LECTURE AT GERALDINE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1822, 29 November 1888, Page 3

LECTURE AT GERALDINE.

The Kev. R, S. BunD, of the Wesleyan Churcb, Temuka, delivered his interesting and highly amusing lecture, " Eeminisences of Victoria," in the Good Templar Hall on Tuesday evening last. The attendance was limited. Mr W. S. Maslin occupied the chair, and introduced the lecturer. Mr Bunn commenced by giving an account of how, as a mere boy under the charge of the captain of the ship and in company with his sister, he nrriyed at Melbourne when the gold fever was at its height. The manner of entering the harbor, the great trouble caused the captains of the many vessels lying in the port by the desertion of their sailors for the diggings, the demand made by the passengers for fresh beef after the long sea voyage, and many other incidents connected with their first arrival were graphically described. Mr Bunn narrated how he obtained employment in a merchant's office at £lO per week, but soon getting the gold fever he got tired of the office and started for the diggings with a horse and trap loaded with goods by his employer. The lecturer gave a graphic and humorous account of his trip to the diggings, his first attempt on the road to cook a colonial breakfast of damper and mutton, his first acquaintance with bushrangers, and his impressions of a grog shanty which they arrived at on the road, and which was the resort of all the worst characters and bushrangers. His many and varied experiences before finally reaching the Bendigo diggings were briefly and racily told, and elicited many a laugh from his audience, although the circumstances were anything but mirth-provoking to the lecturer at the time they occurred. His experience on the Bendigo diggings at the time when gold was almost as plentiful as dirt, the cruelties and outrages perpetrated by the bushrangers, the suspicion entertained by each man for his neighbor, the precautions taken to secure the gold from robbers, the waste and extravagance of thejdiggers, were all vividly pourtrayed by Mr Buun. After a time he left the employ of the merchant at Bendigo, and went on to a sheep station. The stations in those days were very large, the one where he lived being 20 miles square, and the one next to it 17 miles square. On the stations he was very well treated, and after a time he went back to Melbourne, studied hard, passed his examination at Melbourne college, and finally went into the Wesleyan Ministry. When he joined the Ministry Mr Daniel Draper was the chairman of the district. In those days the chairman of the district, the bishop of the Episcopal Church, and the moderator of the Presbyterian Church had a right to go to the land office, and claim ten acres of land for church purposes. The consequence was that many of the very best sites in town were secured for the churches. Mr Bunn gave his hearers some idea of the labors of a minister in those days. They received no pay, but were simply given the price of a saddle and bridle, and had to find their own horses. Their circuit was unlimited, And they rode for hundreds of miles, sitcply having to report themselves at the district meeting. The open air meetings were attended by as many sometimes as 7000 people, and it oftea required a great amount of discretion to keep the rough miners from becoming too jovial and pranky. During the services the bushrangers would mix among the people trying to discover their plans for getting down their gold, and the amount of gold they had. Mr Bunn stated that he had always been well treated by these gentry. He had seen and heard a great deal of shooting going on around him as he rode about the district among these lawless men, but he had never been shot at himself. The collections at the open air meetings were very successful. The tallest hat in the crowd was invariably handed round, and he had seen it meeting after meeting filled high above the brim with notes of all values. Id the very early days there were no women at all upon the Bendigo, and for a long time " lady material" was particularly scarce. When, however, a few ladies had ventured up of course there were the inevitable weddings, and Mr Bunn's description of some of these were highly amusing. One account of a wedding amused the audience greatly. It was that of a lady who was deaf, and during the ceremony a thunderstorm, such as Victoria can produce at* times, came on, Mr Bunn had to wait for pauses in the awful din made by the thunder, and then roar out the marriage service at the very top of his voice to make the lady hear. She succeeded in understanding the service very well till it came to the promise to honor and obey, when apparently her deafness increased, as all the power that he could throw into his voice was of no avail in making the bride hear or understand. Mr Bunn concluded his lecture by saying that although they had then in Victoria such men as O'Shanuessy, Mackay, G-avan Duffey, and others, men who were all great speakers, the utterances of the New Zealand orators were always coverted. The speeches of such men as Sir Wm. Fox, Fitzherbert, and Fitzgerald wer6 always coveted, and eagerly read. Mr Bunn was heartily applauded at the conclusion of his lecture, which

was thoroughly enjoyable and interesting. Mr Maslin proposed a hearty vote of thanks to the lecturer, and in doing so said the lecture just showed what colonists had to put up with in the early days. Many people who came to the colony now talked about hardships, but they did not know what hardships were They sometimes talked of the disparity of labor, and the wages paid for it, but he pointed out that things were vastly better in New Zealand to-day than they were thirty-five years ago with regard to wages, and he held that if persons were desirous of doing so, and went the right way to work about it, there were plenty of opportunities left to lift themselves out of the ruck.

The Eev. J. W. Dean seconded the proposition, which was carried by acclamation, and the meeting terminated.