DUNEDIN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 1294, 18 September 1873, Page 6

DUNEDIN.

(From our own Correspondent.) (Unavoidably held over from last issue.) The First Church was densely crowded on Sunday evening, when the Rev. Dr. Lang, of Sydney, conducted divine service. Dr. Lang is one of the very oldest of the colonial ministers, and in New South Wales, where he has been for many years located, his name is familiar throughout the length and breadth of the land — not only as a minister of the gospel, but as one who has taken a very great interest in the civilisation and advancement of that portion 1 of the Queen's possessions. He is a venerable looking man, of about 75 years of age, and on ascending the pulpit of the First Church on Sunday evening, he irresistibly reminded; the congregation of their first minister — the Key. Dr. Burns — who for so long a period preached in the place which now knows him no more. Wonderfully clear in his ideas and distinct in his enunciation for one of such mature years, • the reverend gentleman's sermon was listened to with marked attention and well-deserved interest. At its conclusion, he mentioned the fact that he had in the year 1831 — forty-two years sinee — had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of the Rev. Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Burns, while on a tour in Scotland selecting ministers for colonial charges. The proposed erection by the General Government of the railway workshops at Mussel Bay, near Port Chalmers, is exciting an amount of attention in Dunedin rarely accorded to public questions of even much greater importance. Meetings have been heir l , and resolutions strongly condemnatory of the site passed, while Messrs. Bathgate and Eeynolds have got into hot water, on account of their supposed apathy on the question. They have been characterised as complete tools in the hands of the Premier, and have had enough badgering on the pu^ject to satisfy their most uncompromising opponents. Certainly Mussel Bay as a site for the proposed workshops seems a most extraordinary selection, and every possible means are spoken of to try and upset the determination of the Government to proceed with their erection at that place, and to induce the selection of Dunedin as being the most central and in every way the most eligible site. ' Dissatisfaction has for a long time existed in connection with the management of the Dunedin Hospital. Until recently, however, no public expression had been given to this feelins:, simply I suppose because none of the class who take an interest in public affairs have ever had reason to become acquainted with the internal economy of the institution. Those, however, who have come in contact with persons who have been inmates, and who have made enquiries into the attention bestowed on the sick, will in too many cases have heard tales of neglect which are not creditable to the, authorities. The very extraordinary assertion made by Dp. Sorley in a letter to the "Star" a snort time since, to the effect that a man who had been certified as dead, and was about to be screwed down in his coffin, had risen from his unpleasant resting-place, and intimated his intention of remaining a little longer on earth, has caused a little talk in the city ; and as it has brought forth remarks as to the unsatisfactory management of the institution, probably some steps will now be taken to effect alterations that will give less room for public dissatisfaction. The large number of new arrivals by the Peter Denny and the Allahabad have already, I understand, been nearly absorbed by the employers of labor throughout the province, at^ood rates of wages. Some of them seem to be pretty independent in their own i way too. For instance, a friend of mine told me to-day that he went to engage a carpenter, and in an interview with a professor of that handicraft a day or two before the close of the week he offered him a situation at

12s. per day, to commence without farther delay. After a little humming and ha-ing, the new arrival " thought he would not care about beginning till Monday;" and as my friend wanted a man immediately, negotiations terminated, the new arrival declining to accept the proffered situation unless he could have his own way. A well-known figure in the streets of Dunedin is the donkey recently imported, and set to practical use by one of the individuals who used to propel hand-carts for the carriage of luggage, &c, on the arrival and departure of the intercolonial steamers. The great style in which the donkey and his cart have been got up have quite rendered them objects of public observation; and on Saturday they attracted double attention from those who happened . to be near them at a certain hour of the day. The donkey, cart, and driver were pursuing the even tenor of their way at a not overrapid pace, when they suddenly came into collision with a stout urchin who had made a dart from the drinking fountain near the Custom House, not seeing the danger of his position. The result of the unexpected shock was that donkey, cart, driver, and urchin found themselves suddenly rolling in the dust in a confused heap, to the no small amusement of the lookrrs-on. Fortunately neither bipeds nor quadruped were much the worse for the collision, and after a little delay in getting the donkey on his legs, and everything put right again, the gay hand-cart was driven away by its owner very little damaged by the mishap.