LECTURE BY THE BISHOP OF AUCKLAND.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 1004, 25 February 1871, Page 3

LECTURE BY THE BISHOP OF AUCKLAND.

A very Interesting leoture on " Wander* inga in India," was delivered by the Bishop of Auoklaitd, in the Masonic Ball. last Monday, to a crowded audience. His Hononr Judge Chapman occupied the chair. The Bishop* in introducing the subject of his leoture, referred mainly to the sov^rai inoi« dents connected with his sojourn in India while Chaplain of the Forces under Lord Clyde, during the Indian Mutiny at 1857. He stated that all the tract of country lying south of the Himalaya Mountains, including the distriot of Cawnpore, was level— in fact, a vast plain. The climate was exceedingly fine and the soil fertile, so fertile that three crops were, in many instances, produced in the year. Rain fell only or 01 in the year, during June, August, and September, the ground beiog otherwise dependent on artificial, means of watting. This accounted for the abundance of food, which made provisions and lab«,ur very cheap. The poorer classes thus lived oa about l^d, and could be employed ab from 4d to 6d a day each. The caste, religion, and language of the Indiana in the northern parts of Bengal varied greatly, all of whioh tended to retard the progress of mission work whioh they had endeavoured to carry on for the advancement of Christianity, when the first missionary was sent into the district of Cash* mere, which had previously been very little known through the objection which the people felt to "white faces" being seen among them, both he and his wife were treated very coldly. It was not until Dr Helmalie, a medical man, was sent out from home that any advancement was made in the cause of the Gospel The lecturer also narrated many instances whioh occurred while he was travelling with the forces for the relief of Luoknow, and their marches to other places of note. The opening up of the country by means of rail' ways was productive of much good to the people of India, and he trusted that India would, in the oonrse of a few years, be brought, by those means whioh had been used, to a prosperous condition. The Eev. Mr Stuart, in proposing a vote of thanks to the Bishop for his excellent lecture, expressed a hope that the right reverend gentleman would, on some .future occasion favour them with a leoture touching more upon the Mission work in those parts he had travelled through. In thanking those present the Bishop said he would endeavour to enter* tain them again some evening with a leoture of the kind suggested by Mr Stuart.

An English paper Jsays : — From one end of Germany to the other a ory of discontent is arising. Landwehr troops have advan. tages, but they also have disadvantages, and one of the latter is that a long war is impossible. In spite of the French prisoners, who are sent out into the fields to work, the country is calling out for its able-bodied population, and the able-bodied population who ere now in France are beginning to call out for the country. Whether Paris falls or not, the Germans will soon ba <*hd of an honourable escape from the dilemma ia whioh they will find themselves as the winter oloses upon them, with the prospeota oj peaoe as far removed as ever, v