CANTERBURY.

Wellington Independent, Volume VI, Issue 559, 19 February 1851, Page 3

CANTERBURY.

(From the Lyttelton Times Februarys.) jouunal of the week. Our Journal of the past week must celebrate the commencement of the " Fashionable Movements " at Lyttelton. It is only for us to add, that Lyttelton appears to have commenced in the department of gaiety and amusement with the same success as in the more substantial duties of colonizing.. _ Notwithstanding the arrivals of shipping, and the great activity which prevails in many respects, there has been a slackness in business during the past week. It is not easy to 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 quantities at even more moderate rates. Cattle have not found that ready sale which was anticipated *by the importers, and persons are beginning to express uneasiness at this state of the market. The real secret, however, appears to be, that there is a great indisposition on the part of the colonists to invest any money in temporary arrangements. Until the land-pur-chasers get upon their land, all their buildings aud arrangements must be. considered to be temporary, aud so far, the capital invested in them to be wasted. Every one appears anxious to reserve his means till he can commence upon his own land, and can expend his capital upon his own property in permanent improvements, If this be the case, the symptom to which we allude, is a peculiarly healthy one, and the absence of extravagant speculation at the starting of the colony, will prove a solid benefit at a later period. So much so, that we may hope to avoid those violent periods of depression which have often followed the establishment of new settlements. No one, for example, will lav out his ready money in farming stock, till he has .'finally located himself, and has proper means of looking after cattle. No one will buy sheep until something more is settled as to the pasturage runs. There is, however, no want of capital, and these temporary difficulties over, by the selection of the land, the demand for cattle and sheep will commence in earnest. Our latest news from Christchurch contains nothing of importance beyond the fire, which we regret to say, is still burning in Riccarton bush. Yesterday it had burnt to the edge of the bush, and some trees were on fire in Mr. Dean's paddock. It was thought at one time that Mr. Cass's house would have been destroyed. It is hard to overrate the importance of guarding against so great a misfortune as the destruction of this bush, when there is so great a want of fire and building wood, for immediate use. The Castle Eden arrived, just as we were going to press, at four o'clock yesterday. She brings Dr. Jackson, the Bishop designate of this settlement, with his family, aud 200 passengers. She left the Bth October. We understand tho unusual length of her passage is owing to her having touched at the Cape. We hear that the Isabella Hcercut was to have left London a few days after, and four other ships had been chartered by the Canterbury Association, to sail this season. The Castle Eden brings besides her own mails, English news to the 18th of October, which she obtained at the Cape from a vessel which had made a rapid passage to that port. William Fletcher, Esq., the Inspector of the Union Bank of Australia at Sydney, has arrived here in the Torrington. and undertaken tho direction of the Branch Bank to.be established in this town. This gentleman's arrival at once pat an end to the difficulties which had arisen in the management of the affairs n! of the bank, iv consequence of the ter-

porary illness of the gentleman who had been sent oul from London to act as its Local Manager. . On Tuesday evening last Mr. and Mrs. Godley entertained about a hundred of the gentry of Lyttelton andjChristchurch, at a ball, in a sot of large rooms in the Immigration Barracks, at present cleared of their late occupants in readiness foi tlie 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 ton o'clock, and was kept up till three, with a spirit unknown to our mother country ballrooms, 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 lof the company being in their 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 of this lent no small zest to the enjoyment of the scene—and at intervals during the evening glees were performed in exquisite style by some amatures of the party. Strange aud 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 eatable thau ' we had thought it possible to obtain in so new a. town, adorned the tables, 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 reflection upon the constituents of tbe 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 aud 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, had to-day j 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 !"