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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 944, 26 April 1879, Page 2

Pitman's phonography is again rising m public favor. Shortly after it was invented it was taught in most private schools of any pretension" aad was quickly followed by other systems of shorthand, which the inventors professed were superior to it. Notwithstanding all competition, Pitman's system holds its own, and is, in fact, being adopted by many large mercantile firms and railway companies in Great Britain, the clerks of which must pass an examination in phonography before receiving their appointments. It is difficult to understand why shorthand has not been much more generally adopted than it has in preference to the ordinary long-hand method. In other de- ; partments of our commercial economy, iinprovements have been and are constantly being made, but we still cling to the old and tardy methods of correspondence, notwithstanding the circumstances that have arisen around us to necessitate celerity and the economising of time in mercantile correspondence as well as in everything else. Shorthand is just as effective as a vehicle for the communication of ideas as longhand, whilst it possesses the advantages which saving of paper, time, and postage can confer. If it were made compulsory on aspirants for high clerical positions to learn shorthand, just as they do book-keeping, they would do it with less difficulty than is generally imagined. We would go even further, and say that if it were introduced into the curriculum of our public schools, the advantages would be great. As it is from our public schools, when our educational system has undergone some revision, that we may expect the majority of our smartest public and commercial men to eiiicim-, every care should be taken in the a.loction of for the pupils of those institutions, and shorthand should be one of the branches taught. To retain the fold system of correspondence in preference" to shorthand is almost as | absurd £S it would be to adopt words in-:-.U:rA o: :'.-T.ri;s in arithmetic. It is strange ' | that, considering the advantages that a 1 1 knowledge of yhoith.v.id confers, there are '! but comparatively few that know anything ': abo-it it. an' l , .-till more Strang* that the ' ; number of ciiieiuiit writers in th : s Colony, or, : we suppose in any other, might be counted on the finucrs of one's hand.". Of course its 5 acquirc!>i-j:tt i= ::et so ea>y as some other branc'.ies o* learning: but it might be made ' so that we believe that in a few years r it will be as commonly taught as French and. I music arc now.

In Messrs. Otterson and Kerr's list of. subscriptions to the Kaitangata Relief Fund, lately published in the full list in our columns, Robert " Arthur" was printed in error for Robert Aitken, as a'subscribcr of LI. It is .surprising that- the full list was not thickly studded with errors, seeing that some of the copy was almost undecipherable. The list in which Mr. Aitken's name occurred was, however, well written, but it was done in pencil, and as it had been pretty well handled where Mr. Aitken's name appealed, and wars li set up" by our cornposit;.:'.'} by night, it cannot be a matter for astonishment that the mistakes occurred.

The Philharmonic .Society's first concert of the season will be given in the Volunteer Hall on Tuesday evening next, and will, we

are convinced, bo one of the most successful yet given by the Society. The programme will comprise Farmer's 7'.! ass it V, flat and a number of miscellaneous selections. -Not

oiiiy will the programme be a varied one, comprising music suited to the tastes of all classes, but it will be the means of bringing to the front many soloists who have not hitherto taken a prominent part in the Society's conceits. An additional attraction will be presented in the fact that the newlyformed baud will make its first public apI appearance.

Once more communication is interrupted on the Port Darwin line. This time the breakage is beyond Powell's Creek.

The survey of the Livingstone railway is to be proceeded with at. once. Mr. Gillies and the surveyors engaged with him will, we understand, leave Oaroaru by train on Monday for the purpose of making the working survey, and so soon as they have completed their work, tenders are to be called for the construction of the line. As the mileage to be formed is short, we look forward to being brought into, railway communication with Livingstone at no very di:jta>)t d<ite.

At the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning Wore T. VT. Parker, Esq., R.M., Lawrence Rutkr was fined 20s. for having been drunk and disorderly, the alternative of 48 hours' imprisonment being afi'urded him. James Elmore, for a similar offence, was fined 55., with the alternative of 24 hours' imprisonment. Robert MTaggart was charged ou remand with having obtained half ii ton of coal from -John Orr by means of false pretences. Inspector Thompson prosecuted, and Mr. O'Meagher appeared for the defence. John Orr gave evidence to the effect that on tlse Cth FeUuary last prisoner (a lad] askwl ioi- and obtained half a ton uf oaat, stating that it was for Robert Kcenan. Witness had asked if he was sure that Kecnan had sent him, and prisoner replied in the affirmative. The carter (William Pyglaw) w"ri piesent. '^ bo COixl ' ,vfts to the prisoner on the strength of the representation that it was for Kecnan, The prisoner had signed the receipt produced for the con.l, On the application of Mr, O'Meaghev, the prisoner was further remanded until Monday.

Last Ht«ht #«° Government Inspection Para.de wa.* n.ot vexy well attonded, we suppose owing to tho mrfavorable weather. After inspection, Major Steward and the officers commanding companies, made arrangements for a guard of honor for the

Governor's reception. The Australian Shipping Gazette, in a par:"n-apli rcprintim.' tiie return which was lately f.ub'ii:-l,ed by the Oamsvm Harbor Board as a refutation of the untruthful statements of a correspondent to the Underwriters' Association, remarks that the return " certainly does not go to bear out the evil reputation which this place, together with, the other open roadsteads in ISTcw Zealand, has earned for itself in the eyes or underwriters."-