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Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 466, 26 April 1890, Page 4

The news from New Zealand of the conversion of three thousand Maoris to Mormonism is the text for a leading article in a recent issue of the Sydney “Morning Herald.” The writer, in drawing his conclusions says : “ The news should cause us no anxiety, for the atmosphere of a free and self-governing British colony is not favourable to the development of such peculiar religious organisations. We need have no fear that Mormonistn will find a congenial home in Australia, although it may have obtained a footing amongst the semi-bar-baric Maoris of New Zealand. The standard of education in these colonies is too high, and the ignorant fanaticism which provides the most zealous converts to this faith is too scarce. No attempt on a large scale to form settlements, either in Australia or New Zealand, is likely to succeed, nor is it probable that it will ever be made. Hence we can afford to watch the struggle which is going on in the United States from the point of view of purely disinterested spectators, feeling thankful that we are safe from the troubles and complications inevitably involved in it.”

Captain Villieden, of the French schooner Marie, which arrived at Noumea lately from the New Hebrides, appears to have discovered some traces of the famous illfated expedition of La Perouse of a hundred years ago. When at the island of Vanikoro lie learnt from the natives of the existence of a cannon of small calibre and of a silver coin which had been found among the rocks. He bought them both. The cannon showed signs of having belonged to either the French ship Astrolobe or the Boussole, both of which were wrecked on Vanikoro with the gallant but unfortunate La Perouse. The arras of Spain were faintly distinguishable on the coin,