PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 223, 9 May 1872, Page 9

PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

Compulsory education is not required ,in New Orleans, where study is made pleasant by a system of instruction like the following. Here is a lesson they sing at public school examinations in that city, to the tune of " Yankee Doodle," visitors and all joining in the chorus :-»— If anything on earth can make A great and glorious nation, It is to give the little ones A thorough education. Chorus.— Five times five are twenty-five, Five jkimes six are thirty, Five timessevenarethiity-five, And five times eight are fprty. A number of British capatalists have undertaken the task of building up a port in north Lancashire as a rival to Liverpool. The place is called Barrow-on-Furness, and the location of the famous Bessemer Steel Works. The projectors, it is said, have already determined to start a new line of steamers to the United States and Canada. At pi esent the place is not suitable for a great commercial port, for although it has clocks and warehouses, it yet requires graving docks and many other works indispensable to the order and safety of a great steamship line. But that these will be provided on the grandest scale is said not to be doubted by those who are acquainted with what has already been done there. In his opening address to the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society for the session of 1872, the president — Mr Joseph John Murphy — speaking of the Mont Cenis and other tunnels, said: — A railway tunnel between Scotland and Ireland has been proposed — to go from near Cushendail to the Mull of .Cantyre ; and a detailed description, with estimate of the cost, has been published by the Belfusc engineering firm of Macassey and Scott. If there were no special engineering difficulties it might be worth while for the Imperial Parliament to spend many millions on a work which would practically make Ireland cease to be an island. There is nothing impracticable in the length of such a tunnel, which, at the narrowest part of the channel, would be less than fifteen miles ; but I fear — though I speak under correction — that the depth of water, which is very considerable, would constitute an almost insurmountable difficulty. The great Hindoo Reformer, Baboo Keshub-Chunder Sen, wlio paid a visit to England last year for the purpose of getting acquainted with English manners and customs in the mother country, and likewise to determine whether it would not be ad visible to introduce Christianity among the Hindoos, gave a resume of his experience prior to his departure. With regard to Christianity, he says :—": — " English Chrißtiantiy is too sectarian, too narrowminded. Are the waters of -Eternal Life of such a small quantity that you have to narrow the channels through which they flow in order to make them deep 1 -Differences of opinion are everywhere, where there is life, but I protest against .the spirit of antipathy and antagonism. # The Christian life in England is more of a material than a spiritual nature. There is a striving everywhere to find God externally in forms, ceremonies, dogmas; that the mind "wants spiritual food is very little thought of."

The "Auckland Weekly News", says : —Manga, or Revvi (the name he is more generally known by), has just returned from Tuhua. He confirms the report of gold been discovered there. The place where it has been found as yet is on, the banks of the Taringamutu, a branch of the Ongaruhe river, which falls into the Whauganui river. It is near to Pokomotu, a trachytic cone, obout 1,398 ft. high. It is a short distance south-east of Hangatiki, a considerable distance within this province, and about 50 miles from here as the crow flies. The richness of the field is highly spoken of, and the discovery seems likely to cause a division amongst the natives themselves.

It is stated that a solicitor of Hexham has received instructions to renew the actions of ejectment on behalf of the Counteae of Derwentwater, and funds have been provided to try the actions immediately on the Tichborne case being concluded. The evidence as to the pedigree having now been obtained' to perfect the countess' title to the Derwentwater estates, no time will "be lost. The legal gentlemen have made preparations for a great trial. A discovery has just been made by which photographs can be bodily fixed on procelain and china by means of violent heat, estimated at 1200 degrees Centigrade. This process is due to M. Gey met, who not only makes no secret of it, but invites all who take an in-terest-in photography to visit his laboratory, at No. 8 Rue Neuve des Augustine, Paris. - The " Wellington Advertiser " is to re-appear once more. It will be named the " Telegraph." It is not, says an exchange, to touch general, provincial, or municipal politics. It appears that the Jews nowhere suffer more vigorous persecution, and are nowhere in more wretched circumstances than in Jerusalem. There, as at Rome, they are shut up in a separate quarter, and that the darkest, filthiest section of the city. This quarter is a "mere mud cave, lined with mud hovels. The Jews have no Consul to interfere when they are unjustly treated ; if injured, they have to bear, it in silence-.; if plundered by Ai^bs they have no

hope of recovery. Coming to the land of promise to die, many of them are robbed on the way, and all are robbed when they come. Helpjia continually sent from abroad, but none too much. ■ That great project, the proposed Northern Pacific Railway, for a line from Lake Superior, right across the United States, to Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast, south of Victoria, Vancouver's Island, has undergone a very searching investigation at the hands of some of the leading European financial houses, and the result of the commission sent out to inspect the track of the line and report on the whole project in its technical, commercial, and financial features has been, it is understood, unfavourable to certain points in the financial part of the scheme — it is, therefore, likely that some time will elapse before half the bonds, the European moiety of 50,000,000 dollars, will be placed in the market. The hoisting of the British flag on the South African diamond fields was performed at the various places amidst the greatest enthusiasm. The following announcement has been appearing in the advertisement columns of the London " Times." It is to be hoped it will iuduce some capitalist to invest the more trifle asked for, and thus immortalise himself and make his fortune at the same time : — England to Australia in thirty days, via the Cape of Good Hope, in an TJnsinkable Swimmer of the Seas. £10,000 wanted, by a thoroughly practical and scientific seaman, to demonstrate the practicability of the above invent'on. Principals or their solicitors only treated with. Address — ."

On January 9, a meeting in favour of the establishment' of a Republic,™ Club in Glasgow was held. The constitution proposed that the club should promote the substitution of the existing monarchical system of government by a thorough democratic Republic, under which all citizens shall enjoy equal privileges, and be equally subject to tie same laws, and be eligible to occupy any official position in which they may be called by the free suffrages of their fellow-citizens. The Club's'iould also promote the abolution of a hereditary and privileged aristocracy, and of a state-favoured and endowed church ; the institution of equal electoral districts ; and the right of every citizen who has attained the age of twenty-one years to be represented legislatively. The constitution further denounced and disclaimed all violence of speech and action. The question as to whether female suffrage should be promoted was negatived by a majority. The constitution, with a few slight modifications, was adopted.