Correspondence.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 585, 12 June 1858, Page 5

Correspondence.

M : ■" ■■—" 1 1 To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. t | Sik,—lf my letters in reference to the Church i\ Property have done no other good, they, may at H* IwvsG claim the merit of having drawn forth an ,;V exposition of Mr. Raven's views on the subject; <£? a result which his parishioners at Kaiapoi have •, / hitherto attempted to arrive at. j I have certainly always understood from Mr. /4 Raven that he was in favour of selling the land ,-1 and that he only opposed the sale of a portion to '] pay off debts, in the hope of forcing the trustees *] to obtain power to sell the whole. *4 lam sorry to see that the main object of Mr; •* Raven's letter is to accuse his late parishioners '» of not having supported the Church as they ,M ought to have done, that is to say, that they did _ 4 not raise a sufficient stipend for him. Now sir, "' j in behalf pf my fellow townsmen, I must beg to - enter a protest against any such statement from "* Mr. Raven: I am quite sure that the whole "^f body of his parisioners were desirous of subscri- - i bing to the utmost of their power to raise a stipend for their minister, although he was not a - \ resident, and at every vestry meeting they ex--4 pressed their wish to do so, but Mr. Raven ~i always refuged most positively to receive any sub- \ scriptions , expressing his strong disapprobation "■& of a minister being dependent on his parisioners. Ey way of overcoming this objection it was re"4 solved that rents should be paid for the sittings ■ in the church, the proceeds to go to the minister, Mr. Raven making. no objection at the vestry | meeting to this plan, though his unfortunate v parishioners have lately learnt from his remarks , | at a meeting of the trustees, that he was much ■•I disgusted with it. It is snrely rather hard | after this that he should bring forward such an accusation as that contained in his letter. - i The next point I notice is that Mr. Raven, im<s plies that I advocate selling the land with an •1 imperfect title; whereas, on the contrary, I urge 1 the necessity of obtaining legal power to sell. % As for his remarks about •• speculating," I ' f liave only to ask which best deserves the name °f speculation, holding the land in expectation ~j of getting high rentals at some future time, or v investing in Government securities, producing .| fixed rates of interest? -* I cannot imagine how Mr. Raven can have , j made such a mistake as to say "we can hardly f\ expect the Government to borrow from us" when ; everyone knows that Government debentures are j now in the market. 1 Having, I trust, exposed some of the fallacies n to Mr. Raven's letter and thus inclined him "to "i take into consideration the expediency of Mr. .5 Willock's proposition," I have only to say in' \ conclusion that I regret deeply that one so genei rally respected as he is should have taken, to ■ use an expressive phrase, such a down on Kaipoi i as ] ie appears to have done since he has ceased „ to be our minister.

I remain, sir,

Your obedient servant,

Sf Kaiapoi, June 2, 1858

JAMES WYLDE.

I .• To the Editor of 'the Lyttelton Times. -j Sir,—We must crave indulgence to reply to f wie statement of Mr. Geo. Mallinson published in your paper of the sth inst. in answer to our a jetter m the previous issue. Mr. Mallinson says: 3 Tvr r£P eatedly complained of the price, and told I *«■. Ohaney that I considered 255. about the full I value. Perhaps I rather under-estimated than otherwise, but it affords me high satisfaction to oe able to state that, according to the opinion of a most competent judge, I did not." Without Pausing to admire the lucid elegance of " about

the full" we will take it for granted that Mr. M. means that 255. is a sufficient price per yard, though it would seem the gentleman had some misgivings on the matter, for he says " perhaps I rather under-estimated than otherwise." Who the "competent judge" is that supported Mr. Mallinson in the statement that 255. is a fair price, he does not say. We are only acquainted with two gentlemen in Canterbury competent to judge—Messrs. Mountfort and Luck, —and our competency to judge warrants us in saying that those gentlemen would never dream of such an absurdly low price. Perhaps Mr. Mallinson's "competent judge" is only a myth, like his statement that he repeatedly complained of the price; for we solemnly declare that he never said one word to us about the price we asked being too high. So much for the gentleman's veracity. In conclusion we would observe that there is a mistaken notion abroad of there being a great want of labor in^ Canterbury in our trade. There are masons here unemployed, -who would be glad to obtain work at a fair price.

We are, sir, Yours obediently,

W. G. CHANEY, . T. ABRAHAMS. W. P. JONES, R. EVANS. June 11, 1858.

The Queen and the Lettek A.—We have made a discovery. The wonder is, in this age of newspaper paragraj)hs, that it was never made before, but was reserved for the ' Gateshead Observer.' Byron had a " passion for the name of Mary," and our Gracious Queen has a passion for the letter A. Here is the proof:— Alexandrina Victoria, Queen; Albert, Prince Consort; Adelaide, Princess Royal ; Albert, Prince of Wales; Alice, second daughter; Alfred, second son; Augusta, third daughter; Alberta, fourth daughter; Arthur, third son; Albert, fourth son; Beatrice, fifth daughter. Every son and daughter of the Queen, born before the present year, has one name at the least beginning with the letter A; and some of them more. Her Majesty evidently thinks her family to be Al, and a trifle beyond—a right good 'motherly feeling, in palace or in cot. In April, when the last was born, A being exhausted, her Majesty moved on to B.