HAMILTON. (FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIV, Issue 3352, 14 April 1868, Page 3

HAMILTON. (FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

Thb anniversary services in connection with the Presbyterian Church here have just been held. On the Sunday which completed the year since the church was opened the Rev. Mr. Macky, of Otahuhu, preached in the morning and afternoon two eloquent and appropriate discourses — the collections on these occasions (for behoof of the building fund) amounting to £1 ss. 3d. On Tuesday, 7th instant, a tea meeting was held in the church, which was decorated with evergreens »nd flowers in an exceedingly tasteful manner. Tables were furnished by Mesdamea Moule, Steele, Pennington, Aitken, Lumsden, Taylor, and Miss Macpherson— names which, as the ladies to whom they belong are attached to four different religious denominations, vouch for the catholic nature of the entertainment, and the absence of narrow-mindedness in our small community. The provision .made was also of an exceedingly liberal nature, as, though double the number of guests expected made their appearance, there was an ample supply for all. We should think that above 151) persons were present. After tea, the Chairman (Rev. Mr. Taylor) made a few remarks chiefly on the position of the congregations under his care, from which we gathered that in consequence of the number of people that had left Hamilton without paying their subscriptions towards the building of the Presbyterian place of worship here, there remained a deficit in this fund of about £50, and that during the past year the four congregations in the district had raised nearly £40 towards the minister's stipend, a considerable increase on last year's contributions. It appeared, however, that three-fourths of this sum came from Cambridge, which does not say much for the liberality of the other places in the district which Mr. Taylor visits. Thereupon the chairman called on the Rev. Mr. Davis, Congregational minister here, who made a very good speech, in which he commented on the past and present ttate, and future prospects, of this township and nj»g h "; bourhood, quoting Thomas Carlyle's opinion, "That he who knt his help toward reclaiming the wdaerness was fulfilling one of the most honourable duties which clevolYe on civilised men." Captain Hale next

made some excellent and pithy remarks on the way to get- on in this country, giving it as his opinion that industry, economy, and perseverance would place any man, practising those virtues, in an independent pptition. The Key. Mr. Blair, of Alexandra, next addressed'*tEte meeting, on the revelations of God's character -and will in the works of Nature and the Scriptures, showing conclusively thatboth these revelations have the same characteristics, and mutt, therefore, have "the same origin ; the latter, however, having a special reference to nun's moral relations to God, and therefore being the more important. The rev. gentleman s remarks, though necessarily compact and somewhat abstruse, and some of them of a novel character, were listened to with great attention ; and at the close the chairman expressed the hope that he might throw his remarks into an amplified form, and deliver a lecture to them on the interesting subject in the course of the winter. Short addresses were afterwards given by Messrs. A. Thomson, Campbell, and Morris, the last of whom proposed a vote of thanks to the I«die3 who had furnished the material part of the evening's entertainment, which was oarried with acclamation. Pieces of music were sung by those present between the various addresses, as sufficient time had not been given the choir in connection with the Church to practise such pieces as might have been sung by them alone ; and though the singing was thus less artistic, it was more social. After a pleasant evening, the Chairman pronounced the benediction, and the company separated. Some of the company adjourned to the redoubt school-room and had a dance, which was conducted with the utmost decorum. But Dr. Wallis will please note that it had just as little connection with the tea meeting or Presbyterianism as the Auckland Presbytery has with the Romish carnival.