AUCKLAND.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 6, 14 May 1872, Page 2

AUCKLAND.

[FIIOM OUR OWN" .Cy.RKESI'ONIJTSNT.] Tlip week lias nut been very prolific; of events —eitlicT domestic or political—ami consequently my on itif* must assume llj« fonn of more gossip. Fust among which I may mention tliafc Thanksgiving Hay was kept as a "close holiday," mme s > in fact than L have observed Oimstmas D >y or . Good Fri-lay. The various places'of worship were well att :i • c I by both elates of .society—those of peaceful inatincls, ami tho.se full of " wars alarms," the Voliuteers. The occasion was improved by I the latter to make it a grand gala day for the display of their surroundings---the new busby of the Jtiile Brigade and the " kills" of the Scotch Volunteers. The shade:; of Bruce and Wallace preserve. US ! ' Fal staff s description of his army ns a "motley lob" would not be strictly true as regards their a .dual drv.ss, for that was uniform in style and color, but strictly so as to their phisique and I size, ranging as thoy did from live feet nothing [ to something under seven feet; ; not to , mention. ' t'i-jir " '-lives" which. looked scarcely, able tosup- | port their body much less adorn the tartan. The appearance of the IJiilc Brigade, however, was good, the busby imparting a most martial. a;ipeeo. About' 500 in all mustered on tb'e occasion. Anropos of Thanksgiving Day, the Kev. Mr. Nelson, the youthful minister of St. Pauls Church, ha.j drawn upon himself some rather, severe strictures through' tue columns of the Iji-cuinr/ titor. To put it in a mild way he was imp/: dent enough during divine ser vice to remark that " a lev gloomy fan I,tics, exponents of a worn out theolo.y, have thought lit to decry our festival and thanksgiving of to-day." This intolerance of the freedom- of thought on the part of his eldoss provoked a very caustic letter from, a' writer s : g dug himself "A Gloomy Fanatic," in which hp recommended him "to wind skeins of silk while chatting silly gossip to young ladies, and not to incite men to break a lance with him or provoke a controversy in which his simpering silliness will be lost." Thanks to the editor of" the Star, who has closed further dis cission on the subject, he/ has escaped probably some rough handling. The two gentlemen, Messrs. Barry and Nolan, who have been appointed by the Superintendent to conduct the searca for gold in your district, left ea route by this, morning's coach. They are -~j accompanied, I believe, by assistants. Messrs. i Barry and Nolan are reputed to possess experience j in the work, and if the precious metal really I exists, as reported I have no doubt but that they j will gain fame for themselves. | The Volunteer Gazette is defunofc—that is there | was no issue 011 Saturday last. After a flickering | existence of some four months it has expired (so | rumour has it) of a diagnostic common to infants i —a tightness of- the chest. Requvamt in paw. j South'? Poligraphic Company are about to pay j a visit to-the Waikato. The. entertainment ia | one of the best that has visited your district, ' j and will no doubt meet with commensurate sucI COS.;. . ■ ; The want of more frequent communication with. , I the Waikato is ' a matter of complaint by those ! win have business relations. Under the present | system of "coaching," mails and passengers are i 01 dy conveyed three times a week, the result of I which is that the progress of the settlement is i retarded, and the centre of -a large district, only 1 i some eighty' miles distant, suffers unders dis- : advantages that reflect anything but credit on ' the liberality of 'the Government in comparison j to "the advantages that a small extra supply would I procure them. ' It is high time that the settlers r : took some action in the matter. Advantage should • ; have been taken of the presence hereof Mr. Vogei, i who doubtless would have, given the. subject due ! consideration. It would be quite competent for ; the present contractor, to..perform, the service at • • a comparatively Httle extra. eost to the Govern- ■ ment looking at the "increased traffic that such an alteration would briqg abont. , 1 A message from San Francisco, by way of Galle and Melbourne', explains the detention of the I mail steamer as owing to the fact that on the 1 27th M arch she cracked her steam chest. The.

hoat referred to in the Moses laylor. He ar- ; rival in expected here to-day. j [ mentioned in my h"' letter that a dinner j |~-id tM-- II tendered to the Jfon Julius Vogel, and j that I'A"* id declined the honor on the score of ; j!l | j(;; ,|i )i -M;, things considered it was luel.y ! that In; dm aa it appealh that the " beginning ; ;ind the. ndiie/' of tilie . omplimcut is said to he due . In Mr. Uarg.v.ille, n gentleman whose modesty ; ;is a rule is not hid under a bushel. Our local venture in the wliahng lino, the Albion, is reported to have taken 180 barrel."opeim i oil. It is sirprising to me that the en'crprise has ; never been cultivated before. If there were less ; > of the spirit of gambling, i.e., mining speculations, on the iM,rt of our capitalists, and more attention J mid to legitimate investments, sueh as the . above, it would be better for the prosperity of the , 1,1 A "'publication issued monthly, entitled the ; llhiiKioiHtlhlc (iiiw.U' 1 ., has been issued by Dr. Jla.rt- . It is a work that would be very useful in the hands of country settlers who arc disciples of ' practice :>h opposed to allopathy, ft 18 pro- j eurable from jVlr. Pond, chemist. , | There was a meeting on Wednesday last, at the Vo;i:i" Men's Christian Association Rooms, ot : shopkeepers, to protest against the arbitrary \ actioii of the police (or their superiors) ui re the heHfin" of goods outside their <loois. Ie oratorical poweis of the speakers were not great as may be imagined when one of the principal of I,lion. des- rlbed the action of the polite }W " obscene." What the obscenity coiisi.ited in was not made clear to the meeting, i However, for want of a better term it did duty, and broiudit fort h roars of laughter on its second | ,11d thirii repetition. The Inspector of l'"hee i .] ( o,ild look to it. Resolutions v/crc carried tor forming a "Defence Committee," and the meeting , of about four or five hundred persons i ;iH , (ln |,] ( ,| j,, tlie Market Kcserve on Saturday j cvenin" to listen to an itinerant lecturer ; he was j moulded on a rosLrum attached to which was a j porta,ble van meter, by the light from which he expounded and praclicall.y illustrated the principles c!:cmistry im applied to the manufacture ot mi in, brandy, wine, etc. This was ellected from llu' contents of some half a dozen small phials coldainihg various essences mixed -with hul/ a liiuibler of water One thing is certain that his manufacture was greedily partaken of by those iininediate!y surrounding him. I'or a, long time it w as a matt er of wonder what could be the motives ~f his philosophic attempt to initiate the unenlightened into the mysteries of alchemy until he produced a .large sheet containing some hundred ipts wbicb he tendered for sale at the modest sun, of two shillings each. What>ucccss he met with 1 am not prepared to say, as when his lectin,. anived at that point 1 with many others, j I,.|i,_ 1 should recommend the members of the United Kingdon Alliance Association to look alter ;i man who has it in his power to make as much whisky toddy for sixpence as will make him oblivious to the cares of the woild foi a forLnighL . The writer of casual notes in the " Ota go Daily Times" says : — " Here also I may refer to the now honour tliat has been bellowed on our Julius, Ho is now enrolled among the members of the Order ot St. Michael and ,St. George. Creations of ( \hiipanhuis of tins Order have been \ cry numerous within the last year or two, so !11:11 the value of the honour has greatly tieclined. I n fact, it lias come to be generally looked upon as ti reward for third-class official merit out of 1 Sri tain —an honour given on (lie same principle as a gaudy hankeichief oi .necklace to a savage, lor it deliglita thereri|)iciit while its intrinsic value is trifling. Mr. iSfalionl and Mr. M'Lean appear to have recognised the trumpery character of the j honour when tliey refused it about two years j ago, but those gentlemen arc men a very (1 dhvent stamp from Mr. A ogel.— I hat useless member of the Government, Mr, I'ox, appears lo have been having what, the Americans call a good time' on the West Coast, lie 11,' is had plenty of hts favourite element, having been detained by Hoods on more than cine occasion, lie has also veceived several addresses, and talked a good ileal of bunkum, and therefore, his surroundings being so congenial, he ought to have been happy. His last mode ot' amusing himself has been to. visit, the glaciers, and take " sketches ' of them, while his vanity has beru Battered by one of t he glaciers being named after himself. Of course, it' ho has been doing all this at his own expense, no one can complain but there is a horrible leal* m the minds ot some that he has been drawing his travelling expenses •while so engaged. .Personsin whose bosoms such ;a thought can Hud even a temporary abode are no doubt " double-dyed scoundrels;" still the ""Wellington Independent" and "Lyttelton Tunes" may think it worth while to dispel the idea by an explicit contradiction of it. Otherwise Mr. Coliius, or some other troublesome member, will bo pretty sure to enquire into the matter when the Assembly meets, and may even go so far as to move for a return ot lite total amount spent by mmisteis in the shape of travelling expenses or allowances during the recess."