''There are hundreds and thousands of people who don't want the Church, and will have nothing to do with the Gospel,'' said the Rev Dr Gibb in the course of his remarks in First Church yesterday morning, ''and that shows that the people of this country will swiftly lapse - and, indeed, are swiftly lapsing into heathenism.
''A number of our fellow citizens are becoming heathens. I have said that before, and the bricks have flown, as they have often done, at my devoted head. I suppose the average morality, of humdrum kind, is as high here as anywhere else. But I know of large districts where there is no Sabbath Day, and where there are hundreds of children who have not the slightest idea what the Sabbath Day means, except that it is a holiday.
''You have a considerable no-church-going population in Dunedin, in spite of your brave churches. But you are a very good sort of people in Dunedin and I am glad to say that average moral worth of Dunedin and Otago is higher than that in other parts of the dominion. You will like that, for the Otago man does like to be patted on the back. The average man in Dunedin stands at a considerably higher moral level than men in other parts of the dominion.''
• With reference to the Otago Acclimatisation Society's recent decision to purchase hawks' claws at 3d a pair, a well-known gentleman who is interested in deerstalking and angling stated in conversation with a representative of the Otago Daily Times that the offer of 3d per pair of claws had been enthusiastically availed of by residents in Central Otago.
''With an unlimited banking account,'' he added, ''those responsible for the administration of the society's resources could carry on such a campaign for an indefinite period, but experiments of this nature are not apt to be encouraged by fishermen and deerstalkers, who claim, with a certain amount of reason, that their particular branches of sport merit some little attention. It is calculated that the purchase of hawks' claws will result in the depletion of the society's coffers to an extent which may well cause enthusiasts in sporting matters to regard the future with apprehension. The common hawk has few friends, but it is very questionable whether his misdeeds are such as to warrant the campaign which has been conducted, and, even allowing that they were, it will undoubtedly be contended that revenue derived from deerstalking and fishing might be more profitably and usefully expended.''
• When the Governor of New Zealand was making his tour around the Cook Island recently the natives of the various places visited generally appeared in gala attire, and occasionally the costumes displayed were a little startling. Uniforms containing striking colours were very popular, and it was a surprising but not uncommon thing to see a very dignified person in the dress of a vice-admiral or infantry captain conducting a native dance, and struggling with a sword which would constantly get between his legs and trip him.
At one island a gentleman with a costume partly composed of mirrors did much to gladden the assembled company, and at Rarotonga on one occasion all the local Caledonians gasped. A party of quick-footed native dancers marched on to the ground. They were led by a gigantic Rarotongan, who was completely clad, from kilt to sporran and dirk, in the classical national dress of Scotland. - ODT 28.6.1914.
