Page 4 Advertisements Column 2

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 310, 6 April 1878, Page 4

only hope of religion was among the younger classes of criminals. A lew spasmodic efforts were made to teach and refine them, hut all in vain while at length even these were given up, respectable Hamburgh folded its hand and wonciercd at the wickedness of its neighbours. Then a certain Immanuel Wichern, firm of purpose, and believing in the old maxim “ .Desperate courage makes one majority,” put his hand in the enterprise—his heart ir the work—and carried it through. The enterprise, like the famous refuge of Fritz Miller, has never asked for State or individual aid and has always been amply supported. In October 1832, Immanuel Wichern and his mother opened the doors of a small cottage, known has “ Das Raube Hans,” announced their purpose, and waited. At the end of a week three boys had come; at the end of two months there were twelve, all that the house could hold, Their ages varied from 5 to ID, and they were uniformly steeped in crime. Such a band of prematurely developed rascals were probably never collected together before. Wichern was a sentimentalist, and the only rule was love. There was no restraint; the inmates came and went at will. A high wall which surrounded the grounds was removed, in order that there should not be even the semblance of forcible control. At the end of a year the first twelve boys were reformed. Applications for admission poured in, and twelve built themselves a new house, and gave up the old one to the new-comers. Then a house was built for girls. The day it was finished it was filled with the vilest of the vile. The boys had given trouble enough, but the girls were by far more wicked and unmanageable. But Wiclicrn’s sentimentalism conquered here, too. From that time to this, the Hough House of Hamburg has pressed on its triumphant career. It now consists of thirty-eight different houses, owns 400 acres of land, and educates yearly more than 1,100 boys and girls.* Of its 43,000 graduates, not more than 5 per cent have fallen. It has given rise to more than eight hundred similar reformatories in Prussia. Of these, that of Berlin, founded in 1858, is the largest and keeps busy, merely in the work of superintendence, forty eight men. The order of the “ Knights of Bt. John,” of which wo heard so much during the Franco-Prussian war, was founded at the Rough House of Hamburgh, and now controls all the kindred institutions in the country. Immanuel Wichern is still at the head of affairs.

ADVERTISING. They understand the art of advertising in Omaha. In that enterprising town of the Far West, as we learn from an American paper, an individual is printing an edition of the Prayer Book, which he gives away to every attendant at church. The right-hand page contains the usual prayers; the left-hand is allotted to advertisements ! Another person was endeavouring to purchase the privilege of using the outsides of the pulpits, for for posting the merits of a patent baby jumper. The same journal is responsible for the statement that in Chicago the backs of the policemen are let to advertisers by the Town Council.

TELLING THE SEX. The larger combs of cockerels usually show very early, and as a rule their wings grow at first much more pointed at the ends, and they feather more slowly together. By one or other of these signs the sex of chickens can usually be known alter a little experience at, say,a fortnight or three weeks; but their is no single definite sign.

The Wairarapa Standard says Messrs Stout, Ballance and Sheehan have by their talents and industry raised themselves above the heads of those who have grown grey in the administration. Have not these gentlemen also grown Grey? Sulphur Works are now being erected at Stokes’ Point, Auckland. Whale Island, on the East Coast has been found to contain lens of thousands of tons of sulphur. Messrs Pond and Tunny,analytical chemists, and skilled mineralogists, have purchased the island, and will ship the crude material to the refining works at Auckland. The Herald says “ about 200 tons of sulphur are annually used in the colony, which at £2l per ton, represents a trade worth more than £4,000 per annum. The preparation of sulphuric acid at a cheap rate will inaugurate a new era in Auckland farming, and we hope that very shortly these spirited pioneers in this kind of manufacture will see their way to extend the works for the manufacture of mineral acids, and the preparation of superior manures at a cheap rate, and thus lift the agriculture of the province to the position k ought to occupy.” The earth closet system is likely to be adopted in Dunedin. The report ©£ the Dunedin Sanitary Committee of the 15th instant was to be to the following effect: — That all water closets and cesspits within the city be abolished as soon as possible, and that a pan system, similar to that in operation in Melbourne and Christchurch, be introduced and rendered compulsory within the city. The Bay of Plenty Times says —Regarding the sulphur refinery about to be erected for the White Island sulphur, Mr J. A. Wilsou has finally decided to fix the site at Tauranga, and to commence operations immediately; the Government having undertaken to sell the land, subject to any improvements that may be made by Mr Wilson.