CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 29, 7 November 1884, Page 18

CHRISTCHURCH.

(From our own Correspondent.)

November 4, 1884. This is, as far as Cbristchurch is concerned, the last week of the missionary collection for St. Patrick's College at Wellington. So far the rev. missionary has collected subscriptions amounting to some £2,000. To this sum some thirty persons have contributed from £20 to £25 each, many gave £5, aud no one gave less than a sovereign. For the district of Christchurch, especially when one considers the depressed times, that is a subscription which is entitled to be called handsome. — Last Sunday was the last of the series of Sunday lectures and sermons in connection with this mission. The closing subjects were " the Divine Creation of the Universe," and " the Proofs of Revelation," the lirst of which occupied the preacher on the last Sunday in October, and the second formed the matter of his sermon on the evening of the first Sunday in November. The argument from design, with many of its most- striking and beautiful developments, ran through the first discourse. The second was made striking partly by the duly reasoned proof of the harmony between science and revelation, and partly by the very great number of proofs of the truth of revelation wnich it contained, both those which are within the sacred writings themselves and those which are to be found in tne writings of profane authors, as well as in the works of the many historians of the church. The subject— for the two questions of divine creation of the universe and of the proof of revelation are really too great divisions of the same subject — afforded material for a long series of lectures, which the rev. lecturer can deliver out of the abundance of hia knowledge. The only regret of those who heard him is that time and health do not permit him to do so. Two such masterly treatises have seldom been delivered anywhere. Two that are more wanted ior reply to those who Blander the Church in these days could noi be found. In the secular world we are getting; a little excited about the rising price of frozen meat. The cable with its announcements of 6d. and 7d. per lb., has sent our farmers into ecstacies. It has been said that the improved price is the first fruit of superior arrangement. In this way, when the dismal fourpence had been reached, the freezing companies and stock- owners made a demand on the shipping companies for a reduction of freight — insisted, in fact, on their refusal to pay more than I£4. per lb. These carriers straightway took to buying carcasses on their own account. The first of these arriving .late iv October, has come in for fine prices ; and still the gale of high prices is blowing. In some quarters this is held to show that the carrier, having become the seller, and buying at the selling market himself, takes cars of his own interest by making the best arrangements for sa.e, Tne former low prices, it is similarly contended, showed that the agents, who were the sellers, cared so little for the interests of their clients that they rushed the meat into the market anyhow, took no care in its sale, and produced nothing but crops of the most wretched account-sales on record. There is something in this. There is also something in the fact that, during the hot months of the last exceptional summer, a very great quantity of New Zealand meat arrived at Home, and was sacrified for want of sufficient storage. This is the great difficulty of meat grown in this district ; a great deal of it gets into first-class condition just in time to arrive in London in the Dogdays. lam inclined to think that, with plenty of cold storage and good arrangements (the carrier remaining always the seller), the frozen meat industry will never see bad days again

— I heard a story the other day of the direct stsam service which ought to open the eyes of the enterprising. Brazil is not far from the Pampas of the Plate with their vast meat supply. That supply is inferior to the large, well-grown mutton of this Colony. One of the stewards of a direct-liner was struck by this fact, and, engaging freight space, invested here in fifty carcasses, for which, on arrival at Rio, the Brazilians gave him a shilling a pound all round. At Rio there is a population of half -a-million souls. People are calling upon the Government to find them new markets, when there is one in the very track of direct steam. The passage through all its stages in the Legislature of the West Coast Railway Bill — that is the name we know it best by here— has been hailed with considerable satisfaction. Whether the company whose application to the Government provided this change in the law will be equally satisfied, remains to be seen. I can only say that the local agent of the company seems quite satisfied. He ought to be. His company professed themselves ready to invest their money if the land concessions were made equal in value to one-third of the actual cost of the line, instead of one- third of a minimum cost of £5 ,000 per mile. But the Bill passed sanctions land concession to the extent of one-half the actual cost. The route is also an open question, so that this company, which has received an extra temptation in the^way of land, finds itself left to make the line which is best for its interest, which is in this case, of course, the public interest too. The only objection to the Bill in its present shape, comes oddly enough from Sir Julius Vogel, and is to the effect that the excision of the fifth clause , may wreck the project. As the fifth clause provided only that the Government oould work the line for the company, and as companies generally prefer to work their lines themselves, I fail to see the force of the objection. People are reminding one another in this connection that there was a time when most respectable men in Canterbury denounced the project to make a tunnel through the hill to Lyttelton, as a project to fasten a millstone round the neck of Canterbury for ail time. The same thing was said of the railway system from Christchurch southwards. The West Coast project, I find'on all sides, now that the Bill is safe, has a great number of converts "amongst its friends. The Kaiapoi Woollen factory people, while declaring their usual ten per cent dividend, lament that the capacity of their machinery is bo much larger than their output. That is typical of the seats of industry generally in our part of the world, which the above railway is expected to alter very much for the better. I should add thai the ten per cent is just that part of the arrangement which is not typical. If you ask the shareholders you will learn that it does not require to be altered either. We are of course all very well pleased that the policy Bills of the Government are passed. Bat amongst us there is no great disappointment about the loss of the District Railways Bill or of the South Sea scheme. Public opinion here is not interested in the Borrows of the shareholders, and. for the South Seas no one seems to care a straw. There is one thing about which people ought to care more than a straw, but people are not as a rule original observers in these parts, and no one has called their attention to it. I allude to the frequency with which we hear oE outrages in the streets of Sydney. With our system of education, this is what we shall come to in New Zealand, unless we take warning. But warning by facts is just the one thing people will not take. The project for importing Highland crofters by a temptation of 10,000 acres is another thing that does not seem to have taken our public by storm. It may be because a saying about fish of one and flesh of another makes itself heard in many minds. There are others in the United Kingdom besides Highland crofters who have earned a right to colonial consideration by the operation oE land laws precisely similar, only perhaps worse in degree. Public opinion is, however, very much exercised over the Libby case, that a man should stab his captain at sea nobody says is right. But that any seaman should be subjected to beating with a belaying-pin no one thinks any better of. After the balaying-pin, came the stabbing, and after stabbing came chaining up ot such a character that the unhappy victim had to be carried into court to stand his trial before the Magistrate in Lyttelton. The Magistrate decided that the man's case can be sent for trial to the Slates f without witnesses; and that the master's cannot. Public opinion here is simply hoi rifled. Charity Sunday will not see the Catholic contribution at the top of the tree this year, because the Catholic contribution is delayed. The parish priest has delayed it out of consideration for the heavy call just made on the congregation for the Wellington College. At a later date Father Le Menant is to give a lecture on " Modern Magic " in one of the public halls, for the benefit of the Benevolent Association. The proceeds, supplemented if necessary subsequently by a collection, are sure to place the Catholic subscription again in the position of facile princeps.