POETRY

New Zealand Herald and Auckland Gazette, Volume I, Issue 27, 20 November 1841, Page 3

POETRY

ENGLISH CHURCH. How beautiful they stand, Those ancient altars of our native land ! Amid the pasture fields and dark green woods, Amid the mountain’s clouds and solitudes ; By rivers broad that rush into the sea; By little brooks that with a lisping sound, Like playful children, run by copse and lea ! Each in its little plot of holy ground, How beautifully they stand, Those old grey churches of our native land ! Our lives are all turmoil; Our souls are in a weary strife aud toil; Grasping and straining—tasking nerve and brain, Both day and night lor gain ; We have grown worldly ; have made gold our god ; Have turned our hearts away from lowly things; We seek not now the wild flower on the sod ; We see not snowy folded agels’ wings Amid the summer skies ; , For visions come not to polluted eyes ! Yet, blessed quiet fanes 1 Still piety, still poetry remains, And shall remain, whilst ever on the air One chapel bell calls high and low to prayer— Whilst ever green and sunny church-yard keep The dust of our beloved, and tears are shed From founts which in the human heart lie deep 1 Something in these aspiring days we need To keep our spirits lowly, To set within our hearts sweet thoughts and holy ! Romance in Real Life.— On the truth of the following narrative, or romance in real life, our readers may rely, the particulars having been furnished to our reporter by one of the official persons under whose cognizance they have transptred.—On the evening of the 7th of March last, a young man, meanly attired, apparently about twenty years oi age, knocked at the door of Mr. Madden, the relieving officer of the Kensington Union for the parish of Kensington Square, and entreated he would afford him shelter for the night, as he was in a state of utter destitution, having *• no where to lay his head.” Mr. Madden, seeing that the unfortunate tndividual looked pale and tfaakly, asked him if he was not also unwell in health ; to which he replied, in a very mild voice, that he was suffering from a severe attack of influenza, and wag very ill. Mr. Madden, accordingly, gave him an order for admission into the Union Workhouse for males, in Gloucester Road, Kensington, where he remained for eight days, and was attended,during that time, by Mr. Wright, the district surgeon of the Union. On the Isth of March, having given the usual notice to leave, he discharged himself from the workhouse, saying that he was going to Yepton, in Sussex, to which place he stated he belonged, although it has been since ascertained that, on entering the workhouse, and his name, &c., being, as is customary, entered in a book by the porter, he gave them as follows: —“ George White, aged 16 years, came from Chelmsford.” Fiom tne 12th March, nothing further was heard ol the individual in question, by the workhouse authorities, until Wednesday last, when one of the turnkeys belonging to the Westminster New Bridewell, Tothill Fields, applied at the workhouse for intorroaiion as to whether such a person had been an inmate there, and on fc sing iuformed in the affirmative, he acquainted Mr. Madden that the party, although dressed as a man, and calling himself George White, was a female, and at present an inmate of the Westminster Bridewell. From the statement of the

turnkey, it appeared that she had been committed last week, from one of the police courts of the metropolis, to imprisonment tor seven days for an act of vagrancy she had beencouvicted of. On Tuesday last, on one of the officers of the prison visiting her cell, he noticed a remarkable fulness ol her chest, and on desiring her to open her shirt, discoveied, to his great surprise, that the prisoner was a female, and not a man. He immediately communicated the discovery to Lieutenant Tracy, the Governor, who instantly sent for the supposed young man, and questioned her as to ihe cause of her adopting the present disguise. For some time she refused to answer his questions, and all attempts to ascertain her real name, or the address of any of her connexions, were unavailing; but ultimately he eliciied from her that she was not a married woman, and that her father and mother were both dead. Subsequently to their demise she had been residing with her uncle, by whose footman she had been seduced, which, being discovered by her relation, she had left his residence about four months ago, since which time she had adopted the disguise of a man, in the hope of eluding discovery, and had ever since been wandering about the country uatil taken into custody as a vagrant. She obstinately refused to give any clue by means of which her name, or the residence of her friends, can be discovered, beyond stating that she has a brother, who is student in one of the colleges of Cambridge University. She is described as a remarkably fine-looking young woman, rather above the middle stature, and her conduct, while both in the workhouse aud in the prison, affords evidence of her having received a superior education. Her extraordinary story is strengthened by the fact of her being enciente, and, since the discoveiy, she has been kindly treated by Lieutenant Tracy, in the infirmary ot the prison, and the proper authorities are at present engaged in writing to the places before-named, in edeavouring to obtain correct information respecting her, with a view to her restoration to her friends.— Times, Earthquake ax Ammehapoora. —This city is said to have been almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake, which happened on the night of the 23rd of March, 1840; 800 persons were killed. The shock lasted two or three minutes and extended from north to south. The cities of Ava and Tragain are also said to have been destroyed, with many neighbouring villages. The walk of a deceased blind beggar, (in a charitable neighbourhood,) with his dog and staff, were actually advertised for sale in the Newspapers of 1804. Puseyism in the Provinces, —In one town in the south of England, which we will not name at present, we have been assured that thirteen out of the sixteen resident clergymen are Puseyites; land we believe the proportion is the same elsewhere. — Brighton Herald. The proportion of marriages in the year to the population; was one in 129, rather below the average ol 1821—30, which was one in 125. Freight. —The emigrant ships from Liverpool to New South Wales are advertising to bring out iron at 17s 6d per ton. New Brunswick, —We have before us a census of the population and general statistics ot the province ol New Brunswick, for the yaars 1824, 1834, and 1840. At the first of these periods the population is returned at 74,176; and so late as the end of 1840 we find it swelled to 156,162, or in other words more tnan doubled, in the compaiatively brief space of sixteen years. Land is still cheap, and employment abundant; and though the rivers freeze, and powdety snow covers the ground, sometimes for months, the natives know so little of the iron rigours of a polar winter, that axemen and labourers are enabled to prosecute their,respective tasks in the woods the whole year round. So late as the 13th Feb. last, the Committee on Roads sanctioned the expenditure of £15,675 for improving the different bye-ways throughout the , province, which is now divided into twelve counties. The lollowing figures speak for themselves: —“ Total population, 156,162 ; inhabited houses, 20,514; houses building, 1,185 ; ditto uninhabited, 1,690; places of worship—Church ot England 61, Presbyterian 32, Methodist 44, Baptist 62, Roman Catholic 51, other denominations 21.