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Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 718, 14 January 1903, Page 4

The following item is from the !w'V Zealand Herald The Maori is advancing in civilisation by leaps and-bounds, me other day a .Maori -youth, who had been attending a schoolin the city, returned to his native kaiauga. All the tribe gathered around him admiringly, for he cut a brave figure in their eyes in his Panama gutter hat and fashionably-made clothes, m father welcomed him in Maori, uUu toe youth paralysed the old man by exclaiming in English, “ Me no understand you, father ;me no moke you out. \\ hat tor you no speak English '! ” The sire burst into a torrent of expressive Maori, but the youth remained unmoved. “Here, liati, he said, turning to a half-caste, “ y° u terpret for me. Me no speak Maori. This reminds me of the Scotchman who, after a long residence in England, returned to his native hamlet among the hills. r.mu much did all his former acquaintances marvel at hi? fine English airs and speech. No Scotch word escaped his lips and ho professed a profound ignorance of his native tongue. Odo day lie saw a sort o rake known in that part of Scotland as a clat lying on the ground. “ What c!o you call that?” lie said, m his most affected tone. ‘ Odd, Sandy, replied Ins companion, “ surely ye ken brawly wha t they ca’ it.” “Indeed Ido not, was the response, but just at that moment our friend accidentally trod on the rake, and was hit by it a smart blow m the face. “ Damn the clat,” he exclaimed. He was Scotch again. <■

Christchurch Truth states If it were a superstitious country, there would probably be some difficulty in finding a suecessov to the unhappy school-master who has just, committed suicide at no wan. r-ot many schools can boast the bad eminence that this school has attained, for no fever than three-of the men who have consecutively undertaken its management have voluntarily quitted this life. It is absurd to suppose that these suicides aie no more than a series oi ghastly coincidences.. Eowan is fitted by nature to drive a man to suicide uuless there are some circumstances of unusual brightness to dispel the gloom. engendered by test* dence ill a backwater of the world, with no scenery .save .miserable stumps that bint at the previous existence of natue bush, and .with a climate whose dampness has. made the residents web-footed, and .with os much chance of mental distractions and opportunity - for culture as existed in the home of- Og. the cave-dweller. It is an ideal place to • find suicides, and the Education Board. ,of the district aids nature by sending a man—possibly with a mind - to turn into a vegetable draw a miserable slipend. Meanwhile howan is waiting for another' man .to brave its misery and its loneliness, .and its wretched stipend if he can, or else go the.way Of his predecessors. ' -- -

ij: The Greater Ballarat League ha*.decided to continue the agitation in ordc-r to secure the amalgamation of the city ana town municipalities.