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Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2849, 2 April 1878, Page 2

The funeral of the late Mrs F. It. G. Woodward took place this afternoon, the cortege leaving the residence of the deceased lady's husband for the'Shortland Cemetery at half past two o'clock. As wife of the librarian of the Mechanics' Institute, Mrs Woodward had been, actively associated in the management of the Institution and brought into everyday contact with many citizens. That the deceased lady was held in high esteem, the number present at the funeral to-day would testify.

Mb Barlow has on view in his window in Brown street, a very handsome double barrelled fowling-piece on the breachloading principle, which has been pre sented by Captain Hazard to the No. 2 Hauraki Rifle Volunteers for aggregate competition. Volunteer W. Frearson has, we are told, made the greatest number of points for this valuable prize as yet.

A soiree in connection with tho Loyal Young JNcw Zonland Lodge of Juvenile Oddfellows will be held iv tho Odd Fellows' Hull, liiciunond street, this evening. Toa will be supplied at halfpast six o'clock, and a dance will take place thereafter.

A clka.n sheet presented itself at the E.M. Court today.

A painter's error iv yesterday's issue made the receipts at tho Wesleyan Bazaar on Saturday £92 10a 3d instead ot £102 2b 3d.

By a proclamation in tho Now Zealand Gazette of March 18, the Parliament is further prorogued to the twenty-third day of May.

The appointment of Mr "Robert Stout as a member of tb.e Executive Council of New Zealand iv room of Mr W. J. M. Larnack, and a3 Attorney General of the Colony, is gazetted.

Thr regulations for granting agricultural leases within the Ohinemuri Block, Hauraki Goldmining District, are published in the Gazette of March 21.

A session of the Supreme Court under "The Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act, 1867," to hear and determine petitions for the dissolution, or for a sentence of nullity of marriage, will be held at Wellington on the 20th May next.

We learn from Messrs J. H. Clough and Co.'s Produce Report and Price List that the export of wool from Victoria for the season since October Ist amounts to 255,M0 bales.

Mb John Bull intimates that communication over the Western Australian line has been restored.

We notice that the proprietors hare put the smart little paddle steamer Te Aroba on the Ohinemuri trade, to which place she will commence running to-morrow, when she will leave here at 4 p.m. The Te Aroha, from her small draught and large carrying capacity, is a vessel eminently suitable for the Thames Hirer traffic, and will doubtless be well patronised by the travelling public. Her time table appears in our advertisement columns.

Mb John GrKita, Pollen street, has imported a toy organ. This little instrument is intended, we believe, for teaching birds to sing, bat it would form an excellent present for a musically-inclined child, and it is a marvel of cheapness. It has eight tunes set on the barrel, and is complete with bellows, wind chest, &c. Turning the handle works the bellows as well as grinds off the tune.

Wb have received from the General Post Office, Wellington, specimens of the newspaper halfpenny wrapper, issued for the first time yesterday, April Ist. These wrappers are issued in bundles of 18 for lOd; that is, one penny tor the papor in addition to the postage. No doubt the wrappers will be found very convenient by private individuals sending a limited number of newspapers through the post, but the charge for the paper, printing, See., (6s 8d for 640) will prohibit newspaper proprietors from using them very extensively. At the price charged the Government will net a considerable amount should the wrapper come into general use. ,

The appointment of Inspector General of Schools under the new Education Act has been conferred on the Bey Wm. James Habeas, Secretary and Examiner to the Canterbury Education Board. Mr Habens has been for some years minister of the Congregational Church, Christchurch, was for some time Chairman of the East Christchurch School Committee, and is well aid favourably known there in connection with education. Mr Habens is a B.A. of the University of London, and is a gentleman of considerable scholastic attainments.

The following passage from a sermon recently preached in Westminster Abbey by Canon Farrar is causing some discussion ia Auckland just now: —What of the reprobates ! I knoir that for these reprobates Christ died. The bigot may judge of their souls if he will. The Pharisee may consign them, with orthodox equanimity to endless torments ; but I cannot —will not. Not mine, at any rate, shall be the hand to close against them with impetuous recoil and jarring sound, those gates of hell, lest they should be more justly closed upon me; but I commend them with humblest hope, even after this life of hopelessness, to Him who did not loathe the whiteness of the leper, and suffered the woman who was a sinner to wash his feet with tears. God's Spirit haa nowhere taught us that He who gave cannot give back; that ho who once ma.ie them innocent children cannot restore their innocence again; that He who created them—He who wills them to be saved—cannot re-create them in his own image, cannot obliterate all their vileness in the blood of Christ, and uncreate their sins. But the vast mass of mankind belong to the third class. They are not utter reprobates, they are not perfect saints. They try to face both ways. They halt between two opinions. The angel has them by the hand, and the serpent by the heart. And it is those who try to be God's children who realise their own excessive sinfulness. Having shown how many of the saiutliest and teuderest souls have been driven even to madness as Cowper was, by the false view of God which is given by the pitiless anathemas of man, Canon Farrar asked his hearers if, when they buried friends or relatives who had not been holy or religious, they dared consign them, even in their thoughts, to the unending anguish of the popular creed they taught ? An arbitrary infliction of burning torment, an endless agony, a material end of worm and flame, a doom to everlasting sin, and all this with no prospect of amendment, with no hope of relief, the soul's transgression of a few brief hours of struggling, tempted life, followed by billions of niilleniums in scorching fire, and all this meant not to correct, but to harden, not to amend, but to torture and degrade—did you believe in tliat for any one you have ever loved ? Again, I say, God forbid ! Again, I say, I fling from me with abhorrence such a creed as that. Let every Pharisee gnash his teeth, if he will; let every dogmatist anathematize; but that I can not and do not believe; Scripture will not lefc me; my conscience, my reason, my faith in Christ, the voice of the spirit within my seul, will not let me; God will not iet me.

Ths following is said to be a true incident of an All Fools' Day not long ago :— On the morning of April Ist, 187 —, the chronic dulness of the officials at Her Majesty's Custom House in one of our northern towns was relieved by the receipt of an official looking document addressed to—" The Collector of Customs." On the mysterious missire being

opened it wns found to contain an enclosure which road something this way :— " Police Station, April Ist, 187—. Memo, from Sub-Inspector Blank to the Collector of* Customs. I have to inform you that last night a raid was made on the premises of so-and-so, and a still and other appliances for illicit distillation were discovered and taken possession of by the police. These articles are at present at the station. Will you be good enough to send round a cart to convey them to the Custom House P " The excitement was intense. A cart was procured, and, with a sub-official mounted on it and followed by a troop of small boys, the procession started for the station, at which, on the arrival oi the cart, an amusing scene is said to have taken place. The official went back cursing the perpetrators of the joko.

At a meeting of the shareholders of the Welcome held at 4 o'clock this afternoon a resolution was carried empowering the directors to meet the directors of, and hear the terms offered by the adjoining companies in the event of an amalgamation.

In the Supreme Court, Auckland, yesterday, Walter Bullivant, alias Bennett, a seaman of 20 years of age, pleaded guilty to several charges of forgery and was sentenced to 18 months' hard labor. — A native named Sam pleaded guilty to stealing two pigs and assaulting a constable: sentence deferred.—The same native was indicted for horse stealing, but declined to plead guilty, and the verdict of the jury was not guilty.— James Williams pleaded guilty to stealing a watch: one year's imprisonment with hard labor.—Utiku, native, stealing a horse at Opotiki: one year's imprisonment. — Elizabeth Docherty, undutiful daughter, wounding her mother, pleaded guilth: sentence deferred.—David Hamilton, lollie maker, fraudulent insolvency, pleaded guilty: one year's imprisonment with hard labor.