JOURNAL OF THE WEEK.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 22, 7 June 1851, Page 5

JOURNAL OF THE WEEK.

We have great satisfaction in adverting to a meeting held within the past week, preliminary to the establishment of a Reading Room in Lyttelton. Nothing is more obviously wanted, and we earnestly hope that our fellow townsmen will evidence, by the spirit with which they uphold and" extend this institution, the existence of that intellectuality for which they have gained credit. In writing for them, it is needless to expatiate upon the advantages of this new adjunct to the machinery of the community—these they are sufficiently aware of, but we would plead with them against resting here. A reading room-—a circulating library—is not all that is wanted, and therefore, while quite alive to the importance of steady, deliberate advance—we would strenuously advocate the formation, ere long, upon this nucleus, of something akin to the numerous Athenseums and Literary Societies of the mother country. The room will be supplied for the present with part of the library intended for the College at Christchurch, and files of four of the best English papers have been promised as a donation. A Committee of Management has been appointed, and instructed to use all despatch in making the necessary arrangements for opening the room, which will be well lined, warmed, and lighted, and is very nearly ready. It has been kindly placed at the disposal of the Society by Mr. Godley. Our Christchurch friends are pursuing the same object. Members of the Society in course of formation there will be privileged to avail themselves of the Lyttelton Reading room, as Honorary Members, Winter has set in upon us in good earnest, with its accompaniment of heavy rain, but we are not without occasional intervals of bright bracing weather. The difference between damp weather here and in England is matter of general remark, the humidity in this place being acknowledged as far less prejudicial to health. Friday Night. —The-" Duke of Bronte" has at length arrived, after & long and, we understand, cold passage. She will land her passengers at a far less auspicious season than the former vessels—at the commencement of a New Zealand winter, instead of amidst the beauties of its autumn. But they will find, as we have above remarked,

that New Zealand is not England: and, while some inconvenience and discomfort must necessarily attend them at first, they need not fear anything like injury to their healths and constitutions.

At a meeting of the Church Trustees for Lyttelton, held on May 21st, it was resolved that a statement of accounts should be published quarterly, instead of monthly, as before proposed.