CORRESPONDENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 315, 7 November 1855, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir, — Will you do me the favour of inserting the following extract from Wilberforce's History of the American Church, p. 441, bearing as it does on some of the questions, which we shall be called upon shortly to discuss on the arrival of the Bishop ? The author is speaking particularly of Pew-rents ; but his remarks appear to me to apply in a great measure to all local contributions for the support of the clergy. The passages within single inverted commas are quotations from an American work entitled "Voice from America." by an American gentleman :— " In another way, also, this system grievously impairs the Church's strength. It keeps the clergyman iii.ji state of servile dependence on his congregation: 'There is not a man in his flock, however mean and unworthy, whom he does not fear; and if he happens to displease a man" of importance, or a busy woman, there is ail end of his peace.' This makes his witness often feeble and uncertain ; for hence follows the temptation to truckle to popular opinion ; henre th« C'-urch's silence as to the treatment of the eo'oured race. By this again, the general standard of clerical character is depressed. ' Move commonly it is the lower order of taient which is found there ; and in a country where all depends on display and present popular effect, it is an unenviable doom to be attached to that profession.' This also has made a constant change of sphere almost a condition of clerical life in the West. ' Popularity is the measure of a clergyman's comfort in America; and he is generally in. st popular at fiist.' Then his support begins to flag, his maintenance is.reduced, or yielded in a manner painful to his feelings. He is forced to migrate: and thus there is everlasting change in the condition of the American clergy. They change ; the people change; all is a round of change; because all depends on the voluntary principle." The author here appends the following note:— " It is well worth the most serious consideration of the American Church, whether the evil might not to a great extent he removed by the introduction of the principle of supporting their clergy by the collection of a common fund to be apportioned by the bishops.1' Unwilling to diminish the value of this impartial testimony by adding any comments of my own, I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, Presbyter. Christchureb, Nov. I, 1855.

To the Editor of the Lyltelton Times. Sir, —I shall be much obliged to you if you will publish the following1 remarks on the Government work lately done on the north road. Many months—upwards of a year and-a-half, if I remember right, have elapsed since the Provincial Council voted the handsome sum of £400, for necessary works along the north road. It was more than a year from that time before a serviceable bridge was at last completed across the swamp, near the Rev. J. Raven's house. Then, after a long pause, a small party of men came up, and were camped for two or three months along the line of the north road, between Kaiapoi and the Kowai. During all this time what have they affected ? Two useful bits of work near the Kowai. shortening the road by a mile or two ; and two or three useless, and tvorse than useless cuttings, near the Ashley ; but I have no hesitation in saying that all their work has not enabled a horse-team to take a hundred weight more, or a bullock team to take a bale of wool more than they could before. New arrivals and settlers (if any such there be) who have paid no attention to the subject of roads, may naturally wonder at this, and ask, why ? Simply, because the Government Engineer has left untouched the worst place (two or three small swampy creeks, close together, some two miles south of the Ashley), apparently for the sake of

making a smart cutting into the salt-water creek and another into the Ashley, cuttings which are already, as any one might have foreseen, perfectly impassable. Certainly whatever else the Government Engineer leaves undone, he ought to erect at these two cut'ings large notice boards, bearing the inscription. " Dangerous," since the confiding traveller who should attempt to ride through the one would run the most imminent risk of bogging his horse, and should he be rash enough to steer for the other, would probably get a sound ducking in the Ashley ! It is difficult to hope in such matters; still, we of the north district endeavour to cherish a faint hope that, when the Government Engineer next attempts road-making in our direction, he will be less anxious to make a neat job of a cutting where it is' quite uncalled for, and more solicitous to make a firm road through swampy places, which are a real impediment to traffic. Your obedient servant, North Country. Waipara, Nov. 2, 1855-

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sih, —Your correspondent "Strangers' Gallery," in last Saturday week's paper is 'evidently a most disinterested critic upon your correspondent's reports. He is perhaps as well able to judge of their general accuracy as any other member of the Council, for of necessity he must be one of them, or whence has he obtained the information he is so overcharged with. During the discussion he alludes to, viz., the address to the Governor, there was but one stranger I believe, present, and that gentleman one of the candidates for a seat in ihe General Assembly, and he is not the writer of the letter in question. But why was there no report of the discussion in the " Lyttelton Times," and why is there none in the •'Standard?*' because, doubtless, both were satisfied that to give publicity to that discussion, was impolitic and uncalled for, uncalled for. because it was the consideration of an address to the Governor from the Council alone, and impolitic because the feeling generally prevailed that the address should be as unanimous as possible. The publication of the discussion would, moreover, have placed the address itself prematurely before the public. Your correspondent ought to be well aware of the great demand wh'ch would be made upon your columns by the publication in full of the much more important speech which Mr. Sewell made upon the financial affairs of the colony, and although " Strangers' Gallery'" may have (he effrontevy to" class this gentleman among the " no orators any of them," the opinion of every member of the Council was that it was as fine a displaj7 of oratory as ever emanated from the most distinguished members of the House of Commons There may have been instances of cramming in former days, but [ defy " Strangers" Gallery," to the proof of any '" evident cramming for the purposes of spouting," during the past sessions of the Council. It is a grievous pity that the Pro. vince is deprived, as he would lead us to suppose it is. of the benefit of those great capabilities, which he so vain-gloriuusly boasts of possessing, of himself being better able to address such an Assembly. It is to be regretted, too. that, the public are not favoured with the name of this refined critic, they would then be in a position to judge for themselves whether his "spouted stuff" would be worthy a place in your columns, or whether he would not be classed amongst the sheepish ones possessing more '•jaw'' —to use his very elegant diction—than brains. I am. Sir, Your obedient Servant, A Pji<q»w "of the Plains,