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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1453, 12 October 1872, Page 2

A largely attended conference of common school teachers was held re* cenfclj in St. Paul's school room, Melbourne, when the following resolution* were Agreed to; a deputation being also, appointed to present them to the Chief Secretary :—" 1. That any system of national education for this colony should be secular; and that the teacher* employed in schools suppoi ted by th* State .should be prohibited from giving instruction in religion in such schools. 2. That it is the duty of the State to be assured that every child in th& colony should receive an elementary education. 3. That the present certiti* cated common school teachers and assistants should be officeis of the civil service of Victoria, and should b& formed in a separate department under Government. 4. That in the centres of population school fees should not \* abolished. 5. Whilst concurring wM the general feeling of a necessity i° p compulsory education, the leachow art

©f opinion that in justice to the children of the respectable industrious classes now attending the common, schools, a special class of schools should He established, at least in the great centres of population, for the reception o!' those children "/hose parents' neglect of duty render the application of a compulsory law necessary. 6. That in the country districts school fees should be abolished, and teachers paid by a local rate." The North China Herald says that an extraordinary feat has recently been performed by a Buddhist priest, with a view to raising money tor the erection of a temple at Soochow. The pioject of building the temple had been started ten years ago, but since then the religious enthusiasm of the Chinese has been roused only to the excent of 3,000t15., and as the sum required was 10,000., it was felt necessary to resort to more energetic measures. Emissaries were therefore sent throughout the country to obtain assistance. The above-mentioned arrived at Shanghai a few weeks ago, but found people indifferent to his holy object, and very unwilling to part with their dollars With a devotion more than worthy of the cause, he resolved upon the following extraordinary expedient. He announced among the Chinese that he ■would allow himself to be locked up in a wooden box for seven days, during -which time he would remain in an upright position, and without food or sleep. He was accordingly placed in a cage 2J feet wide and 5h feet high, sufficiently large to admit him standing upright. The bottom of the cage ■was studded with nails, so that the man's feet, should have space only between them sufficient for them to rest on, and a couple of slight bars in front formed a rest for his arms. The native public were invited to prove the genuine character of the mortification, by locking the good man themselves if they pleased, and about thirty people brought locks of different kinds and secured the door. The cage was placed in a jossroom, passing in and out of which a crowd of people might be day and night, during the seven days. The devotee endured his incarceration with lemarkai-le fortitude, the only relief afforded him being an oeea-ionnl glass of water; and at the end of the stipulated time he was allowed to leave the cage, looking quite as well as when he entered. On examination, his pulse was found to be steady and his skin was moist though hot. After his release, the cage was broken up and sold piecemeal to the Chinese, every nail bringing more than its weight in silver. The desired result of calling forth liberal subscriptions was also attained, and amounts from 500tls downwards were freely paid by wealthy Chinese, Mr Herbert Spencer, in an article in the Contemporary Review, whites regniding "the individual element iu history " :—" The lessons given to every civilised child tacitly imply, like the traditions of the uncivilised and semieivilised, that throughout the past of the human race the doings of the leading persons have been the only things worthy to be remembered. How Abraham girded up his loins and gat him to this place or that; how Samuel conveyed Divine injunctions which Saul disobeyed; how David recounted his adventures as a shepherd, and was reproached for liia misdeeds as a king ; these, and personalities akin to these, are the facts about which the juvenile reader is interested, and respecting which he is catechised ; such indications of Jewish institutions as have unavoidably got into the nariative being regarded neither by him nor his teacher of any moment. So too, when, with hands behind him, lie stands to say his lessons out of ' Piunock,' we see that the things >et down for him to learn are—when and by whom England was invaded ; what rulers opposed the invasion and how they were killed; what Alfred did, and what Canute said; who fought at Agincourt, and who conquered atFlodden; which king abdicated, and which usurped, &e. And if by some chance it comes out that there were serfs in those days, that barons were local rulers, some vassals of others, that subordination of them to a central power took place gradually - these are facts treated as relatively unimportant. Nay, the like happens when the boy passes into the hands of

his classical master, at home or elsewhere. ' Arms and the man' form the end of the story as they form its beginning. After the mythology, which of course is all-essential, come the achievements of rulers and soldier?! from Agamemnon down to Caesar; what knowledge is gained of social organization, manners, ideas, morals, being little more than the biographical state ments involve. And the value of the knowledge is so tanked, that while it would be a disgrace to be wrong about the amours of Zeus, and whale ignorance of the name of the commander at Marathon would be discreditable, it is excusable to know nothing of the social condition that preceded Lycurgus, or the origin and functions of the Areopagus." As a simple method of employing carbolic acid, C. Horn burg, of Berlin, proposes to saturate sheets of coarse millboaid with the disinfectant in question. These sheets may be hung up in the room requiring purification, or a small piece may be torn off when only a small quantity of carbolic acid is wanted. Sheets of millboard, having an area of about seven square feet, and containing about: one fifth of a pound of carbolic acid, are sold in Berlin for a shilling a piece. Dr Hager also gives the composition of a simple disinfecting paste, for use as a washing powder. It consists of 100 parts of a clay, 1,000 parts of distilled water, and 35 parts of nitric acid. The mass thus obtained is allowed to stand for a few days, being stirred frequently; the supernatant fluid is then poured off, and the clayey mass thoroughly washed with distilled water. Five parts of permanganate of potash are now to be added, and the composition, when dried, is made up into tablets and wrapped in paper satin ated with paraffin.