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Manawatu Standard, Volume XII, Issue 1742, 24 June 1886, Page 4

The torpedo boat m Ijytteiton Harbor was a!l<»wed to get into n disgraceful condition. She got so <lirty and rusiy that her speed, instead of being 18 knots per hour, was found . lo be scarcely 10 knots. The Jsaval ArliH«ry had been eutrtwted with the the charge of the boat, but they are not likoiy u» get another opportunity. The boat has-been thoroughly overhauled by some men belonging to the Permanent Artillery Force and the T«sr,)edo Corps, but it is doubtful whether she will ever attain her registered fipeed. The most curious book m the world M one thai> m neither' written nor "printed. Every letter of the text is cut into the leaf an I as the alt mate leaves are of blue paper, it is as easily re id as the bent print. The labour required and the patience necessary to cut each letter may ho imagined. The work is So perfect that it seoms as though done by machinery, but every character was made by hand. The book is entitled " The Passion of ~ Chriec." tt is a very old volume, aud was a curiosity a« long ago as the year 1640. Ac this time it belongs to the family of the Prince de Ligne, and ia kept at a museum m France. A rich man had a piece of land on which a young mule was grazing. "1 sb,all harness yoji, " said the man to the mule, '* and make you plough this land to grow melon* on. of which X ana veiy fond, while the stalks will amply supply you with food," To which the mule replied: >( Jf I consent to toil on your teams, you will have all the melons and I shall be worse off than now, inasmuch as I shall have to eat dry stalks instead of feeding on the fresh green grass. I'll not do it, sir." "How unreasonable you are, " remonstrated the landowner "your father never had any other fuod but thistles, and yet would work -v-16 hours and even more a day with-oat-grnm'jHng." "Alas ! that is true!' retorted the mule " but then you know my father was an ass." A correspondent m an exchange m writing of "The Premier Drawing Book' authoiised lo be used m Government schools says : The exercises consisted of what appeared to be 'em broidery patterns, or portions of mosaic printed upon dotted paper, the dots being so arranged m squares j that the pupil hns only to count the :. nuinlter of squares occupied by a giveir figure m example, and then draw from square to square on the paper accordjngtf^*iifo-4 of the lines do a quarter of an inch, so PRat it will be seen that these exsamples do not train the pupil's hand or eye. In fact for all practical purposes he migl't as well measure the lines with cnmpassf", and rule them m wfth a T square. There are m the book liefore me sixteen pa^es of this rubbish, each page containing, five examples, and 1 venture to m-e---dict that when the unhappy victims of this fad have been driven thronjrh the lot they will not, withoi.t the :>id of tliiwdot-and-go-oiie system, able ■to copy correctly the simplest geometrical figure.