AUCKLAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4347, 25 January 1876, Page 3

AUCKLAND.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

A break in the long season of hot, wet, and muggy weather has made the last vvsek or two very agreeable. The Christmas holidays were completely spoilt, but those of the New Year were very enjoyable, and crowds filled every place of public resort. The Sunday School feasts all went off well. The races and Caledonian sports were equally fortunate, and more pleasant weather could not have been desired. There was the usual trip to Kawau. About 350 people went there, and Sir George Grey'.s house, library, pictures, and curiosities from all parts of the world, with the garden aud grounds, were thrown open, though Sir George himself •was absent electioneering.

The wet weather has made grass more abun • <iant than for many years, though the hay crop ■will be badly spoiled. All stock is looking splendid, and the country has anything but its usual summer look. Strawberries have been very abundant, and the firHt peaches of the ■season havo been brought to market. After them we shall have melons, but the currants, ■cherries, and gooseberries of the South make a poor bliow in this climate. One of the immediate results of the heavy •grass crop seems a diminution in the consumption of maize. The import from Sydney has long been superseded by that from Fiji, but tho price is so low litre that the last phipment was toought at 2» 9d on board, and sent to Sydney <m speculation. The folly of a duty for_ protective purpises on this article is very visible here. The imports have not diminished, and the tax has hitherto fallen on the consumer. Now that the market is glutted, consignees decline to risk the duty iw well /is the ordinary chances of the market. So they ship it off in bond, and wo shall have the aitificial scarcity •which it seems the office of protection to ■create, before shipments are revived. Mean time we lose the trade with the shippers, which 'promised to become extensive, aad make them very good customers.

Business of all kinds is exceedingly dull, and for the first time for some years, shops and stows in the hest positions in Queen street are unoccupied. This is generally regarded as a bad sign, but, in truth, is not "heeded, as the complaints on oil sides are loud and continuous. In the midst of it, the General Government have be^'iin asrain their little game, and stopped the small Capitation balance and the Goldfields revenue to pay our aliened deficiency in interest on railways. " The railways are worked with ferocious disregard of public opinion and public interests. The Onehuuga line is competed with by the coaches again, and competed with successfully. The manager here is very much liked by all who have anything to do with the railways, but they are really managed in Wellington, and the people rage apinst_ Jlr Passmore in vain. It is too bad, in their opinion, to be charged with the losses that this management causes, and to have the small sums available for internal progress seized to make good the loss. Dr Pollen is here and will be, I presume, remonstrated with. He will also have to deal with an even more serious question—the destitution that threatens many a family at the Thames. The stoppage of the Bright Smile Pumping Works and the stopping of the adjacent claims consequent thereon, have thrown out of employment 800 to 1000 people. Those who had saved money, or who had no families, have gone elsewhere. Those who had no money, or were tied down by families, are obliged to stay. There is no work for them, end I hear on good authority that lartre numbers are in very great want. The Mayor of Grahamstowr. lias called a meeting to consider the condition of the people so placed, and to devise means of relief. A deputation has waited on Dr Pollen, though with what result I have not yet heard, but the serious nature of the trouble is undoubted. There are no noisy meetings of the unemployed and the outward appearance is calm, but those who are in a position to know what is going on and who are beyond the reach of want themselves, are moving in the matter. They are very positive in their statements of misery, and insist on the Government either opening up the country and giving employment by public works, or sending the men to where their labour, in the Colony or out of it, can find a better market. The prospect of a falling off in the revenue is also causing much concern, as the Treasurer relied on an increase over Jast year. According to the returns of the past half yea1: this in crease will not be obtained. If not there will be another difficult bone of contention. A financial and constitutional difficulty in the same session will be too much of p. good thing, especially when it is to be settled by a Parliament that aspires to do the whole work of the country, yet has never been known to endure more than three months in Wellington. In general election affaire I have nothing new to telL The only recent election is that of Sir Robert Douglas, Baronet, and p.s he is the first baronet who has taken part in New Zealand politics, your readers may like to know what manner of man he is. Sir Robert Douglas is at the present moment the chief of _ the elder branch of that historic family—the representative of the Black Douglas, from whom he is directly descended. He was a subaltern officer in one of the regiments here, and sold out to settle at Wangarei. He served in the Crimea and in the war here, and has also, I believe, seen service in India. A man scarcely yet of middle age, he has a farm of no great extent at Wangarei, and prides himself upon being able to do as hard a day's work on that farm —either at bush work or ploughing—as any man in the district. Ear from wealthy, he is universally esteemed for his high character and independence. Proud with the true pride of a gentleman, he scorns whatever is mean or dishonest, but has none of the superciliousness of the novenux rkhe or parvenu. For several years he has been quietly at work on his farm, and was but little known till elected for the last Provincial Council. Now he has been returned by a large majority for the Assembly. He will go there a Centralist, to which persuasion his cast of mind inclines him. Further experience of NewZealand politics and New Zealand parties and statesmen, will probably convert him to the opinion that in the diffusion of power lies our only safety. We may be assured, however, that be his politics what they may, the Assembly will contain no man in whom trickery and jobbery will find a more determined foe. Such men will probably be required after so sudden and so largo an expenditure, if the experience of other countries is to be taken as a guide. Sii Robert has not yet developed any power as a speaker, but has undoubted ability, is widely read, and thinks deeply. If he takes kindly to politics and devotes himself to them, he will be sure to acquire influenca with experience, and his support be of value to the party to which he may attach himself. We have had a little burst over the denominational system as opposod to the secular. It has come from the Church' of England, andi not from the Roman Catholics, whom everyone expects to break ground in this matter. The Rev. C. Nelson, of St. Paul's Church, is a member of the School Committee of Auckland pity Jiast. He is anxious to see religious instruction imparted, and proposed to have the time table of the schools in that district altered so as to permit clergymen and others to teach in the middle of the school hours instead of at the end, as at present. A half hour in the middle of the day was to be appropriated to the purpose, but the Board of Education declined to sanction the alteration. They insisted on the school being dismissed and the secular school closed before religious -instruction began. At the same time they gave instructions to teachers to assist so- far as affording every faculty possible in the use of the school building, and any preparations found necessary. _ The Synod when it met discussed the question, and takes it upon itself " parnestly to represent to the Board the advisability of their sanctioning in every case the recommendation of Local Committees in reference to the hours considered most suitable for such religious teaching." It goes further, and wants to require the attendance of; all children whose parents or guardians do not object in writing to their attendance. Of course this is in direct violation of the letter as- well as the spirit of the Act, and the Board; siiaply directed that a copy of the Act shouM be sent in reply, with a renewal of their derate-to aid these desirour of giving religious sßstructiou, due regard being had to tne spirit as well as the letter of the Act. The Roman Gtoholics continue their objection to the Act, and7 are opening schools in the centre/* ofi' population, but the Act is so fair to all and' so eveuly administered, that even their own people must feel lukewarm in an effort to separate, them from the rest of the community and keep them a sect apart from other sects ifr this matter. The other churches find theft; Sunday Schools and minis terial oversight sufficient to. teach all the theology of which a. child is. capable, »nd the true religion they k^ye to be tawght at the mother's knee, and if ft were not, fox the unfair and obnoxious toe on wliich tlie system rests for support, thene could not he a word to say against it, Njoßomau Catholic has been able to complain, that i£ ia the least degree offends, either in i£s text books ot administration. It recognises-nothing but secular instruction, and therein Ijes its strength. The instant it abandons, that position and seeks to conciliate any cue party by religious instruction during TChni ought to h& school hours, it will ceass to cowjnnnd the respect of those who are opposed to. it now, but can find no good ground on which to convert their passive opposition into active attaok