MR. MARCUS CLARKE AND "PEUTETRE."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 368, 7 May 1880, Page 15

MR. MARCUS CLARKE AND "PEUTETRE."

(Mr. Marcus Clarke has addressed the following letter to the Editor of the Advocate.') SIB, — My attention was only yesterday called to the genial and ingenious letters of your clever correspondent " Peutetre." He does not, of course, look for a reply from me, nor would I be guilty of the impertinence of attempting to discuss the matters dealt with in the pamphlet reviewed by him in the columns of a journal which in any way devotes itself to the treatment of non-secular subjects. But I may be permitted to express my thanks for an hours pleasant reading. Your correspondent has, moreover, hit the nail on the head with great deftness. In considering the subjects dealt with in the pamphlet, there is, of course, no logical pause between blank infidelity and absolute belief in that which is known to Protestants as Roman Catholicism. — Faithfully yours, Marcus Clarke. Melbourne, 9lh April, 1880.

The report and balance-sheet of the Bank of New Zealand, which will be found in another column, are well worthy of perusal as affording a valuable testimony to the financial condition of the Colony. If the crisis be considered through which business matters have just passed, the account put forward will be pronounced most satisfactory. The system of management pursued by the directors and officers of the Bank is also most worthy of commendation, and is an assurance against any such deplorable catastrophe as we have of late years seen elsewhere examples of.

A dispatch from Rome says the accounts from Terra di Lavoro, Naples, continue to be terrible. The population of 17 communes especially afflicted numbers 92,382 persons. Of this number 51,340 had been attacked by fever up to December 15 last, of whom 5,028 died. This fever means famine. The government aid is not sufficient.