MISCELLANEOUS

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 393, 19 November 1874, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS

Mr T» Wehi thus writes from Wiikouiiiti to tho WaJca Maori — ' L->L mo siv a few words by uay of return to Mijdi R)»nru't) very luiighuble an I amusing description of tin 1 ignorance of the Maoris in olden times respecting the things of the pakeh«. The old ram of my own lr<be were equally ignorant. They toll how, when Indian miize *as first introduced, they prep ired ground, and plmtod the seed in the "round wliijh they hid prepared ; how, when it grew uo and blossimod, they dv? and scratched into the ground about tin- roits, ea «• to find the produce; and how, finding nothing, lome of them said, ' Let it roramn vet awhile ; the fru fc has not yet desa n Iwd to the roots.' When the ear ripened in the cobs, they thought it was only the seed of tho bloHsoms, and so they pulled up tho plants and Kiwod potatoes in tho field. And they did the same with the wheat and oats. Tuat was the wis Join of the ignorant, Again, fro 'ii the wreck of a vessel cast on shore at Taranuki, tho Mmm picked up a box of soip, Think ins; it was some kind of f >od they essayed to eat it; but, m masticating it, their mou'hs fnll of foam and hither. Some of them thought it must be raw, and tint il cooked it would bf> pleasant cuing; so they prepir. d a "hangi, 1 or native oven, and put tno soa.i into it. After leaving it to o >ok for a long time, they uucorer-d tho oven, and found it to contain n nhtng but a mas-, of froth, which they all commenced to ' hek up, men, women and children ; but finding it »auseom nnd offen-uvo to tho palato they abandoned it. 80 also with flour ; funking it a kind of ashes, they cast it upou tho ground." There is always a range for something in London Society, and just now the mania seems to be tor wickerworks ; and in the most fashionable drawingrooms and boudoirs you ace how tho mania Rains ground. Tastefully designed windowblinds of wickerwork, 111 most of the fashionable London squares, take the place of wire blinds, or grdund glasi. Then, in most ladies' sitting rooms you see those low wickerwork chairs, which are so sxcfedingly comfortable. The seats are large, and the back is just upright enough to make the most comfortable of lounges, especially when, as is usually the case, a small velvet cushion is introduced. You get them in j-lain white, or in white enamel and gold, or brown and gold ; the cheapest are 8s In Russia tney have 30 many large growing plants in their houses, and, as now everything Russian is the fashion, perhaps that is why people are having largo wickerwork screens in tho rooms, with ivy or some other pretty green climber growing over them. Wickorwork frames are also made to fit into fireplaces in the summer, and have troughs for flowers in lront, trailing plants growing up the back — Queen. The following extract from the Argus has an old familiar ring about it :— Somo correspondence respecting the recent tour of the Governor in Gipps Land was presented to both Houses of Parliament yesterday. The correspondence comprises a communication from Sir George Bowen to tho Secretary of State for the Colonii'B, respecting tho tour and tho icply thereto. Sir George Bowen describes the province, from its mountainous and picturesque character as the Wales or Highlands of Victoria, and mentions that he is the first Governor who has ridden through and crossed its highest ranges. He also forwarded copies of the report on the physical character and resources of Gippa Land, prepared by tho Surveyor-General and tho Secretary of Mines, and tlio more popular account of the tour which was published in the Argus, with a request that copies might be transmitted to the Ro\al Geographical and Geological Societies of London. Tho Secretary of State <br the Colonies, in his reply, mentions that ho has perused these doeumenti with much interest, und that, as requested, copies have been forwarded to the societies named. A funny incident is repoited to have occurred in Westminster Abbey in connection with the Hospital Sunday services. Tho collectors were coming round with little bags lor the offertory- and people began to take out their purges tJ hold their money in hand ready to give it. A lady of rank and fasinon, well known in the West End, was one of the congregation, an.l, as the bag approached, she somewhat ostentatiously displayed a sovereign. The bag reached her, she dropped in the sovereign — nay, rather she tried, ineffectually, U> slip a threepenii) piece into the bag — but tho coin stuck on the gilt edge of the receptacle, and had to be placed inside by the collectors. To say that tho lady blushed is not to comey tho scarlet appearance of her face when she saw how she hau been detected in her little fraud Those who stood by and saw the shabby act gazod at her in amazoincnt, and in a minute she turned deadly pale as though she would have fainted. Then she turned and left the church. Bishop JVloran, m the coi r c of a recent s rmon on education, made the following remarks: — They had heard him speak against secular education before, and pay that one of its objects was destruction of Chnstiatuty. He would read for their mforoiition an extract irorn tho National Secular Ahnnnac for 1874, in which secularism is defned. Tho extract would spe.uk for itself; nothing more horrible or diabolical could bo conceived. As he had told them again and again, the object of secularism was the destruction of Christianity and miike infidels. Secularists had now grown sufficiently numerous to make their declaration in cleat* and distinct terms. He would rend the extract without further comment :— Secularism may be briefly defined as the science of this life — the philosophy of the piesent existence. Secularism is a religion without a superstition — a theology — the divinity of which is humanity. It teaches a mai* how to live without a dependence on a God ; and how to die without frar of a devil. It instructs him how to prosper without a Providence ; how to be happy without a priest ; how to be moral without a Bible ; how to be useful without theological belief. It asserti tho possibility of a paradise without the necessity of on oseeniion, and thinks salvation attainable without tho blood of the Lamb. Its object whs to destroy the belief in God, and to root out of man all dependence m Him ; nnd to cause mnn to repudiate Christ and his redemplion. Its object was to destroy Christianity and to raise up. a heathen and Godless society. A young man at a miiBic.ll party being told to " bring out an old lyre," bi ought out his mother-in-law. When two persons are married in North Carolina, they arc thereafter said to be " Siamesed. l ' ' Plense, sir,' said a. littlo girl who was sweeping a crowing for a living, 'you have given me. a bad penny.' 'Never mind, little gill, you may keep it for your honesty.' A schoolboy spelled " job," and when asked to define it blundered out • " It means when a fellow don't want to cry, and it bui'bts out itself." Another defined a comma as " a period with a tail."