LYTTELTON.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 580, 22 February 1851, Page 2

LYTTELTON.

[From the Lyttelton Times, February B.] Our Journal of the past week must celU brate the commencement of the “ FashionablJ movements” at Lyttelton. It is only to add, that Lyttelton appears to have com. menced in the department of gaiety amusement with the same success as in ty more substantial duties of colonizing. Notwithstanding the arrivals of shippi D2 ] and the great activity which prevails in manr; respects, there has been a slackness in business during the past week. It is not easyu account for this. Articles which are fetching high prices when purchased in small quantities for daily consumption, fail to find purchasers when offered in considerable quantitiei at even more moderate rates. Cattle have do! found that ready sale which was anticipate! by the importers, and persons are beginning to express uneasiness at this state of thematket. The real secret, however, appears tj bethat there is a great indisposition on the part of the colonists to invest any moneyii temporary arrangements. Until the laid purchasers get upon their land, all their buildings and arrangements must be considereJ/o be temporary, and so far the capv.ai innwri in them to be wasted. Every one appeals anxious to reserve his means till he can expend his capital upon his own properly io permanent improvements.

If this be the case, the symptom to which; we allude is a peculiarly healthy one, and th:; absence of extravagant speculation at th. 1 ; starting of the colony will prove a solid be-l nefit at a later period. So much so, that wi may hope to avoid those violent periods of depression which have often followed the establishment of new settlements.

No one, for example, will lay out his reaijl money in farming stock, till he has finallyl>b rated himself, and has proper means of looi-s ing after catlie. No one will buy sheep uol ; -| something more is settled as to the pastursM runs. There is, however, no want of capitO and these difficulties over, by the selection ol| the land, the demand for cattle and sheep commence in earnest. Our latest news from Christchurch conta®| nothing of importance beyond the fire, whici| we regret to say is still burning in Riccartsl bush. Yesterday it had burnt to the edgec'n the bush, and some trees were on fire iniwl Dean’s paddock. It was thought at one tins that Mr. Cass’s house would have been des-, troyed. It is hard to overrate the importao«| ol guarding against so great a misfurtunes| the destruction of’ this hush, when there isiL great a want of fire and building wood?’* immediate use. The Castle Eden arrived, just as going to press, at four o’clock yesterday. Sb| brings Dr. Jackson, the Bishop designate 0 ! this settlement, with his family and 200 p’’| sengers. She left on the Sth October, understand the unusual length of her passsh is owing to her having touched at the Cap°| We hear that the Isabella Hoercut was toh» (i ! left London a few days after, and four ob-| ships had been chartered by the CanterM Association, to sail this season. The C&l I Eden brings, besides her own mails, Engl* ! | news to the 18th of October, which i tained at the Cape from a vessel which J, | i made a rapid passage to that port. 1 1 William Fletcher, Esq., the Inspector*! I the Union Bank of Australia at Sydney *| arrived here in the Torrington and undetta the direction of the branch Bank to be^ st ’ blished in this town. This gentleman rival at once put an end to the which had arisen in the management of affairs of the bank, in consequence of the** porary illness uf the gentleman who had sent out from London to act as it 3 | Manager, f

On Tuesday evening last Mr. and Mrs. Godley entertained about a hundred of the gentry of Lyttelton and Christchurch, at a ball, in a set of large rooms in the Immipra.. tion Barracks, at present cleared of their late occupants in readiness for the long expected Castle Eden. They were metamorphosed for the occasion into a really handsome suite of apartments.

Those who are familiar with the normal condition of such buildings will readily guess that ingenuity and talent might well be tasked in vain attempts to make them attractive ; yet by simple but tasteful arrangements of flags, evergreens, and lights, not only was all unsightliness well screened, but even an exceedingly agreeable effect produced. Dancing commenced at ten o’clock, and was kept up till three, with a spirit unknown to our mother-country ball rooms, stimulated perhaps as much by the unexpectedness of the pleasure provided thus early for the dancers by the hospitality of Mrs. Godley, as by the circumstance of nineteen-twentieths at least of the company being in tbeir freshest “dancing days.” Music excellently performed, supplied a rapid succession of the newest quadrilles, polkas, and waltzes—the first by the way, these valleys and rocks ever heard—and the thought lent no small zest to the enjoyment of tl'.e scene—and at intervals during the evening glees were performed in exquisite style by some amateurs of the party. Strange and pleasant it was to hear the finest works of our old glee composers amongst the hills of New Zealand. In one room of the four, refreshments were laid out, where might be obtained a greater variety of the lighter eatables than we had thought it possible to obtain in so new a town, whilst more substantial food supplied an excellent supper for a later period of the evening. Nevertheless, the peculiar source of enjoyment at this pleasant ball was that of refleciiou upon the constituents of the scene before us ; for there was nothing in what met the incurious eye to remind him that we were in any but a well-appointed English ball-room - the accompaniments of good music, fashionable dress, elegance and beauty, were the same ; but if it were remembered that the youth and the beauty which seemed to be present as of course and with ease, bad today been, and would to-morrow be, sharing fatigues and anxieties which fall to the lot of few ball room belles, the idea lent an especial interest to the group, and an especial beauty to the form, which at home might have run the risk of being disregarded. Courageous daughters of England ! our ornament and aids alike in ball room or bivouac, —“ it is good for ye to be here 1”