CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 11, 6 July 1888, Page 27

CHRISTCHURCH.

(From our own Correspondent.) Thh weather here continues phenomenally fine, The days are bo delightfully warm that boating parties are seen on the river yet. Ac an example of the almost unprecedente I mildness of the climate this winter eggs only bring half the price which they formerly commanded at this season. Weather prophets shake their heads and declare that we will pay later on for our present exemption from storm and rain. However, even if a wet spring is to be the price of our extended autumn. I do not think that the prospect of being deluged with showers in November will in any way lessen our enj -yment of brighter days and golden sunshine in June. A great deal of serration was created in Christchurch last week by the discovery of human remains upon the beach at New Brighton. Many people at once jnmped to the conclusion that the ghastly relics' belonged to Roberts, and that the waves had sung the requiem of the daring gaol breaker. The supposition appears for many reasons to be incorrect, and presumably ihe now celebrated Johnathan, whose photograph has adorned the pages of the local papers, and whose history has been written, is still iv the land of the living aud exercising all bis faculties in dodging the police. ° The general public in Canterbury, as well as members of the leading profession, is very much exercised over the appointment to the vacant judgesnip. Canterbury is mortally afraid that the digiity will be conrer/e J upon some one omside of this province. Consideration of the merits or demerits of aspirant to the position scarcely enters into the cliycusston of tbe question at all. The reasoning upon the matter in Canterbury about runs— ihe appointment should be given to a Canterbury mau. Judge W.ird belo jgs to Canterbury therefore the anointment should be given to him. The amount of narr w feeling which has been shown in reference to the vacant judgeship is a phase of that old provincial jealousy which has proved the bane of the Colony. The Premier delivered, to his eager questioners upon the subject, a severe rebuke whicli may teach them to wait until Judge Johnston is cold before they fight further over his shoes. Rtnking has become such a ciaz^ here that an enterprising firm not liking to see the dollars going out of the country f>r the purpose of importing skates, h*s s-arted to manufacture the four wheeled roller*,. Local industry cannot be complimented upon trie result of its enterpuse. The home mala articie* are sadly lacking in elegance and are not likely to succesfully compe-e with the patent American productions, unless Messrs. Beeves and Perceval can bring their influence to bear upon the Premier in getting a 50 percent, tax put upon American skates. By the way, Mr. W. P. Reeves is completely leaving his youthful confrere in the shade. Tbe Member for St. Albans is makiog a name for himself m the House, both as a wit and a smart debater. He ia even spoken of as a piobable .Minister iv the event of the Premier being able to suunt Mu^is. Fisher and Fergus. Mr. Reeves is regardtd by many persons as a. coming man. Mr. Perceval, on the contrary has remaned stationary. Mine- the day he firbt took his seat in the House he has not taken one step forward towards the " steep wnere fame's proud temple shines atar. ' Unlike Mr. Joyce, of Lyttleton Mr. Perceval has not eveu sought to bring his name before the public by asking questions. The St. J..hu Ambulance Society appears to be growing in favour Several prominent physicians have consented to give lectures to classes during tne winter upon " First Aid to the Wounded." The first of these lectures, which were given last week in the City Council Chambers, was largely at. ended. lh, : rra n obiect of tho lectures ia to teach p-ople iv rendc aid in cases uf accident particularly, how to t<m>oranly bandage br.ken limbs, and to restore animation to the partially diowned. Tbe annual Ambu ance ball, wheh is üm illy regarded as the ball ol the wintei season, will take place ia a week or two. The event is eagerly looked forward to by ladies. Every draper s shop in Cbnstchurch is advertising a clearing sale Whether these cheap sales may be regarded as a good or bad sign of

the times I cannot say, bat it is wonderful the amount of ready money which passe! over the drapers' counters when these oheap sales are on. The public, especially the feminine public, dearly lores a bargain. The drapers understand human nature, and hare the cheap s-Uea aod tue clearing out, generally upon advantaeeoas terms, of dead stock. No^tthstinding all the gambling in which farmers indulge, on account of big mortgages, heavy interest, and the low prices of produce, a farm in the country possesses a greater attraction for some persons than a house in town, An advertisement appeared in one of the papers the other day wanting to exchange eight houses for a farm. Perhaps the tenants of the house-owner had invented a plan of campa'ga which drove a possitively obnoxi>us landlord away. If all plans of campaign had the same effjet, doubtless a good many persons would rejoice, notwithstanding the alleged " immorality " of some of them. In his speech at the Eighty Club, Mr. Paruell announced that 811 thousand poor Irish tenauta were under notice of eviction under the Land Act of last session. "We hive before ns I fear," he sayi a time of great troable. What is to be toe fate of those six thousand heada of families in Irel&nd vow under sentence of death ?" Their fate is to be the fate of thousands of poor Irish families before them, the ditch first, and afterwards, the workhouie, the grave, or at be*, an exile s home in a distant land.l It is no wonder that in the faoe of the approach of Bach an appalling spectacle of six thousand families being driven from their homei, Mr. Parnell should tremble for the patience of the Irish people both at Home and abroad. It U difficult, indeed, for people with Irish blood in their veins to keep calm while such things are being done, and more difficult still, perhaps, for them to believe that it would be illegitimate (oom ur means short of positive crime in order to render such scenes impossible. « ith I\ he P roß P« ct of the approach of the troubled times which Mr. Parnell foretells, it is the duty of Irish people who are more happily situated than these six thousand poor families to do something practical towards swelling the funds which are utilised for the purpose of ameliorating tbe conditions of such as these evicted tenants. Dunedin has already sent Home a considerable sum, amd.ae 1 have learned from a private source, has another large instalment ready to Bend Home. We, in Coristchurch, have done nothing M yet in that way to prove our kindred with those in the old land, or to prove our sympathy with the efforts of those who are trying to take out of the hands of a London lordling the power to turn his Irish tenants homeless on the world. We may not be able to do much here, but we ought to do something. It is trne this parish is not on a sound financial footing. Everything is backward. Much money wU be required to be spent before our schools or parochial buildings are anything like what they ought to be, still though the people have a great deal ot work before them and will. have to make many sacrifices to get the parish in a healthy condition, surely if a public meeting were called, the Irish psople of Christchurch would not be beaind those of other parts of the Colony ia giving practical evidence of their sympathy with £heir dearly-loved Island Home in her struggle to save her poor persecuted children from further cruelty and oppression. On Sunday the mission was opened in the pro-Cathedral by Father Corny ns. In appearance, and in his manner in the pulpit, Father Comyns greatly resembles Father Hegarty, the well-known and kind-hearted Redemptorist missionary, whom so many Catholics in New Zealand learned to love during his missions in various parts of the Colony. Father Comyns affects no tricks of rhetoric. The ' gad tidings " wnich he brings he tells in language which is eloquent from its very plainness. Father Comyns evidently believes that in itself Christian truth is too sublime and majestic to derive any beauty from what he wou d deem the tawdry array of flowery language. And he is right. If the message coufided to the Apostles is told to tbe world in clear, straight-forward, earnest laDguafe, it will never fail to produce an effect, and reach the hearts and touch the souls of m^n. la such language, strong, and vigorous, and unambiguoas, Father Comyns preaches". He is evidently impressed with the great importance of what he has to say, and he succeeds in conveying that impression to othir minds. The services during the mission are arranged in order to suit the convenieace of everybody, and there is no doubt but that all Catholics in the parish will avail themselves of these facilities.