GENERAL NEWS OF THE DAY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 918, 16 January 1871, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS OF THE DAY.

OFFICIALDOM IN NEW ZEALAND. It may not be generally known that the large number of 4,000 adult official servants are in the employ of the Government of New Zealand, many of whom are fattening on the revenues of the country and adding to the taxation, which has now reached the awful burden of upwards of <£6 a-head for every man, women* and child (native population excepted) in the colony. PUBLIC SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS. " iEgles " thus writes to the New Zealand Herald on the above subject:— There is something to be advanced on both sides about speech-days. They are said to encourage the pupils to become orators---to give them confidence to face crowds —to beget an appreciation of English literature. Oo the other hand, they are condemned as being scholastic advertisements—as exaggerating that pert selfsufficiency, that arrogant precocity, which in many cases characterises the colonial boy. It is argued, and I think with some force, that our youths want keeping back, rather than pushing forward. To neglect elocution would be of course improper, but that accomplishment may be acquired without the speech-day. I think that prizes are too lavishly, too indiscriminately given. Their abundance diminishes the individual value of each. This I attribute to a desire to please parents, who like their lads to come home winners of something. I recollect the fierce contests for seven silver medals —> the sole prizes—in a great collegiate school of about 200 boys. We should have valued them less had there been fifty medals. I have little doubt that the present Governor of New Zealand has one of these little bits of silver now, if he be, as I think he is, the George Bowen I stood by and saw decorated, I am afraid to say how many years ago. I don't .suppose the boys' holidays will be less sweet for the growl at speech-days, and at multitudinous rewards. HARVEST INGt. We learn from our Auckland files that the farmers are busy harvesting their -crops, and a correspondent writes to say .that they are looking very fair considering the backward spring they have had up North. Oats, it is stated, have suffered somewhat from rust. GALLANT EESCTJE. The Evening Post, of the 3rd instant, •records that a very gallant rescue from (drowning was effected on the previous day by a seaman named Watkin Thomas, belonging to the barque Anne Melhuish, lying at the wharf. It appears that a friend of Thomas, named Thomas Wil- j liams, belonging to the Camilie, while attempting to walk on board the Anne Melhuish over a very narrow and awkward plank which did duty by way of a landing stage, fell into the water, and as he could not swim stood a fair chance of being drowned. Thomas, who witnessed the occurrence, without taking time to divest himself of his clothes, instantly plunged in after him, and succeeded in bringing him to the wharf, where they eontrived to cling to the mussels till assistance was rendered. Williams seemed to have swallowed a good deal of water, and was rather queer on first being brought on shore, but he soon rallied, and his first move was to complete the task he had undertaken, and walk across the plank, w r hich he accomplished iu safety. Thomas deserves great praise for his pluck and promptitude in jumping into the water as he did ; had he made much delay Williams, in all probability, would have been drowned ; and it seems to us that the master of the Anne MelLuish might in future provide a safer gangway ihan a long plank without rails and not a foot wide. MISCELLANEOUS JTEMS. We notice by the last Gazette that newspapers published in the colony are exempt from postage when forwarded to athenaeums, mechauics' institutes, hospitals, public libraries, and lunatic asylums. Auckland, says the Herald, " has fairly earned, in point of smells and pariah dogs, the name of the Constantinople of the Pacific." The Wellington Independent appeared on Saturday morning as a daily paper, and has a very creditable appearance. A ft weekly " from the same office is to be published eyery Saturday morning.