BAZAARAT THE ODD FELLOWS' HALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 179, 9 June 1864, Page 3

BAZAARAT THE ODD FELLOWS' HALL.

Tin-: Committee have announced that the bazaar for aiding in the re-erection of rooms for the Young Men's Christian Association will be held on Wednesday and Thursday next, the 15th ami 10th instant, when Air. Thatcher, we are informed, has kindly consented to give up his use of the Hall for the two evenings, a display of practical good feeling on the part of the Inimitable that one might have anticipated. There is much to be said on the subject of the purpose lor which tliis bazaar is to he held, and if our space Mould have permitted we would have wished to enlarge more fully than we shall here be able, upon the general subject of Christian Voung Men's Associations. Any harmless recreation, combined with intellectual improvement, allbrded to the younger members of society, will work more beneticially as a preservative from vice than tons weight of, written advice, and anything that professes to amuse, while in fact it is doing the work of the Good Shepherd and saving souls from destruction, is one that should be reverenced and fostered by all. 2s'ot only in this light will the subject bear looking at. Jn a purely worldly spirit, the .spread ol' Young ilen's Christian Associations ' is to be much desired, and when attained should I be a subject of universal congratulation. In a small place like this, for instance, where the choice ol' young men's amusements lies between billiard playing, drinking, and clubs of an exceedingly questionable tone of breeding, a father would not, however worldly minded a man himself, object to seeing his son provided with some means of encouraging an intellectual taste, and titling himself, should his tastes so guide him, to take a higher rank, and become a useful member of society. Anything that will promote the institution of some Christian amusements for young men should be always hailed with the deepest satisfaction by all those who have children of their own, and every one who takes an interest iu the welfare of his sons should come forward to lend his aid to the present object in view, of which this bazaar is going to be held. We think that some mean between total want of amusement and excess of it is to be desired, and we should be proud that in Auckland perhaps more than in any other British colony there is displayed a spreading and strongly rooted i'eeliug in favour ot the preservation of our young men, which will undoubtedly bring forth fruit to more practical purpose than scoflers would argue, iu the shape of a class of men iu the next generation capable of guiding the country on to greatness and emulating the young men who, with similar training in. lingland, have made her what she is. We trust that the persevering exertions of the ladies of the committee, who for months past have been disappointed in procuring a suitable room for the occasion, and who have kiudly postponed their bazaar in order that it should not clash with other bazaars, will at last meet the encouragement and reward they deserve.

The ' Alkxaxdka' arrived yesterday in hnrbour i'roiu iSapier via Tiiurnuga, bringing 120 men of the laying Column, and seven olliccrs. She is now coaling previous to lid , departure again lor Tanrangu. The ■ Alexandra' made a capital passage of IS hours. The "Sandfly. , —This smart boat, which, it will be remembered, left this harbour for Coroniamlel yesterday morning, taking down Dr. Hector, and 11. .11. Turton. Jisij., returned again lust night, after a very <|uk-k trip o( uiuc

hours, including one hour's stay at Beeson's, where she landed her passengers. The 'Sandfly ' goes down on Monday next to bring them back again. Pakkua Maoris.—"What would the Pakcha Maoris say to such a law as this, some account oft ho operation, of which, we extract from the Qhcciix/um/ Times oi' the 2iJth April. We do no. , know, however, but that on some occasions blil-Jl a law here might have been a very useful ouo. Sleeping iu aboriginal camps may have had more to do, perhaps, with mating philomaoris (quite a distinct class from Pakeha-maoris) than we either know or suspect. The Queensland Times states that '• the police authorities have been informed that a white man has joined. a tribe of blacks in. the neighbourhood of Normandy station and has been living with them for a week past. Two constables were despatched 3 T csterday to the locality where the tribe is. supposed to be encamped, to ascertain whether the information is correct, and if so to take the man iuto custody. There is a considerable difference between being obliged through necessity to live with the blacks, and voluntarily forsaking the haunts of civilisation, to roam about with them. In the latter case, which comes under the denomination of vagrancy, the offender is liable to imprisonment for a period of six months. Before the passing of Mr. Groom's Vagrant Act Amendment Act, magistrates could imprison a man under such circumstances for two years, and a couple of years ago in New ■South Wales, two men received a sentence of one year's imprisonment each for sleeping one uight iu an aboriginal camp. Accident.—An accident happened to one of the watermen, named Smart, yesterday afternoon. It appears that he approached too near the edge of the wharf, lost his balance, and fell over into his boat, which was a great distance below, owing to its being low water at the time. The falling man grasped some furniture which, was lying on the wharf, and pulled a table down on the top of him into the boat. He was quickly brought up, when it was found that he was very severely bruised, and it is feared has fractured his elbow. Wholesale Lock-it.— Yesterday eleven seamen of the ship ' Migrator,' now in Auckland harbour were conveyed in a body to the lock-up for refusing to do duty. They are all Italians it is said. Commercial.—Yesterday the hull of the •Arthur M'Xenzie,' belonging to Messrs. Thornton, Smith, and Firth, and lately wrecked on the bar at Port "Waikato, was submitted to auction, as it lies, by Mr. Samuel Cochrane. It was bought b} , Messrs. Stephenson and Wardell for the sum of £42. It is a new vessel, or was, before it was wrecked, and the copper and copper bolts will be worth more than the price realized. Flour Sale. —The cargo of the ' Forres,' which arrived with breadstuff's from California on Sunday last, was offered bj r auction yesterday, by Messrs. Mabin and Graham. They report sales of ilour at from £24 to £25 per ton. Maize at 5s 3d and bran at Is 9d per bushel. Fkom Hawke's Bay we learn that during the last kw clays the Patca natives have driven iu to a settler's run in that Province, the greater part of their stock, the remainder having been left behind in the hurry of departure. Suspicion of the state of ailairs at Taupo is supposed to have led to this act. It is said also that starvation is busy with the natives now mustered in the vicinity of Taupo, and it is hoped that the arrival of 3(>o troops at Hawke's Bay will have a very good effect upon them. Conveyance of Mails.—Tenders for the conveyance of mails, from the twelve months commencing Ist J uly next, between Auckland and Queen's liedoubt, fl.uA between Auckland and Port Albert, and Auckland and Arei, and intermediate stations, will be received by the Chief Postmaster until noon of Saturday the 25th. inst. The City Board, we perceive, are advertising lor the services of a practical engineer, capable of superintending and managing the working of the stone-breaking machine at Mount Eden, Applications, accompanied with testimonials as to qualification, will be received until 4 p.m. on Tuesday next. The Footpaths.—A short time since we drew the attention of the City Police force to the very great inconvenience occasioned to respectable persons by knots of idlers who make a practice by day and night of congregating on our footpaths, and obstructing the tree passage along them. With commendable care for the convenience of the public, the police have set to work to make this nuisance a thing of the past, and, a≤ might have been expected, have met with opposition from the loafers, who make a practice of thus annoying the public. On Tuesday, when one of the police was telling a knot of them to move on, a man named ISggington. turned round and struck him. He was at once handcuffed and taken to the guard room, and brought up yesterday before the magistrates. -As this was the first case of the kind, the offender got the benefit of the fact, and was fined at the request of the Commissioner, as a caution to others, in the merely nominal penalty of one shilling. We arc sorry to notice the absence of support afforded in this city by the byestanders to the police when in the execution of their duty. It lias not unfrequently happened that a single policeman has been allowed to be severely handled by half a-dozen bad characters, when, perhaps, at the first instance, a few words from one or two of the byestanders might have checked such an occurrence. Our police are comparatively few and scattered, and it behoves us to atlbnl them every encouragement in the performance of the very arduous duties which we feel .bound to say are performed with a temperate firmness, and a zeal, which reflect the highest credit on the force from the Commissioner downwards. The ■■ Waicganui Chronicle" contains the following further account of the new Maori delusion which has caused some remark, and as it may interest some, we repeat it: —" On the occasion of the fight at Ahuahu, Captain Lloyd's blood was drunk by the natives that killed him; and after having finished their orgies, they cut oil' his head and buried it. Next night the archangel Gabriel is said to hare appeared to those who had partaken of the blood, and desired them to disinter the head and dry it in the old M aori fashion, in order that the Captain's spirit speaking through the head, might become the. medium of communication between the Almighty and mankind, and be carried through, the island as a banner under which a crusade against the pakehas was to be preached. This Mas accordingly done, and the head is asserted to have spoken and propounded the new creed, as well as appointed Te L T a of Ngatiruanui, licpauaia of Taranaki, and Matene Sangiauira of Wauganui.as its chief priests. The following are the principal articles of the new faith. Its professors wore to be called " Pul marire" and peaceable), and the word " hou," pronounced short like the barking of a dog, was to i be their sacred watchword, the rapid utterance of which would ward oil" all danger, even to the extent of causing edged weapons to glance from their bodies in battle, and bullets aimed at them to change their course and rise into the air. The proselytes were to be initiated by drinking water in which the head had been dipped, or which had been poured over the head, and took an oath to destroy every white person without distinction of ago or sex, till all were killed or driven from the land. The professors of the new faith were to be under the special protection of the Virgin Mary, who would personally bepresent among them, and they were to be assisted in their task of driving out the pakeha by the angel Gabriel and hosts of angels ; and as soon as the task was completed, those heavenly messengers • were to teach them all arts and sciences knowu to the Europeans. The professors would be enabled to learn English or any other foreign language perfectly in one. lesson, by observing ecr'uiin forms, namely, standing for a given tune

la a certain position, under a flag of a particular colour and pattern, hoisted on a flagstaff of certain dimensions. The priests elnhnod to have acquired this power, and Matine lately, when at Waitotara. got possession of a piece of newspaper in which articles purchased in town had been wrapped, and pretended to read it aloud in English, and afterwards totranslato it; and performed the cheat so adroitly, that one of the W"aitotara assessors present—a very intelligent native, who from his boyhood, has hnd intercourse with Europeans—was deceived into becoming a convert, and has since been deprived of his office in consequence. All the jEuropean creeds were to lie considered '.is false. and done away with; all bibles and other honks relating to them were to be destroyed , the observance of the sabbath \\ns to cense, all diivs being regarded ns holy; and marriage and its obligations were to be dispensed with, in order that the race of believers might increase the ■faster, and Lecome as the snnd of the sea in multitude. The fact that the extraordinary ■powers promised have not been conferred was •accounted for by its being necessary that the 3iead should first visit the whole island. How far the professors of the now creed ntid its priests have been deluded it is hard to say: but the death of two out of the three leaders (Hepanaia at Sentry Hill, find Matine at Moutoa) may cause the delusion to die out. Nevertheless the importance of securing Captain Lloyd's head is obvious, as use may still be made of it for mischievous purposes by any native possessing ventriloquial powers."