RECOLLECTIONS OF NEW ZEALAND,

IN 1833.

By a Staff Officer of the Indian Army.

(Continued from page 19.)

After breakfast, I visited the infant school, which s principally conducted by Miss Coldham, Mrs. William Williams' sister. There are 26 children on the books, but, some being ill, I only found 18 present. The school is at present held in the vestry of the Church, and I was struck with the remarkably clean appearance of the room and its little inmates.

In this school the native Christian infants are associated with those of the Europeans, there being too few to form a separate school for each. The system of infant instruction was originally introduced by the Rev. A. Brown, who continues to take a lively interest in the institution. The little creatures, from three or four years of age to six or seven, joined in the rhymes with evident feelings of interest and delight, and there cannot be a doubt but the moral culture which this system fosters, no less than the mental improvement of the young, must be as highly beneficial to the rising generation in New Zealand, as it has proved elsewhere.

Whilst sharing the hospitality of the Rev. W. Williams at dinner, I was unexpectedly made to feel myself quite in the society of an old acquaintance, from discovering that he was on terms of friendly intimacy with my brother at Oxford, when they were graduating together at that university; and for the time I almost forgot that I was exactly at the very antipodes of our

native country, and surrounded by a community of savages, who were no less removed by distance than by external appearance, manners, and customs, from the inhabitants of our highly favoured isle.

On expressing my surprise that, notwithstanding the want of European artificers, the missionaries should have managed to build such comfortable houses as those at Paihia; which, though far from magnificent or elegant in their appearance, are nevertheless commodious and suitable to their wants, I was informed that these houses were chiefly built by the Missionaries themselves; indeed, every stone in the house in which I was then seated was laid by the Rev. W. Williams' own hands. Daily for some hours, with the assistance of Mr, Fairburn, was he seen making his work his recreation (if such it could be called) from those studies in the acquirement of the language which have obtained the acknowledgment from competent judges of his very high proficiency; and with a canvas cap and apron, and the trowel in his hand, setting an example to the natives around him of the most unwearied industry in his application to a description of work which, it were needless to observe, he had never before attempted. This house has an attic story, and when finished will be really an excellent and commodious dwelling. Nor is he the only Missionary who has been obliged thus to labour. All the earlier Missionaries have, in their turn, been required to build for themselves, and have, in most cases, been assisted in their work by those of their community who had acquired experience by a longer residence in the country. The windows, doors, and other carpenter's work, of Mr. Brown's house and school premises, devolved

entirely on the natives, excepting on one or two occasions, when European sawyers were employed on the first settlement of the mission at Paihia; and a careful comparison of their work with specimens of a similar description which were received from New South Wales, the production of English artificers, gained for the native workmanship a very decided preference. I would not imply that the Missionaries needlessly engaged in such secular concerns, or that they have allowed them to engross their time and attention so as to divert them from the more immediate objects of their mission. The thing was absolutely unavoidable, and, instead of their being condemned for thus sinking, as it were the Clergyman in the mechanic, their having so meritoriously accommodated themselves to the circumstances will not fail to obtain for them the respect and admiration of every sensible mind. How truly can these excellent men adopt the language of the Apostle to the Gentiles, in exhorting their people to habits of industry and disinterestedness, when he exclaimed, "I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel; yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive," Acts xx. Nor has the example which has been thus set by the Missionaries been lost upon the natives; so true is it that example is more powerful than precept; for none think it a degradation to acquire a knowledge of the arts, in which some who are the relatives of powerful Chiefs

have already become proficients, and are now usefully engaged in the instruction of their countrymen in the

same arts.

All the houses, whether public edifices or private dwellings, at our Missionary settlements are considered as belonging to the society, and not the property of the individuals by whose industry, or for whose accomodation, they may have been constructed; and they will accordingly devolve on their successors in the mission, when they may be called to their reward. And when their arduous labours and peculiar situation in that remote quarter of the globe are considered, who is there for a moment who could so far bury the feelings of humanity, as to deny them in such a country the employment of a comfortable home for themselves and their families-a home, be it remembered, which, in most cases, has been thus raised for the public institution under whose auspices they have placed themselves, at the expense of so much toil and labour; yet, astonishing to add, attempts more than once have been made to persuade the public that their contributions are squandered, and their charities misapplied, in thus providing what is assuredly nothing more than a safe and convenient shelter for those who have devoted themselves to a life of peril and labour, and of perpetual banishment from their country and their home!

To be continued.

THE GOOD OLD WAY [IS] THE WAY OF

SAFETY.

THE Good Old Way is Christ. How to travel on

it is by faith-faith only; faith in the One true Mediator, in opposition to the "many inventions" of Romanism. Protestants refuse to trust in what is called the Sacrifice of the Mass offered by a Priest; because they believe the one true sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is sufficient. (Heb. x. 10-14, and ix. 25-28.) They refuse to call upon the blessed Virgin or the saints for their intercession, for they know that Christ's intercession needs no help. (Heb. vii. 25.) And they believe his own declaration, (John xvi. 23,) that if they ask any thing in his name they shall have it. They abhor the thought of inflicting any sufferings upon themselves, with a view to make any satisfaction for their sins, for they know that Christ's sufferings were infinitely meritorious. (Heb. x. 14. 17, 18, 1 John i. 7.) In a word, the Protestant Church perpetuates the testimony of one of her martyrs, when burning at the stake to which Romish intolerance had bound him- None but Christ, none but Christ.' And this is the ground of the quarrel between us (Protestants) and Rome. She blames us for trusting in Christ only, and not also in her Mahuzzim, (Lords and ladies protectors ;) and she endeavours to frighten us from this trust by persecution, when she has the power to persecute, and by threats of damnation when she has not. Christ will be the judge in this controversy; for we must all stand before his judgmentseat. We leave him to deal with our adversaries as he sees fit; but we are sure he will never condemn us for thinking too honourably of his power and grace, and for placing too much trust in his ability and willingness to save us. NO PEACE WITH ROME.