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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 302, 19 December 1872, Page 5

The Youth of Wanganui. — The Chronicle says: — " The first fruit of the Wellington Education Act in Wellington has been the throwing open of the Grammar School as a free school, no fees beings chargeable. We trust that the step may be taken advantage of to the'fullest extent, as there are shoals of children in Wanganui who are growing up as ignorant as! heathens; nay, more so, for in savage countries the young are sedulously taught all the accomplishments their elders excel in, whilst in Wanganui, if we except bad language, the young of a certain rclass seem, to learn absolutely nothing. We shall pay dearly for this by and by, when/ those who are now neglected children develope into thieves and prostitutes, as they assuredly will if allowed to run wild as they have been up to the present time of writing. In a few years, unless some stops are taken to rescue these children^ from the path they are now treading, Wanganui will be heavily taxed to support a criminal population that a little outlay and trouble upon now would cause to grow up good industrious members of society, and, instead of becoming a blot and a burden upon the town, would add materially to it 3 prosperity. Such a result is worth striving for," The Melbourne Telegraph says : — " We are likely to have a summer of unusual heat, such a summer as 1852 was, when, after the sun had set in flames, every part of the horizon was lit with bush fires." " I am no alarmist," says Mr. Mechi, summing up the results of the harvest in a letter in the Times, '* but I believe we shall have to pay for foreign corn in quantity and price, fifteen to twenty millions more than in a good wheat season. We understand that by the last mail some information was received relative to the probable cost of any efficient postal Bervice via the Cape of Good Hope. The -information was derived from one of the leading and most influential shipping firms of Great Britain. ' It was pointed out that the great difficulty lay in the adverse circumstances under which the homeward voyage from Melbourne to London or Liverpool woukl have to be made. The steamship would have literally to force her way; and to accomplish the voyage in from 40 to 45 days, steamers of 4,000 tons would Lave to be employed, and in the homeward voyage they would consume at the very least one ton of coal for every ton burden. Under these circumstances, scarcely any cargo could be carried and the service could not be undertaken under a subsidy of something like £300,000 per annum. '—Argus. Official Despatches published in the Sydney • Horning Herald show bow strenuously the Imperial Government is exerting itself to stay the atrocities in the South Seas consequent on the Polynesian labor traffic. From the documents in question it appears that Commodore Stirling was first instructed to hire vessels in the colony as cruisers, but on his telegraphing that no suitable craft could be obtained, he was authorised to build six schooners, of 110 tons each, at a cost of £30 per ton, thus involving the Home Government at once in an expense of nearly £20.000. Armstrong guns and non-commissioned officers are to be sent out from England for these schooners, and crews are to be recruited in Sydney; and Commodore Stirling warns the Imperial Government that high wages will have to be paid, as steady respectable men can hardly be induced to go to the islands because of their fear of being murdered. The Commodore is told by the Admiralty not to mind about his ships visiting the colonial ports, but to devote the whole; resources of his squadron to supervise the Polynesian traffic. The corvette Barrosa, from the Chinese station, is visiting the Solomon group about this time, and the Commodore is authorised to detain her. The Act op Breaking Explained. — Somebody wrote to the editor of an American paper to £<k how he would break an ox ? The editor replied as follows: — " If only one ox, a good way would be to hoist him by means of a long chain attached to his tail to the top of a pole ,50 feet from the ground. Then hoist him by a rope tied to his horns to another pole. Then descend on to his back a five-ton pile driver, and if that fails to break him, let him start a country newspaper, and trust, people for subscriptions. One of the two ways will do it/ . :Dean Swept said, " It is with -narrow-, souled people as it is with narrow-necked bottles, the less they have in them the more noise they make in pouring it out." Wendel Phillips says: — "Pat an American baby, six months old, on his feet, and he will immediately say ' Mr. Chairman/ and call the next cradle to order*." ' t \