The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 540, 6 January 1858, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times.

Wednesday, January 6. For more than a week we have been looking for the October mail from England with an anxiety which arises from the uncertainty of affairs in India. We honed that .the Cantprhnry would have arrived in time to have furnished material for this issue, but this hope has been disappointed. A brig was coming into harbour yesterday evening, apparently a stranger; and we waited till the last moment before publication that we might be able to furnish our readers with any intelligence which she might bring, but we have been obb'ged to go to press before her arrival. I-oral MelligPttTp. The October mail from England is a fortnight behind the time at which it may be considered due in Lyttelton; and it is possible that the Westminster may slip in in time to announce her own departure from London, and to bring news a fortnight later than; our last advices; This state of things illustrates remarkably the benefits which the mail service confers upon: us, even though punctuality be not scrupulously maintained. A year or two ago, we should have desired no better medium than a first-class' ship sailing direct, like the Westminster, for the conveyance of our letters, $fow, however, the first-class ship must have a fortnight's start,., and the mail must have another fortnight's delay, in addition to the calculated loss of time in four or five transshipments, before the race is made at all an equal one. The October mail and. the ship Westminster may now be daily expected. The ceremonies to be performed to-day on the occasion of laying the foundation atone of the Government Offices are ; much more important than .we had any conception of when we. last mentioned the subject. The preparations made to add solemnity to the proceedings, and by a carefully constituted display of pomp and circumstance to impress the minds of all heholders, have a gorgeous formality and yet a dim bewildering mystery about them, which, taken in connection with architecture, make us think of nothiug less than cloistered monasteries and gothic cathedrals of the older world.\ A programme of the order of procession has fallen into our hands. • It is as follows:--- ; PROVINCIAL GOPKRKMkNT BUILDINGS, CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND;