LECTURE AT TEMUKA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1965, 5 November 1889, Page 3

LECTURE AT TEMUKA.

1 The Rev. W. Morley, ex-president of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, delivered a lecture in the Wesleyan Church, Temuka, on Friday last, jiving a description of his visit t® the Old Country, and a number of places he 1 visited en route . The attendance was only limited. The Rev. T. A. Hamilton occupied the chair, and Mr ' , J. W. Miles was also on the platform. The meeting was opened with devotional exercises. The Rev. Mr Hamilton, in introducing the lecturer, regretted that so little interest was taken in lectures as a rule by the people in this district, and pointed out the great amount of information that was often contained in / them. By means of travelling people 'learnt a very great deal that they would net otherwise learn, and were often able to give an audience the benefit of their observations. As an example, he stated that it was not generally known that the tea which arrived in Hew Zealand was all used before being sent put of China. Visitors to that country, however, were 4ware that the tea sent out was wetted by the- Chinese, who , got their drink first. The leaves.were, then collected, ' dried and prepared, done up in boxes labelled with hieroglyphics that were undecipherable to the Western barbarian, .and, sold to us as “the new season’s tea.” We did not read about all this in books, but people who had travelled in China could tell them all

* about it, Hence the advantage ef listenihg to a lecture like the one about to ( be delivered. -The chairman then introduced the Eev. Mr Morley. The latter gentleman commenced by stating that after 24 years’ hard work ■in this colony he felt the need , of a change, relaxation, and rest, Having obtained 1 leave of the conference of 1888 he, with Mrs Morley, started for the Old Country in March, landing there in the following April. During the interval he had travelled at least j 30,000 miles by land and sea. and by almost every conceivable kind of vehicle. While in England be had not left twelve counties unvisited. Speaking of Ireland be said he had - heard many descriptions of that beautiful land, hut he was altogether unprepared tor the signs of wealth and places of beauty that island contained. If the people could only manage to agree among themselves there were few places that he knew of that were more to be desired to reside in than Ireland. He bad seen the cell of that world-famed monk Savanarola, the battle-ground of Waterloo, Eome, and very many other places of interest. He described the beautiful harbor of Eio de Janeiro, which he considered far and away the best and most beautiful harbor in the world. He also described the town, with its narrow and dirty streets, and its teeming yopulation of every description of nationality,

The beautiful botanical gardens! and the wonderful avenue ef palms [were also described! In the English Channel, while travelling very close to ihorerand the passengers were admiring &ei/farm houses, without a| mofog came on,| and for seyhr#!'hours they had to proceed at the ’''fhtef o£;f abqqt five, miles an hour tbe fbg: horn feeing all £he. tim&f JCfiaf very ..morning7' two ’mtoj collision a few miles'*from where-they were, and 23 persons found a watery grave. The water in li]be Thames'river was of the color, , and' ; 'ajbout theiconsistency of .pea, soup! iHe presumed that that was the 'reason why the porter made frorq i£ was said to shave a “ body.” He gave a vivid description of bme , of' the; pretty English villages in which be stated he stayed. Life ; seemed, to be at a standstill! and things' had bhanged but very little since h© had last seen! .them tpirty years ago. He,, could almost dejelare that he had seen some of the selfsame coats, and, morewbhderfill still,; the selfsame bonnets; which’, were in; use in England before be left England for New Zealand. The sylvan beauty and the loveliness of the woodland scenery of the Old Country .. excited hid unbounded admiratic|ciil„| He spoke of the. extentitnyvbich floriculture is' studied there«t s and denounced in! emphatic language the want of fore-1 Of'dtaft. New Zealand legislators who allowed our valuable forests to be destroyed wholesale! ;/ |H© that the Government should enact laws making it imperative that! for* every tree cut down another should be planted - . The wonderful power of the ( newspaper press, the amount of matter, the leading papers contained, the com*, pleteness of their arrangements* for i the,supplying of the public wifcb| all the latest intelligence from every part of the vfprld* and the splendid salaries paid to'Hie-agehta of the large pajpers were all, briefly reviewed. He tead a column of one of the big London l dailies, and from the time taken calculated that if a person received his paper at the breakfast table pf would take him till about four o’clock” ii the afternoon to rehd it Completely through. He next referred to | this, miserable condition of the Loudon poor, yfiap were .often crowded together ; in wretched tenement houses ’Where they.could'get no sun whatever, .and had little or no hope of bettering tneir condition. Side by side he mentioned the wealthy - classes, whose incomes could be counted by thousands landtens iof thousands of pounds. Men who thought nothing of giying 15s a pine apple and 10s or 12s for a bunch of grapes and spent _ hundreds: of pounds in flowers with; which 1 to decorate their rooms and tables foe a party. Between these two extremes if there was not a great gulf fixed there !was cer|ainjy ? ai Which; needed, to be bridged over. On the one side there was a great deal of obsequiousness, and on the other pride. The relations between the classes fend the masses was hot at present what it ought to be, and there must come, and in the, days, that were close at hand, an adjustment of these .relations* ,and there must he an alteration of the laws for the tenure and holding of land. These changes must come. Education and the free use of books and literature would bring these < changes about; and 1 he contended that i£ the wealthy classes understood their place they would be the leaders of the masses,' and would prepare'more just'and equitable laws; but if they stood upon what they con-,; sidered their rights there would come to them a rude and terrible, awakening. (Loud applause.) While in England the speaker had the pleasure of hear-' ing the Eight Hon. W. E. Gladstone deliver a speech, and the lecturer drew a striking word picture of the Grand Old Man, which brought down the house. The mention of, the ; name of the hero of Khartoum, whose statue he had seen in Trafalgar Square, was the signal for a burst of applause! He spoke of the doings of the Wesleyan Conference held in Cornwall, at! which 600 ministers were present, and which he attended as .the representatives of the New Zealand Wesleyans. Representatives were there from almost every part of the known world, and he mentioned quite a ( number of men he had met there, nome of; whom were' the ablest debaters arid' logicians,,of the present day. He was convinced from what he had seen ; of the English Conference that at no* time in the history of the Church was Church life and religion so vigorous as it was at present. In conclusion, he stated that their trip to the Old Country and back again had been, one ufi extreme pleasure to both Mrs Motley and. himself. , They had met with the utmost kindness at the hands of the people there, and he stated that had he accepted all the kind invitations given he would have got back about the year 1892. He had come back loving New Zealand more than ever. During the course of his lecture Mr Motley was frequently and heartily applauded. At its conclusion Mr Miles proposed a hearty rot© of thanks to the lecturer, which was carried by acclamation, and, being duly acknowledged, the chairman pronounced the benediction, and the meeting dispersed.

EXPOSURE'OF A FRAUD. “ Chisler ” in the Otago Workman give »the following rtf a well remembered New Zealander: — I see from the Times that the Princess Teck has been petitioning Lord Salisbury to game a pension to Mrs Blanchard, the female emigrant’s friend, which shows that the Princess Teck exemplifies _ the saying “ that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” for a greater fraud than this many-named old lady does not exist. Eli 6 first made her appearance after the great rush to Dunedin from Victoria, some twenty-six years ago, and started under the name of Mrs Allpeny a registry office for servants. The diggings were then in full swing,' and on the various diggings were numbers of low shanties, the proprietors of which, to entice the diggers sent down to Dunedin to the registry office to send up girls as servants, which meant that they were to dance and make themselves generally agreeable to the diggers. Mother Allpony-was doing a roaring trade shading up these girls, whose fares were paid up t but not down if it did not suit; and as the roads were not made in those days, it was a long and tiresome journey, and when the poor new chum girls arrived, wearied out, without friends or money, they shortly submitted to their, fate, and were ruined for life. This female iemigrants’ friend did not care, however. She got ten shillings for every poor creature sjbe sent up’ to almost certain ruin, indl never heard of any person taking any interest in them. However, our old friend Allpeny' carried on this game for some years, and ad no ons had seen the male Allpeny in Dunedin it was not surprising when she married a druggist of the more euphonious name of Howard, who was not long in going into the, lunatic asylum, and in a veryshort time shot off this mortal coil, and left the late Allpeny a widow for , I don’t know how many times. I : believe, however, that the late Howard left a solatiuni in the jgbape jbfisome money, duly collared. The late Mrs Allpenny, nee Howard, finding things dull about the cliggings, and the great emigration scheme of Vogel’s being, on, and being a woman of strong religious feelings, got appointed emigration agent. When she arrived in London, she was instructed by the Agent General to find, I suppose, decent young women, to send out fitted to be domestic servants, and she was to get 10s per head for them. So this female emigrants’ friend bethought her that the speediest way to earn the ten bob’ would be to go to the place where there were numbers, and after weighty consideration she went over to Ireland, and swooped down upon the reformatories and workhouses of Cork and Limerick, and other large towns, draining them to the dregs. The authorities no doubt were glad to get rid ..of such a lot; However, she quickly filled up the notorious ship Asia with her precious proteges; who took to the streets., when they were landed, and have been a costly curse to New Zealand ever since. But what of that ? The emigrants’ friend made a good haul! Unfortunately it had been laid on too thick, and, therefore, proved too strong. Complaints went Home, and she had to find a new husband, and she got a man of note, too, this time; but he, too, has shuffled off this mortal coil, and,. in desparation of getting another, for, alas! she is {getting old, she has now fastened herself upon this silly Princess to get her -settled for life upon the taxpayers of the pension-ridden countryA bright specimen, truly, to be pensioned off by a grateful country ! But if the -woman had any conscience whatever —which I doubt—-her life should be a hell to her when she reflects upon the manv poor unfortunate girls she has ruined.