A SKETCH BY A RECENT VISITOR AT RANGIAOWHIA.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume VI, Issue 404, 13 May 1851, Page 3

A SKETCH BY A RECENT VISITOR AT RANGIAOWHIA.

It may not be uninteresting to some of the readers of the '" Maori Mes-enger" to hear of the rapid progre»s which the native settlement of Rangiaowhia hat recently made in civilisation and wealth. About a thousand acrea of land— >«oon greatly to be added to — are under cultivation. Another mill is to be immediately erected. A very numerous population of natives it buiily engaged in industry and agriculture. Rangiaowhit, in a few yean, will be the granary of Auckland. That settlement has had no peculiar facilities for Hcquiring prosperity.— lt is a hundred and fifty miles from town. It is ten or twelve miles from the banks of the ' Waipa.'— The inhabitants have had no more money than what thfir' own' industry has earned.— And yet what a gratifying contrast their abode presents to the general aspect of s Maori Kainga. (Settlement.) There are not there, as in too many other places, a few crowded huts, a few scattered cultivations, and many Maones, wasteful of their time and strength, littles* and indolent. The whole scene reminds one of English farms. Yellow cornfields bound the horizon ; orchards cluster round the houses ; innumerable little corn* tticks, perched upon their little wooden pedestals, dot the landscape. The mill, the fliil, the plough, the spade, are seldom idle. Morning and evening, the village bell calls to church or school, and proclaims the worship of those sister virtues of industry, religion and education. Contentment is visible in the faces of all the natives ; they are not cooped up in a fighting pah ; they are not distracted by wars and rumours of wars ; their food is not precarious, and their clothing scanty. Their women are tot living in degradation, and their men in immoraity, as in the town of Auckland. — Humble nnd industrious, they peacefully pursue their useful labours, gradually working out their own civilisation and happiness. — cultivating and rendering fruitful the wild wastes of their district,— accumulating guarantees for the continuance of peace, — supplying Ur and wid« the chief article of human food, and in all ways setting an example to their countrymen, above all praise and worthy of imitation. These are the results and are the reward of that Missionary zeal and intelligence which has elicited, fostered, and sustained the capabilities of the uativs race, in such an admirable direction, and towards such useful objrets. Provision has aUo been made at Rsngiaowhia for the education of the hoif-cas-te race.— A ..chool.row containing above forty pupils, is conducted by that excellent Missionary, the Rer. Mr Morgan, exclusively for the benefit of half-ca§«fs. It has been formed by him under no small difficulties, and at no small personal sacrifice. The terms of board end tuition are extremely rbeap,— five pound* a year for each pupil,— no half-caste child is excluded o-i sccount of the illegitimacy of its birth. The chtidien are not educated upon the principle of extracting from them the greatest amount of labour at the lease cost of food, and with the shortest waste of play. Old heads are not crammed upon young khoulders. The English language, singing, industry, religion, and contentment, form the principal element, of the srstem in force. Few persons can look upon that tiny group, neat and h»ppy as they seem, — intelligence beaming in thfir dark eyes, and rich Anglo-Maori expression of face,— as they unite in prayer, and hymn their Creator's praise, without emotion and without reflecting from what a fate they have been preserved. Neglected and cast aside, with all the vices of both races rampant in them, h w lamentable would be their lot. Educated and civilised with all the virtues of both races carefully eh rished, how useful and happy may be their fa ure lives. I sincerely trust that many Rangtaowhias,— such remarkaole it stances of the progress of the Maori race,— may soon be found throughout New Zealand.

The Naval Club. — On the day of the Anniversary of the Victory of Trafalgar, the members of this Club dined together at the Thatched House Tavern, St. James-street. Captain Hood presided, and was supported by Admirals Sir Charles Malcolm, Sir Chas. Pym, Sir Henry Dillon, Douglas, Sir Edw. Stoode, Captains Dickinson, Herbert, Sykes, Maunsell, King, Chappel, E. Stanley, &c. The greater part of the gentlemen present took part in the engagement. This club, now in existence upwards of eighty-five years, consists of 517 officers, including sixty-one of flag rank. During the period it has afforded assistance to many thousands of the widows and families, &0., of naval officers.

Two Spanish officers recently met to fight a duel outside the gate of Bilbao, after the seconds had failed to reconcile the belligerents. "We wish to fight — to fight to death," they replied to the representations of their companions. At this moment, a poor fello w, looking like the ghost of Borneo's apothecary, approached the seconds, and in a lamentable voice said, " Gentlemen, I am a poor artisan .with a large family, and if you — " "My good man, don't trouble us now," cried one of the officers, " don't you see my friends are going to spit each other ? We are not in a charitable humour." "It is not alms I ask for," said the man, "I am a poor carpenter with eight children, and my wife is sick ; and having heard that those gentlemen were about to kill each other, I thought of asking you to let me make the coffin?." At these words the individuals about te commence the combat burst mfco a, load £s of laughter, and, simultaneously throwing down their swords, shook hands with each other and walked war.

Wesleyan Reform. An aggregate meeting of the Wesleyan reform patty was held at the Commercial Hall, Kings-road, Chelsea. After partaking of tea. tbe assembly engaged in derotional service. Mr. W. Martin, of Manchester, was then called to the chair. He said that meeting, viewed in some of its aspects, was a mournful spectacle. Its necessity, however, could not be denied by those who had marked the policy of the conference for the last twenty or thirty years. They had recently witnessed tbe termination of an ecclesiastical year of astounding agitation. It had been fondly hoped that the late Conference would have adopted some conciliatory measures ; but, instead of that, it had assumed a stronger spirit of defiance and a loftier despotism than at any previous time. Forgetting the mildness of the religion they professed, its members had treated Wesleyan reformers with a bitterness difficult to imitate, impossible to exceed. The judicial proceedings of the Wesleyan Conference were an outrage upon decency and common sense. The impatience of the judges to pronounce sentence on the accused, and their disgusting affectation of pious sorrow whilst they were trying to crush the spirit, reminded one of the infamous trials of the reign of Charles 11., with this difference, ! that a man was not at the latter period con - demned without first being allowed to speak in his own defence. Even in that age of terror and intolerance a man was not condemned unheard ; this unenviable distinction had been left for the Wesleyan Conference in the middle of the 19th century. The policy of the Wesleyan Conference menaced the religion and the morality of this country. It was a huge conspiracy against freedonra'nd progress. The history of Wesleyan legislation and descipline for the last fifty-seven years, if written, would be such a revelation of clerical discipline as would startle right-minded men. Every Methodist preacher was now a spy upon his fellow. The Wesleyan Conference had converted the messengers of mercy into ecclesiastical detective police ; it offered a premium to those who would abuse the confidence and outrage the charities of life. {Cheers.) Such was methodism as it existed. Methodist preachers, as a class — there were indeed noble exceptions — were no longer meek and lowly followers of their Lord. The term Wesleyan Conference was fast becoming a synonyme for priestcraft and tyranny. No one could doubt that the tendency of the age of late had been towards Popery. Cheered by faith, and nerved by hope, the Papists had won many a splendid i victory. Jesuits were flocking to this country, and almost every educational institution experienced their influence. The desertion of many of her ministers indicated that the Church of England had arrived at a fearful crisis. Her direct foes were those of her own house, who, whilst eating her bread, had not scrupled to apostatise as many as possible of her sons. Bishops and clergy were seeking to introduce the abominations of the Church of Rome, and no absurdities of that church were thought too outrageous for revival. (Loud cheers.) Mr. James Wyld proposed a resolution declaring that the meeting viewed with the deepest concern the assumption of arbitrary power by the Wesleyan Conference, displayed in their expulsion of several ministers from the body (the names being given); their contemptuous rejection of the people's memorials, and their determination to maintain power at any cost by expelling from the body all who questioned their proceedings ; and that tbe meeting therefore considered it a solemn duty to withhold all pecuniary support from tbe preachers until they yielded the concessions now contended for. The llev. James Bromley, (an expelled | Wesleyan minister) seconded the resolution, which was agreed to. .

Settling a. Kingdom Man ■of - war Fashion. — One of her Majesty's ships, while cruising da the African station, was ordered to proceed to the Camaroon River, and deliver the ,presents to Kings Bell and Aqua, iv fulfilment of a treaty entered into with these Sovereigns by the British government for tiie suppression of the slave trade ; and, on the morning after her arrival, at daylight, was surrounded by a number of war-canoes, with 50 men in "each, one divisidn having King Bell and his chiefs on board ; another division, the eldest son of the late King Aqua (who had died since the delivery df the foimer presents) ; and the other division the youngest son of the late King, who had deposed his elder brother and assumed 'the 'sovereignty. The captain declined receiving them on board till eight o'clock, when the colours were loisted, and a guard of marines ready to receive them, the officers wearing their swords and cocked hats. King ' Bell was tho first to come 'on board, Accompanied

by his favourite wife and twelve of his chiefs. He was dressed in the full dress of a mail-coach guard, with a petticoat instead of trowsers. Next was the eldest son of old Aqua, wearing an English general's full-dress coat and epaulettes, no breeches, nor any substitute for them. Last came Tim Aqua, the younger brother. He wore the full-dress of a general officer, and was decently clad in a pair of white duck trousers and ankle boots ; also a white beaver hat with a blue silk band, and on it, in letters of gold, " King Aqua." The English resident at Bell Town also came on board and represented to the captain that, in consequence of Tim having assumed the sovereignty, the trade of Aqua was stopped, much to the injury of the Liverpool merchants, whose agent he was, and requested the captain would use what authority he possessed to place the rightful heir in his proper position, and prevent Tim Aqua from taking upon himself the rank of his late father. A palaver was immediately held on the quarter-deck, and King Bell and the Aqua chiefs examined, when it was proved to the satisfaction of the captain that the prince with- , out the breeches was the eldest son of the late King, and consequently the rightful heir to the throne. The master-at arms was ordered to dispossess Tim of his emblem of sovereignty, by removing the blue band from his white hat ; this ceremony appeared excessively disgusting to Tim Aqua, but having uo power to resist, he quietly acquiesced and became a subject. The elder brother was then required to enter into the same treaty as bis father had done, and sigu the same in the presence of the several witnesses, which having done, he was desired to go on his knees, and the captain drawing his sword, gave him the flat side between his shoulders, saying, " In the name of Victoria, Queen of England, I acknowledge you King of the Aqua country." At the conclusion of the ceremony the marines presented arms, the chiefs cheered, and King Aqua was congratulated on being established on the throne of his forefathers. The younger brother, Tim, much hurt and excited at being deposed, asked the captain what he intended doing with him ; be was told, " If he would take the oath of allegiance to the king, his brother, and swear to serve him truly and honestly as his lawful sovereign, and render all and every assistance in his power to British subjects trading in the Aqua country, he would be created Prince Royal." This Tim Aqua rather reluc- ; tantly agreed to, and having signed the j necessary document in the presence of the former witnesses, he was desired to kneel, when the same ceremony was gone through as with the king, excepting the captain saying, " In the name of Victoria, Queen of England, I create you Prince Royal of the Aqua country." The presents were then delivered to Kings Bell and Aqua, consisting of, to each sovereign, 1 puncheon of rum, 20 barrels of gunpowder, 60 muskets, 20 bales of blue cotton cloth, and a general's uniform coat and epaulettes, together with a remarkably handsome sabre in a gold mounted velvet scabbard. King Aqua generously offered one half of the presents he received to his brother Tim, now prince royal, no doubt fearing if he had not done so, that when they reached the shore Tim might dispossess him of the whole. This division, except the rum and gunpowder, took place on the quarter-deck ; and when the tin case, containing the general's coat and ' epaulettes, was opened, the prince royal proposed to divide the coat by cutting it down the centre of the back, and the king Ito have one epaulette and himself the other. The king without the breeches appealed to the captain to prevent such an outrage. He decided that the coat and epaulettes were the insignia of sovereignty appointed by the British government to decorate the body of the lawful king, at the same time strongly impressing on the mmd of his Majesty that when he wore the coat and epaulettes he ought, out of respect to her Majesty and the British government, always to put on a pair of breeches. Thus, in an hour, was one king deposed, another established, and the dynasty of an empire settled without bloodshed, by the captain of a British man-of-war. — United Service Gazette.