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Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 264, 28 March 1874, Page 2

The Church of England bazaar is to be held on the Ist awl 2nd of May.

Friday next, the 3rd of April, being Good Friday, the post offiee will be closed, and Sunday hours observed in the telegraph office.

On .Thursday evening next, the English mail via San. Francisco, will close at the Naseby office at 6 p.m., in consequence of Friday being a public holiday.

We perceive that Messrs. H. B. M'lnf.osh and Co. have taken a sub-contract, of five miles on Mr. Abbot's portion of the head race. They advertise for 100 men at high wages.

Me. T. Foster was the successful tenderer for the buil iing of a stone wall at the Hamilton Cemetery. The price is lis. per yard, the wall to be 4ft. 6in. high, to taper from 2ft on the ground to 18in. on the top. . We understan-l that the Rev. E. Royer will.give morning services in the new Catholic Church on Good Friday, at 11 o'clock, am - _ Those wh>.» have promised subscriptions in aid are requested to pay them in by that date.

The Central Association appeal in our columns to those who have forwarded gold to Melbourne for assay to furnish the President with the results, as shown by *he assay notes. All that is wanted is a true copy of the assay, or. the original. A good deal of excitement was the rule in Nnseby as to the'results of the Dunedin races. Sweeps were very general. Everybody, so far as we can .learn, has come out square, while some have won considerable sums, and none have lost—most strange of all. The Westland Provincial @ouncil has granted a sum of £2OO, for prospecting purposes. The 'flokitika Star' says?— The name of William Fox, ion whose petition this amount was voted, is sufficiently well known a3 that of an energetic explorer, to satisfy the public that the money will be spent in enabling him to prosecute his investigations' into the mineral resources of our southern districts.

The 'Hawkes Bay Herald' states that there are now eighty Good Templar lodges in New Zealand, and Mr. Mackune certainly deserves more than thanks for the manner in which he has* so assiduously striven to effect a reformation in the drinking customs of the country. With the single exception of Westland; he has now visited-every Province in the Colo-iy, having, in a : little over nine months, travelled about 7000 miles.

The following gentlemen are gazetted as Commissioners under the Licensing Act: — For the district of Mount Ida—WiUiam Gru mitt, J P. ; Adam Holland, J.P.; and Cecil A. do Lautour. For Blacks—William U. Burke; William Qreenbank; and Donald Stromal]. For Teviot— JohnFrv Kirching, J.P- ; George Ireland; and David. Hunter Mervyu. For Cromwell—lgnatiuV i£. Loughnan, J P ; William Bennett; and John A. Preshaw.

A : correspondent writes to a contemporary:—"We have visited Levuka in its prime, .when every vessel from the Colonies brought down ' some unfortunates weary of debt,' who, rashly importunate, had gone to Fiji; and who, if they had a pound, had certainly 'hidden it in a napkin,' for no one ever saw it. Then were the gay times in Fiji, for these fresh arrivals who had ' folded their tent like the Arabs, and as silently stolen awa/ from the Colonies, lived in a very freehand snd lavish style.'" A contemporary says, a new discovery of quicksilver is attracting attention in California *.hich it is thought will add materially to the world's supply of this article. The locality is about 150 miles south of the new Almaden mine, and is. midway between the sea and the mountains. A company from Nevada have " located" the mine under the law of Congress, and have already set men to work to dev.uope it. All the cinnabar mines in California have heretofore aggregated a yield of 2,000,0001b5. a year, but hereafter, when i lie Dew claim is effectually worked, this will be materially in-, creased.

Me. Fohster, in a recent speech on education, said :—-" Five oub of six of us have to earn our bread by manual labor,■.'■and'will' have to earn it to the end of the chapter. Five out of six English children in past generations were, in consequence, apprenticed to some trade or culling. The only English education was the apprenti'je system Ido not undervalue book knowledge. It is a beautiful thing But the etubborn fact will remain that after the years which have been spent at school the pupil, will be launched into life as unable us when he entered a schooldoor to earn a sixpence-—possessing neither skill nor knowledge for which any employer in England will be willing to hire his services."

Judge Richmond, in charging the Grand Jury lately at Hokitika, said :—lt is a sorry scheme of life under which men pass their best years in a place to which they are bound by uo social tie, and in which they are charged with no political obligation. Mv own connection with this district has now existed seven years, and I am addressing many whose residence here must have extended close upon ten years. (Such periods as these are substantial parts of a man's active life. Our powers of work and enjoyment rarely extend with anything like vigor beyoud four such periods, but it is a common thing to see men devoting the whole"of this time to a mere provisional existence, selfishly absorbed iu the effort to accumulate wealth for future enjoyment, at a period when perhaps the power of enjoyment will be past, and neglecting in the. meantime to bike up the duties and enjoy ments of social life ; remaining without'interest in their place of jboja, or in the welfare, of the peop'e iu whose midst they are spending tiuir Imsi Jm's, '...,'.'

The ' Otago Guardian ' reports that -" At ihe last meeting of the Otago Institute the •subject of the transit of Venus was discussed, pnd though it did not then appeirtliat any of the members .were prepared to undertake independent observations, it was thought that they possessed among them local knowledge which would be of some value to those wellpractised astronomers who are to visit the Southern Hemisphere to make observations on behalf of the English and Amencau Governments. Subsequently, the Institute appointed a sub-committee, consisting of Mr. T. Thomson, Commissioner of Crown Lands; Mr. M'Kerrow, Chief Surveyor;, and Mr. Skey, Meteorological Observer; and these gentlemen resolved to forward to the English and American authorities information to the following effect:—" That, after carefully considering the subject, they are of opinion that no locality is so favorable for astronomical observations as the valley of the Manuherikia, situated in the interior of the Province of Otago; that the township of Alexandra is considered the best locality, because it is protected from the prevailing moistbearing westerly winds by the snowy mountains, the general height.of which is from ft, 000 ft. to 8,000 ft., on which the rain clouds are condensed, and thus that portion under the lee is comparatively rainless. An objection to the position might be made that it is 100 miles from the coast; otherwise, the sky being generally cloudless, its climate is peculiarly favorable." Connected with this sabject, maps of the Province were forwarded to the Astronomer-Royal of England, and also to the State Astronomer-of America—to the latter, per Mr. Henry Driver.