WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1734, 12 July 1884, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

[From our own Correspondent,! July 10th, 1884. v Mr J. Robertson, last Sunday morning,. delivered the first of a series of five lectures at the Lyceum, which was fairly filled by an attentive audience, consisting of both ladies and gentlemen. The Bubjeot dealt with by. the .lecturer waa / " The Problem of Life." The lectures which it is intended shall be delivered on the first Sunday.evening of the next succeeding four months, will be devoted to the subjects, of education, labor, government, and religion. Mr Robertson briefly glanced at eaoh of thejte important subjects.. From the oradlajfa the grave, he said man was studying nature and his fellowmen. He pointed out that there existed much misconception as to the tenets of freethought, which it was the duty of freethinkers to dispel, The problems of life had been altered from time to time, Amongst the early Greeks nothing was so much worshiped as the. fine arts, inchiding painting, and the drama, The®f*the Eoman Empire, the chief object of life waa conquests. Afterward followed the i establishment of the Christian religion, which he believed was of :human and not I of divine origin, Christians were now I beginning to think for themselves. They 1 should be practical, and if they endeavored to understand their everyday life I they wodld do isauoh towards dispersing the dark clouds of ignorance. He thigpointed out the advantages of under* standing the sanitary laws as they affected the health of the people, and be therefore considered they would be doing good if they inculpated the lessons of everyday ' life in their Lyceum on Sundays. Keference was then made to the inequity of labor which was as a rule, too little thought of by mechanics and laborers. He considered the subject of education a most important one. In conclusion he expressed the hope that freethinkers would not remain satisfied with attending Public leotnreß, but would meet together in private for mutual encouragement and improvement.

On Saturday afternoon the directors of the Woollen Company, their seoretary. and several other gentlemen visited the Bight chosen for the mill at spot chosen is on the bank of thj®r 0 « koro stream, a beautiful pure «eek running down from the ranges, some mites away through n rocky f[or£[oi There is an old flourmill on the bank of the stream, find this is to ko üßed tearing room for the wool, After drinking health and prosperity to the company and their chairman at Valantine's Hotel, the visitors returned to town,

The Juvenile Industrial exhibition was again opened last Saturday afternoon and evening. In the evening Miss Jervois, daughther of His Excellency, being accompanied by Mrs Bolleston, attended for the purpose of distributing the prizes, of which there were about 180. very generously contributed by a number of ladies and gentlemen. Besides the prizes there were about 50 atrards of merit. The success which has attended this exhibition will probably lead to it being repeated on a much larger Bcale on some future date.

The Junior Cup Match was played oil Saturday afternoon on the Newtown Park between the.Poneke and,the Athletic football teams. The day being a most lovely one, a very large number of speotators attended to witness Almost from the first of the ganjgKie Ponekes were the favorites, and matoli proceeded they wore looked on as the most likely to be the victors. Their opponents lacked both training, which defects to a great extent■ enabled the Poneke Club to win the game 'by two tries to love, ' ' '•*

at present rather excited over the coming elections, and great adversity of opinion exists bb to who will be the Bucoessful candidates. It doea not seem probable that Mr C. Johnston or Mr Hutchison will be returned for the City, for it seems, judging from ttie general espreaaion of opinion, that people are nearly tired of these gentlemen, Dr Newman is almost certain to again appear m the House, as he has as yet no opponent, For To Aro i here is likely to be a smart contest between Messrs E. bhaw, J, A, Shaw, 0. J, Johnston, and Mr Fraser, bookseller, Manners street. The Messrs Shaw have each addressed the electors, but Mr Fraser has not yet laid his views before the public. He iB considered by many to have a very good chance for Te Aro, as he is a fair speaker, and a man of sound coSßtm sense and education. For South Wellington Mr Fisher, our present Mayor, is by far ihe most likely to represent that constituency in the new Parliament! Of§ course the ballot box may have results to what I have indicated, bui the general opinion iB as I have sketched it out.

Ihe drapers annual ball was given on Tuesday evening in St George's Hall, and proved a very great success. Long before it took place the committee of management had taken great pains to do everything in its power to make it a success, and certainly their efforts were rewarded.' Great pains had been taken to make the ballroom as beautiful as possible in a short time, and at comparatively little expense. Flags were hung in various parts of the hall, nikau palms had been procured from the country, lace curtains had been hung at the windows, and fine oil paintings and mirrors judiciously placed in various, parts of tliWil, all lending to the room a moat beautiful and pleasing aspect. The refrosbrnenta, which gave great satisfaction, were provided by Mr Scott, The music was provided by Messrs Kißg and Trowell's band., The attendance was numerous, between eighty and ninety couples being present. On Tuesday morning about half past one the fire bell rang out an alarm. The fire proved to be in a three rnogijft: cottage m Pirie Street, occupied byT&k Hecker, bootmaker. When the family * retired to rest, a large log of wood- was left mouldering in the kitchen grate, and about two hours later Mrs Hecker was awakened by a strong smell of smoke, The place was then in flames, and it was as muoh aa the inmates could do to esoape in their night dresses. The fire extended toan adjoining building occupied by Mr John Dimeß, and before it could be put out the beat part of it waßdes* troyed. Mr Hecker lost all of his furniture, but it was insured for £95, Mr Dimes also lost nearly all of his furnituro, The houses were owned by Mr Kershaw, and were insured for £IOO each.

A fatal accident occurred on Wednesday moraine at Oriental Bay to a man named John Webb. As Joseph Berbage was driving along the road at Oriental Bay he noticed the deceased lying in a paddock near the road, and on picking him op found him to be dead, he evidently having fallen from the cliffs above and brokon ' his neck. From the evidence adduced at the inquest held the following day, it appears that deceased had resided with his mother and two sisters at Oriental Bay, and that 111 the morning in question he went out to drive in some cows;wSPT 'as he was a long time away search Was made for him, and one of the listers was informed that he had been found as already stated. The unfortunate young man was subject to epileptic fits and it is supposed that ho had been attacked with one while on the cliffs which caused him to tall and lose his life. The jury rotnrned a verdict of accidental death.