LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 282, 14 July 1855, Page 5

LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.

Christchurch.—The members of the Provincial Council entertained His Honor the Superintendent to dinner at tlie Royal, at six o'clock, to which the Rev. O Mathias, C laplain, and Mr. ll^ss, ilie clerk V> thecouncii, were also invited. A very sumptuous entertainment was prouded by the cxci lions of Mr. Stewart, which (iassed off with considerable hilarity. The usual toasts wcie given ol tlie Qyieeu, Piince Allien, the Army and Navy, the Governor, the Bfsln-p and Ciergy of New Zealand, and His Honor the Superintendent, who briefly responded. His Honor proposed the health ot the Speaker, who

filled the chair. Mr. Fooks, who acted as vicechairman, proposed the toast of Prosperity to the Canterbury Settlement. The company separated about 12 o'clock.

Herb Rossetek's entertainment in the Town Hali of Lyttelton, on Wednesday evening last, was very successful. The sleight of hand tricks were many of them novel, while those with which many of the company-present were more familiar with, were well executed. The audience, particularly the juvenile portion, appeared highly satisfied. We trust that this gentleman's exertions to supply us with a little amusement will meet with the necessary encouragement.

To the Editor of the Luttelton Times.

Sir.— In an article upon the Canterbury Association's accounts, published in the Lyttelton Times of the 30th June last, appears the following paragraph,—" Nor is this the only property which is left to this province by the Canterbury Association. One of the most frequent and fruitful sources of attack has been the alleged failure of the Association in their attempt to found an endowment for churches and schools under the direction of the Church ■of England. We have carefully gone over the list ofthe Church and Educational property now in the hands of the Church Trustees, which has been collected one way or another by the instrumentality of the Association, aud we have no hesitation in saying that it is worth upwards of Forty Thousand Pounds. When we consider the age and size of the settlement, and the rapid progressive value of the landed property of the Church, we cannot we think, maintain, that she is scantily or meanly endowed. When we compare this province to those around it, we have no reason for looking on that portion ofthe Association's scheme, which related to the Church, as by any means a failure." I have no wish to enter into an argument as to whether or not the "Association's scheme which related to the Church '* is " by any means a failure.'' I have ever given the members of that Association credit for having acted with the best intentions and with the purest and most disinterested motives, but I must protest against the endeavour to keep up both here and in England a delusion with regard to the actual value and income of the Ecclesiastical property. I will not stop to enquire from what source the writer of that article has obtained his information, or from what data he arrives at the result that the property is worth "upwards of Forty Thousand Pounds ;" I but. know that the trustees have not been able to make so favourable a ciicnlation. By any one unacquainted with the real state of affairs, the con-dusion would naturally be drawn that the property itself, if brought "into the market, would realize £40,000; or that at any rate it is producing at the present time an annual income equivalent to the asserted value, i.e., 8 per cent, (the lowest rate of colonial interesi), or something more than three thousand a-year. Now, what are the facts ? I speak from my own knowledge of the rent roll, and upon the authority of Mr. Cridland, who has been and is the agent for the management of the estates. The whole of the ecclesiastical endowments now transferred to the trustees, produce a gross rental, in round numbers, of about ,£BOO a-year. From this sum must be deducted £200 a-year: £100 for the management of the property and for contingent expenses, and £100 lor tlie payment of the interest upon a debt of £2.000, with which the estates are charged ; there then remains a net income of about £600 a-year. One-fifth of this sum, or a portion of the estates now producing this sum, has been assigned towards the College foundation, thus leaving £480, say £500 a-year, to be divided amongst eight officiating clergymen (five of whom have hitherto received no leinuntraiion whatever for their services), for the building of churches and for other ecclesiastical requirements. Mr. Cridland states that tor the next six years hut little increase of income can be expected, as most of the laud is now let, but that at th- expiration of that period, the whole rental will be advanced to soimiUihi^mnre than £2,000 a-year. I have not iiii-luded in the above estimate the rents arising from the estates, commonly known as the " Jacks..n Trust," ((500 acre*), now producing allot,t £05 a-year, bail" of which is applicable to College nurposcs-, and the remainder to the Bisho}ii;n- Kimii. The Bishopric Fund itself, £10.000, remains -;.:. pr«'-ent:t moriga'.e upon u,e Association Unserves : and the £600 a-year arising from

it has hitherto been merged in the General Ecclesiastical Fund ; but now that the management of the Bishopric Fund is, I believe, likely to pass into the.hands of the Church Trustees, I sincerely hope that it will be religiously reserved for the purposes for which it was originally appropriated. I am, Sir, Your very obedient servant; Oct. Mathias. Commissary of the Bishop of New Zealand.