NINETY YEARS

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20334, 5 September 1931, Page 13

NINETY YEARS

IWT~~ gfjjAL ARTICLE.

I-jiHV OF REV. JAMES ■ WATKIN. gXEMPLABY WHALER. [fICLVW* 70 THfc PKIBB] (XO. XIIJ.I October 3rd, 1843. mUj> October Ist, was a very in- . p* i»r, and the bell calling the &jgjk to worship met no response. ftferdsy {October 2nd) we had a ia the kaika. .She was an person for a native. Death fittle impression upon the native, 2t De**" B appear more like festive (( MJW* than most others in a Maori's sfa The immediate connexions of tho give way to noisy expressions £aitt> which soon cease; though in got ewes there appears to be a -nMtkal recurrence to the native 2faof expressing sorrow, but I am enough to discover the jfjuncc (if such exists) between the Aifflf sorrow and that of joy. Both Jj-ftiy disagreeable to English ears. ■ft'iM pleased to find a letter on my iglje pulpit board. It runs thus:— ft Vita Wakina, —0 my friend, my -jUJjjJttMitg to you. My mind is glad S*Wf an< * Saviour. My mind •dfecf greatly. My soul is glad. JSflj, My evil is gone and I am seek-ui-'to »y Saviour, Jesus Christ. O, ggripodness to me is great l and lastly Ameo. —I. Simon. Vjjjjte.—lt is practically certain this .|o§r was from Haimona Pita Mutu, lb lad been baptised on January loth, jgrJULILP.]. 'i%irs»J have been a good deal em"m& in writing for the Natives what pr call "Puka whaka aro" —books jfjgfercnee they may be called. I'," October 12th, 1843. Qb ihe Bth held the usual services. Jnttsed three young men from Ruapßt. Ob Monday married a couple. ftfciwaiki'is anxious for a missionjff,% To-morrow I leave for Port Tj(fc»liftrr_ where I suppose I shall lyfr something about the district and its doings, and if I am to tger here. I must get supplies, publie and private account. —The names of the young men were:—Parora Euru, Wiriama ska and Paralcaia Totoke.]. . October 16th, 1843. i 14tb left home for Otakou to m board tho Victoria, Governig, on board of which I now tcsterday conducted a service lorniug. We have made slow W'"" October 30th, 1843. '':&s•■ the 21st inst. arrived at this I in, and soon found my nude, who, with his ly welcomed me. %y I preached to both refreshed by being per- > worship with spiritu- ( Wellington) has suffrequest changes which j lace and from other I ism stinks in the noseopJe here. This ought I would it have been so I w ' ot eoadaet' been < w* Ironside's predecessor, gunpowder affair and r by which that folly o be justified accounts g at present in operaMi r Ironside's labours le reproach. My feelindignation and grief should have dared to Wesleyan Missionary limical to the dealing lere we are looked at wild beasts. The f eelpany has never been s affair has converted into enemies, nay, ily into enemies. ing the Wtairau masl of Wellington, fearby Te Rauparaka, res, undery the leaderCayor, as volunteers. y,, and took measures powder in the settjeho Control of tho quote E. J. Wakeuantity of gunpowder te house of the Rev. . Wesleyan missionary & Mr Aldred on his • he Chatham Islands. - a very ungentlemanly : to the account given : y in the* and 1 ime * of Gunpowder l the lower class of j iqucneo."—M.A.R.P.]. i *r 20th, 1843. * ', return home on the ] 1 arrived at home on < 17th, thankful to God " swards mo and mine.' ' of my brethren —tho ' for years. ' i) resumed my publie ' '■ pleasure to myself. ' rs to give pleasure to < sh and natives. Oh. ( re aseful than ever. f ft 4th, 1843. 1 po a Tgodd degree of ( eems wanting. They * on sense of propriety, of sin and thirst for i expect in real Chris- a U after every allow- i e must require from c owledge of Scripture q their applications Of a rs is a Christianity \> th?n the heart. s r 16th, 1843. I stant visited Otakou. h be coast is never, par- h nor free from danger, d of the harbours here c lant and somewhat n >at .was crazy enough, 1 ■oti lads, but we ac- a oyage in safety. In J preached to and f topic at Teruatitiko. e *er meeting was held, o the catechumens, and n i their new names, ti ruing of the 13th I ti f of men, women and 0 irricd four couples si let the members of i them tickets. After- fi ahakopa, and went g ; luties, baptising and vv lone, I married four n Maori women with een living, and bapasto children. My * Held out of doors, it been so hot the oc- tc i been one of great a] was that to gratify and spiritual eye. I a{ red to impress the w d at last with some w ko and held a ser- jj ( ths abundance of w

other tl f or \ 1 h e dUC - e^ + nie to seek s. p b sever rnnfl y P 1 ° J wcrs of description, were Ito »w*° be 80rel y baffl ed £-* IM , slern t ? m arned two couples. To Sid when im P oßsi ble, and was walk T h ™ m ?e br< ? ke t0 take a walt*T ? until the morning virl nf f n ° Ugl l. advanced t0 hold a ser nulled ♦« w lch . we embarked ' and fo Jl V aitl '' th ? nk f"l to God | xor au His mercies, ana begging His | blessing upon my poo r labours December 23rd, 1843. I have had arrivals from various parts of my long, if not wide, circuit, are hero to attend the love feast and to partake of the Sacrament. Waikouaiti has more inhabitants now than I have ever seen before. I have j met the classes at Otakou, Purakanui, and this place. Moeraki I have not been able to visit. At Buapuke things don't go on well. teachers such as mine are very incompetent, and when can a missionary be sent? The places nearer I manage better. December 26th, 1843. On the 24th had a series of interesting services. In the forenoon had perhaps 200 present. I baptised more than forty persons, making the number baptised in this circuit 216. In the afternoon hdld a love feast. A considerable number spoke. In the evening heard Hoani Weteri (John Wesley) Koroko address the congregation and was pleased. Afterwards I held a sacramental service and had a large number to partake. On Christmas Day held religious services as is our wont, which were , well attended, though the day was unfavourable. January Ist, 1844. Yesterday was employed as usual. Preached three times, if so my addresses may be styled. In the Eng.lish service baptised a half-caste youth. Have just met with the converted captain of a whaleship, a humble, loving man—would there were many such! From his account there aro several American captains who are so, who, as well as himself, hold religious services on board their vossels. He has had a revival on board of his ship, and a number of converteu characters among his officers and CTew, some belonging to the Methodist, some to the Free-will Baptist Churches. To latter he himself belongs. That church differs little from our own. They have class . meetings, and are believers in and seekers of sanctification. My conversation with him on the latter point was interesting to me. I gave him some magazines, notices, etc., and one of our hymn books, pointing out to him the hymns for those "seeking full redemption,' ' where the blessing is doscribed and sought in a manner only less excellent than in the Scriptures themselves. He attended and was pleased with our native services. He gave us some combs for the females, which have been distributed . May God be with Captain Barker and preserve him in his simplicity and ardour. (To be continued.)

A correspondent of the Oxford "Periodical" suggests the following as a list of the poems likely to be most popular in the enlarged edition of the, Shorter Poems of Bobert Bridges. Awake, my heart, to be loved, .awake, awake 1 ißeautiiul mu»t be the mountains whence -ye come Belov'd ol all to whom the Huie is dear Christ and his Mother, heavenly maid , How should I be to Love unjust I have loved flowers that fade I love all beauteous things I never shall love the snow, again I will not ]et thee ffo My eyes for beauty pine O youth whose hope is high Perfect little body, without fault or stain on thee Since to be. loved endures So sweet love seemed that April morn There is a hill beside the silver Thames Thou fcadst all Passion's splendour When first we met we did not guess "When men were all asleep the snow came flying Whither. O splendid ship, thy white sails crowding Ye thrilled me once, ye mournful strains.

The recent privately printed "Catalogue of the Altschul Collection of George Meredith in the Yale University Library'' reproduces for the first time Meredith's notes ton MSS. submitted to Chapman and Hall, for whom he acted as reader. Over 400 books are commented on in 184 pages, says a reviewer. Some of them are dismissed with a trenchant "No." Meredith was nothing if not severe; but they were mostly trash. To mention a few of them: "How to Make £40.000-a Year," by Andrew Largies. "By an illiterate is his comment. Another is described as being "Demonstrably on every page by the hand of the youngest of her sex." Of a third he remarks:. "The language is extraordinary. It • would stop most readers on the first page. What follows is of tho samo kind unrelieved." Still another cannot be recommended because its, author was "afflicted with facetiousness in the style. ?■' Of W. H. Hudson's '' Mr Abel'' he says it is "inoffensive but without colour of the country described or grip of the characters." (This book was apparently .never published.) On the j other hand, 'Hudson's "A Naturalist in ' La Plata" is "excellent, well observed or gathered, instructive —to be recommended."

"Bummaging in one's shelves, almost at random," says Mr Allan N. Monkhouse, '' one finds few classics which can be said to begin inappropriately. True to the tradition of the historical novel, 'Bomola' starts with a 'proem' which doesn't carry us far into the story, but in 'Middlemarch' wo get to Dorothea in the first line; it may be recalled, too, that Jane Austen began her famous novel with 'Emma Wood- | house, handsome, clever and rich.' The death of the old bishop and the discomfiture 'of his son, the archdeacQn, mark the opening of 'Barchester Towers'; 'Jane" Eyre' begins with Jane and the shocking family Iteed, 'Lord Jim' with a description you could hardly forget of Jim aand his -early experiences. Such beginnings are natural enough, and the 'The Brothers Karamazov' is very much in the Russian tradition with its considerable descriptions of characters in the story. 'The Old Wives' Tale' begins with the two sisters and their environment, 'The Man of Property' with the Forsyte family 'in full plumage,' ' Tono-Bun-gay '■ with a kind of warwiug very well in its place in that remarkable novel."

Miss Y. Sackville-Wcst suggests that it is more satisfactory, on' a holiday, to take the works of one good author and read them through, instead of reading a lot of stray novels. She Had never, she says, cared much for Troilope when she tried him in single books, but when she settled down to all o£ his works on a long railway journey across Russia she found that she could become completely immersed in tho woHd he created.