Country News.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 229, 29 January 1876, Page 16

Country News.

The Bank of Australasia has opened an agency at Carterton. An efficient man of business has taken charge, and the arrangement should be a convenience to the country people. , It is another sign of the advancement of the Wairarapa.

According to the Chronicle, a native boy visited Wanganui lately from one of the upriver settlements, who could show six properly formed toes on each foot. The formation is perfect, and the lad experiences no inconvenience on account of his extra pedal appendage, of which he is rather proud. The following acclimatisation items are from the Otago Daily Times : —A salmon trout, twenty inches long, we are informed, was seen about eight days ago in the Ivuriwao stream, Clinton, opposite Mr. F. Robert's residence. Brown trout, about ten inches long, may be seen at any time in this stream. The shag is very destructive to trout. Mr Roberts brought one down (with the aid of his gun), when in the act of carrying off a fish fifteen inches long. Partridges and pheasants are becoming very pleniful in the Clinton district, especially upon Mr. F. Robert's station, Kuriwao, where they are to be constantly seen. The Manawatu Times reports that an engine and passenger carriage is to be placed on the line between Foxton and the Oroua bridge in a few days, and that a coach is to run from thence to Palmerston during the completion of the Xarere contract. The latter conveyance would prove a great acquisition, for the wooden rails are now so completely used up that it is simply martyrdom for the unfortunate passengers who have to travel over them ; and as for the three poor animals that continue to drag their weary way along the 48 miles in 17 hours, twice a week, it is martyrdom likewise, but carried to a pitch of cruelty that ought not to be permitted. According to a correspondent of the Tuapeka Times, they don't believe in Good Templarism in Alexandra. Writing on the 15th inst., he says:—" Last night a Mr. McKechan, from Cromwell, attended to initiate a lodge of Good Templars. He announced that he would lecture in the sohoolhouse. At 10 o'clock the bell rang, and almost every one in the town flocked to the schoolhouse. The lecture only lasted»a little over three minutes, and did not appear to be appreciated. All who did not intend joining the order were asked to withdraw, when a general rush was made for the doors, so that there was left only Mr. McKechan, the Mayor of Alexandra, the clergyman, and four others. The publicans don't like the movement, having already lost some of their best shouting-men, who have become members of the order."

In reference to the statements of the Masonic Ncics regarding the alleged expulsion of the Pope from the Order, a correspondent has drawn our attention to the following in the Neio Zealand Tablet: —" It was a vile invention of Mazzini, in IS-17-48 to circulate the story that Pope Pius IX. was a Freemason. So foolish was the fiction that its promoters, ■when asked when he had become such, fixed the year 180 S ! when Giovanni Maria MastaiFerretti, now Pope Pius IX., was not seventeen years old ! Freemasons will acknowledge tnat a youth of that age could not have been a Mason. But, moreover, it happens that was the very year in which, in October, at the hands of Monsignor Incontri, Bishop of "Voltarra, he received tonsure, thus entering the Ecclesiastical Estate. The absurdity of the allegation in regard to one who had the history of his life accounted for, year by year, from his early youth, did not need the good-natured denial of the story given by the Holy Father. And, this notwithstanding, we have a photograph of Pope Pius IX. —circulated through Europe by Jews —from one of whom we happened to get it—representing the Pope in the insignia of a Grand Master Mason !" The Otago Guardian of January 11 has the following on the progress of the railway works in that province :—" We are informed that on Saturday night last the Glenore tunnel was completed on the Tuapeka side, 9 chains 55ft. being pierced from the mouth. On the Tokomairiro side 9 chains 27ft. is the distance penetrated—making the total length driven 19 chains 16ft., leaving 2 chains 17ft. to be pierced. The stuff taken from the river on the Toko side was the hardest that the contractors have yet met with. They are now taking out at the rate of 25ft. per week with two shifts, and they will have concluded their labors by the end of next montk, two months before the contract time. It will require three weeks to complete the permanent way so as to lay the rails, which will, in all probability, be down by the end of April, when the line will be open for traffic as far as the Round Hill. The work at the Round Hill tunnel has been at a standstill since the commencement of the holidays. Thirty men have been discharged, and twenty are kept employed, and these men are employed just to keep the work going. The dispute between the Government and the contractors still continues ; but it is expected that a settlement will be arrived at in the course of a few days. There is no likelihood that the entire length of the line will be completed for some considerable time."

According to the Neiu Zealand Herald, the subjects discussed at the late native meeting at Pakowhai, Hawke's Bay, were : —l. To agree as to who should be the member of Parliament for the East Coast district. 2. That this meeting agree as to whom they shall appoint to guide them in all matters relative to the Maori people in New Zealand. 3. That the Maori member of Parliament control thosetribesbywhosevotehewaselected. 4. That the tribe so voting have a voice in the policy to be acted on by their member. 5. That this meeting express its opinion in regard to the newspaper Te Wananga. 6. That the whole

Maori race of New Zealand should become Good Templars. The result was that they fixed on Karaitiana as their candidate, and agreed that Sir George Grey should be their political guide. The third and fourth resolutions elicited no discussion, and what opinion they passed on the Wananga newspaper that journal does not inform us. It was a purely Maori meeting, and no Europeans were expected to attend except those specially invited. No representatives of the press, except one from the Wananga, were present. With regard to the last resolution, the Maoris passed it readily enough, and if they will only keep it, it will be a good thing for them, no doubt. "The Spelling Bee Outdone by Phonotypy " is the title of a little book written by Mr. Henry Cape-Williamson, of Nelson. It is worth reading, treating as it does of a subject which at the present time is commanding a good deal of attention both at home and abroad, and is written in an easy and attractive style. But we recognise little that is new in what the author says. All that he tells us has been told before by many writers equally well acquainted with the matter discussed, but Mr. Cape-Williamson is evidently an enthusiast, and in endeavoring to disseminate the ideas held by himself and others, displays an earnest intention to benefit his fellowmen worthy of the great cause he advocates, which is, in fact, a reform in the orthography of the English language, and the teaching of phonography in our State schools. The first half of the pamphlet is devoted to showing the existing anomaly of English spelling, and the consequent difficulty which teachers experience in making their scholars proficient in this particular; in the latter half he endeavors to show that a remedy can be effected to a lax-ge extent by means of phonotypy, and enlarges upon the general utility of shorthand. But we think that Mr. Cape-Williamson has let his enthusiasm disturb his reason to a certain extent. No one will doubt the usefulness of shorthand for a moment ; and it is certainly regretable that children should find the attainment of accurate spelling so excessively difficult. But how are we to improve upon this distressing state of things is a question of greater difficulty than the author of " The Spelling Bee Outdone" seems to consider it. As stated before, this is not a new subject : on the contrai-y, " spelling reform" is an old cry, but further than the cry we have never been able to proceed. Of this we may be sure, that the adoption of phonotypy, as it is now known, would not be productive of the result desired, and unless Mr. Cape-Williamson, or someone else, is prepai-ed to reconstruct the English language, we fear that the evil of which he justly complains will have to remain an evil, and we shall have to go on spelling hereafter as we have been spelling in the past.