Page 2 Advertisements Column 3

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 280, 26 November 1877, Page 2

It is stated that Mr James Mackay intends starting iv business in Wellington as a land purchase agent. The Argus tells the following story :— A worthy dignitary of the Church of Euglund is iv the habit of visiting one of the public schools iv Te Aro, aud from time to time communicating religious instruction to the children. Last week he waa .engaged in this labor of love and anxious* to impress upou the youthful mind that the proposed sacrilice of Isaac was meant as the type of a higher and greater sacrifice. But the correct idea of a type was difficult of apprehension by the children. The clergyman tried various devices, but failed to make himself understood. Glancing round the walls of the schoolroom his eyes lighted upon a picture, Pointiug to it, the following colloquy took place: "What is this?" "A duck." "No, not a duck," he explained, " only the picture or type of a duck. Do you understand what I huve been saying now? "Yes," from half-a | score of voices. " Very well, you understand j this, now tell me what was Isaac?" "A duck " I was the almost unanimous answer. "Oh lam ashamed of you, think and try again." A pause, and theu came the happy thought of the more advanced as one of the class shouted out in triumph -"Isaac was a drake." '1 be catechist subsided. In tho John O' Groat journal of August 28, J. G. S- Grant has a letter, in which he says of New Zealaud :—'.' Begging, prostitution, and social demoralisation are the sal icnt characteristics of our mushroom cities." And 'Hhe well-to-do classes devote their attention alternately to Mammon and Baochus." The editor appends a note, in which he says that he gives the letter a place, "knowing it will provoke both pity and laughter from those who know New Zealand and the writer. The Civil Service Examination Board report for the year ending June, 1877, that of 107 candidates wlio underwent the junior examination 61 passed, and of 36' wljo underwent the senior examination 22 passed. A comparison between the results of the examinations iv December, and those in June, shows that the standard reached by candidates has fallen off considerably during the latter half of the past year." The expenses of the Board for the year were ouiv £U)7 4s7d. ' ■ *