PROM OUR EXCHANGES.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 115, 22 January 1879, Page 2

PROM OUR EXCHANGES.

Educational. —We need abridge which; will carry the scholar with bis habits of study end inquiry safely into the life of: profitable labour, without obliging him to; dr p what he has taken so much pains to| gain. Such a bridge may be found in the study of common things. Ordinary life pursuits furnish abundant material such study. Every object we see or in every-day life has a history well wortlj perusing, a composition well worth analysing, a future well worth conjecturing.! However common it may has thaj in, and about it, which will for ever pre vent it from being commonplace. Ever, employment we engage in. however me chanical or insignificant it may seem, wil escape from aff such odium if it is pursue-; with an active brain . as well as a bus hand —if its resources are examined, r history studied, its methods compared, Lost purposes followed. Sue!) cducatic, will paake labor far more vslqab}e by r.

troducing into it the element of thought ; it will incv> ase the’ power of observation, and stimulate the curiosity, which is the germ of all knowledge ; it wil invest the world of common things with richer meaning and keener flavour ; and best of all, it will give continual occupation to those higher faculties of man which are apt to mst in the tame routine of everyday life, when not thus lifted out of the region of cormno iplace. A Dull Place. A correspondent writes to tell us (says the ‘Ashburton Mail’) that, on entering a local hotel the other evening he heard two stalwart half-in-toxicated fellow's confiding their sorrovvs to each other. The burden of their confidences was that Ashburton was the dullest place in the world, and they denoted their idea of loneliness by saying that at Lyttleton and Dunedin a man could go to such and such houses, get drunk in no time, and kick up a row that would gladden the heart of a demon. Next day the fiercest declaimer against the dullness of Ashburton w r as seen moping about with the skin oft' one of his cheeks, and lie was heard saying that Ashburton wasn’t such a dull place after all. The science of photography has made very rapid strides within the past few' years (remarks the Melbourne ‘ Daily Telegraph’), but it is certeinly not exhausted jet. Yesterday we were showm a photograph, coloured and rendered lifelike by anew chemical process, discovered by Mrs J. H. Hume, of this city. By this means we are assured that pictures may not only be taken from nature with wonderful fidelity, but that exact copies of valuable oil paintings may be produced at a trifling cost. If the invention turns out ns successfully as it promises, the whole art of photography will be revolutionised ; and instead of the cold, uncolourcd lines with which we are so familiar, the tint of life and the hue of nature will be imparted to every picture. We ‘ Otago Daily Times’ understand letters have been received in town to the effect that the first of the large steamers to ply between New Zealand and London, chartered by the New Zealand Government, is expected here early in March ; that she is to sail on her return voyage about Ist April, by way of Magellan’s Strait ; and that Lyttelton is to be the last point of departure. The only availaole fast route to England hitherto has been by steamers from Melbourne ; but now, with steamers of nearly 3000 ions running direct from onr own doors, we are to be no longer dependent upon another colony. We believe the passage Home is to be done by the new line in 42 days.