THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1880.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3704, 8 November 1880, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1880.

Wa trust that the weather will be as fine to-morrow as to-day has been, bo that those of our Volunteers who are going to have a sham fight here, will thoroughly enjoy themselves. Thos. Spencer, Esq., with his usual kindness, has given permission to hare the affair in the Farawai Gardens, to which the general public will be admitted at the reduced price of 6d each It is also quite understood that only the ordinary fares will be charged by the'bus proprietors, in fact, people are very simple who pay more at any time. , Mbmbebs of the St. George's Naval and Thames Scottish Cadet corps desirous of going to Auckland are notified to muster at the Naval Hall at 8.30 o'clock this evening.

Thb official notification of the Mayoral electiOD, which has been fixed for the 24th inst., appears in aur advertisement columns. The nomination day is Monday next.

Thb anniversary soiree, concert, and dance in connection with tl>« Protestant Alliance Friendly Society takes place to-morrow evening.

Admission to the Farawai Gardens tomorrow will be eixponoe.

At least one of our leading business men believes in the future of the Te Aroha goldfield, for it will be found on reference to our columns, that Mr Thomas Yeale, of Pollen street is erecting a large store .and bakery under the shadow of the Mountain of Love. With his usual public spiritedness, Mr. Yeale announces that the first batch of bread will given away gratis. All those who have been at Te Aroha will know what a luxury fresh baker's bread is in that district.

The breaking up dance in connection with the Oddfellows Hall Quadrille Assembly takes place this erening. Messrs Hill and Dudley will supply the music, and Mr W. Bend will officiate as M.O. ■'..;/

It is understood in official circles that the Marquis of Normanby told the Duke of Manchester he expected to succeed the Marquis of Lome in Canada. '

About 100 volunteers left this morning by the Eotomahama in order to take part in the review to-morrow at Ellerslie. A great many were accompanied by their wires and children.

PASBEBB-BT in Queen street on Saturday erening were surprised to hear loud cries as if of pain, and other noises, proceeding from the ricinity of the lock-up. On enquiring for an explanation of the noise to-day, we were informed that a couple of drunkards locked up in separate cells were amusing tkemselres by kicking the 1 walls of their prison and alarming the neighbourhood with their yells;

- Wholesale larcenies fron gardens con« tinue. Oh Saturday night a friend of ours found ttiat a number of young tomato .plants had been .carefully dug from his kitchen garden, the thief leaving a broken bladed table knife behind, which may serve as a dun to his identity.

Afieb vespers last evening a very interesting ceremony took place in St. Joseph's schoolroom, viz., the presentation of a handsome family Bible to Mrs Bruce. Father O'Reilly, who responded, referred to the lady recipient's inestimable services to the choir of the Thames Catholic Churches, and wished her success in her new sphere. Mrs Bruce returned thanks in suitable terms, and the proceedings concluded.

An Auckland correspondent says:—The Taranaki expenditure and Sir Dillon Bell's appointment are producing fruit in the Southern papers, all of which having any independence are going straight for the Government over their action in these and other blunders recently committed. Your readers will very quickly find out that the Murimutu lands will bo the next gigantic act. which will receive the condemnation of the Press, as already matters are. in train for getting it leased to Messrs Moorhouse, Studholme and others.

Messbs Cliino and Bawden, of the Tararu Chlorination Works have purchased from Messrs Fraser and Tinne a portion of the old Imperial Crown Battery, now being taken to pieces, and intend erecting it as a tailings plant on the foreshore allotment adjoining the Herald battery site. The stamper boxes, etc., are being broken up and sent away as old iron. We hear that Messrs Fraser and Tinne, have also purchased the old Morning Star battery and winding engine and intend pulling it doffn in a few days.

The Bishop of Melbourne made the following remarks recently on the influence of the drama as a popular educator:—" A powerful dramatic performance stimulates and maintains the highest activity of thought, imagination, and emotion, in even the most sluggish breast. How, then, can managers and actors, at a theatre divest themselves either of the character of educators, or of the responsibility attaching to that character ? O! be sure that you too, both managers and actors, are among the educators of our people; and if deserting this high vocation, you dare to change yourselves into priests of Moloch and Astarte, the day is coming when you will be overwhelmed with the execration you will have deserved."

At the Presbyterian Church last evening the Rev. S. J. Ncill delivered a lecture on the canon of scripture. The previous series of lectures were summarised by the lecturer, who proceeded to give the meaning of the word canon, and how it came to be used ia its present sense. He then answered a number of such questions as be said may be asked by any student of the Scriptures, the replies giving all the information in a condensed form that was to be gathered upon the subject under consideration. There was a time when men had not a single book of the canon of the present j day, and when the Hebrews had the law j of Moses. only. Various additions I were then made until the Old Testament j assumed its present form, of a similar form, and evoa how people knew She .Jews .disregarded that a<-> being the Bible, refusing a plac© in tbeit &mon to any of the books of the New Testament. He said that in order of age and of difficulty the Old Testament came first. The Jews arranged the sacred books into three divisions:—The Law, the Prophets, and the Sacred Writings, or Hagiorgraphic, and it had been said that the Lord had, by a certain statement in Luke 24th, ratified the canon of the Old Testament, as received by the Hebrews. There was a Samaritan canon, a Hebrew canon, and an Alexandrine canon. The former consisted of the Pentateuch alone, and the latter differed from the Palestinian in containing some later productions which the Jews of Palestine did not adopt. As to the date of the Septuagint, it was generally assigned to about 280 B.C. The fact of the Samaritans having in their Bible the books of the Pentateuch only made one of two things seem certain —the Jewish priest who was sent down to instruct the Samaritans in the Jewish religion, either kept back part pf the Hebrew Scriptures then existing, or else the books of the Pentateuch were alone regarded as canonical by the Jews, or were alone in existence, seeing that it did then, and always continued to constitute the Samaritan canon of Scripture. About 280, in Alexandria, the Jews there used 13 additional words in the canon of Scriptures recognised in that colony, whilst on the other hand the Samaritans rejected all that came after the Pentateuch, and on the other the Palestinian Jews rejected all that was additional to their canon. The New Testament had been selected from the numerous gospels and epistles then in existence. Twenty-four or twenty-five of the rejected were in existence still —had, in fact, been translated into English in the form of chapter and verse, with chapter headings, altogether like the present New Testament. This formed the Apocrypha of the New Testament, and it is not so well known as the uncanonical books of the Old Testament. The canon of the Scripture (inclusive of the Apocrypha) was finally settled in its present form by the Councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397). No New Testament canon, except a partial and unauthoritative one, seems to have existed before the latter half of the second century, when the idea of a universal church began to be'entertained by the Christians. The formation of a New Testament canon was slower among the Jewish Christians than among the Gentile Christiau s. The reasons why the canon as it at presented existed were then given, and also au extract from the epistle of Barnabas, which brought the lecture to a close.

Wi from time to time reprinted from the Saturday Advertiser poems and " tilegrams " to that journal from the facile and humorous pen of the redoubtable "Faddy Murphy," of Lambton Quay, Wellington. Mr Thomas Bracken has made a collection of the drolleries of the political humorist, and presents it to the public in' book form. It is one. of the most entertaining yolumes ever issued from the press of New Zealand, and can be obtained from the agent, Mr J. Nodder, of Pollen street. The price is 2s 6d.

MESSRS Foj Bros., are proceeding rapidly with the alterations to their studio, and expect to open again on Wednesday next.