt, elder of the Church of Latter Day Saints, otherwise known aa Mormons, has, as we "have previously announced, obtained several converts in Oamaru. Amongst the number are two families living at South Oamaru, possessing a little property. En passant it may be mentioned that these disciples of Joseph Smith and practisers of poligamy generally do turn their particular attention to persons possessing property. The needy and destitute are beneath their notice. The families in question, who at. present shall be nameless, have really been taught to believe that there iB not church like that of the Latter Day Saints,, and the heads of the households intond selling their property as early as possible and taking their passages to Utah, the land of the blessed. The whole number, including two men, two women, and seven children, after attending a meeting for sinking and prayer last evening, were marched to the Oamaru Creek at the foot of the Windmill hill. Here tho whole of the converts, old and young, were baptised in turn in the cool of tho. evening, about 8 o'clock. We were not permitted to attend the delightful test of sincerity, but we are told that it was at sight never to be forgotten. The faith of the four adults was tested in the most efficacious way by totally immersing them in the creek, the coldness of which, I though not apparently cooling tho ardour i of the converts to poligamy, being suffi- ; cient to make them shiver and desire to j start for a warmer climate, or at anyrato to return once more to the comfortable firesides from which they are shortly to take a long farewell. We are pleased to* be told in connection with the " ducking"* of the "ducks" that "the two ladies; had been previously divested of their clothing, and the customary light raiment, substituted under the supervision o£ : others of their own sex so that modesty in their case was duly considered. It is, however, somewhat disappointing that no reference is made to the state of the '' drakes " —whether or not they were entirely divested of their plumage. In the absence of this information, we drop, the curtain upon the scene, and express a>, hope that none of our readers will duning< future evenings linger too near the Mttloi pool that has been consecrated to the purposes of Mormonism.