GOLD AT BORNEO.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 433, 10 February 1875, Page 3

GOLD AT BORNEO.

The "Goldfields Mercury" published in South Africa, in alluding to the contemplated departure of diggers to search for gold at Borneo, says :—": — " There is gold there, no doubt, that has been known for years, though it is not about Borneo that the present excitement has been got up, but about what are known as the Straits Settlements. Internal wars have been carried on for many years on the Malay Peninsula, but peace has been established in Jan., and hence explorations have been practicable, resulting in some extraordinary discoveries. The glowing reports which have been brought back have only tended to magnify the already almost fabulous accounts of the territory. One man has brought back gold nuggets, some of which are valued at £120 ; another has discovered a gold reef; a third a mine of almost virgin silver ; tin mines, copper mines, lead and cinnibar abound. Grants of land have already been applied for by planters who have prospected the new country, which is adapted for the growth of sugar, tapioca, rice, tea, and coffee. This Malay Peninsula has been lying idle for centuries, but is now, owing to Lord Carnarvon's policy, opened to British enterprise. There is, however, one drawback. The country is close to the equator, is not of the healthiest, and the animal known as the Bengal tiger — at least, it is of that size — is too often in disagreeable proximity. We would rather take our chance at Pilgrim's rest.

Christ's Hospital— the "Blue-Coat School " as it is more commonly called— is wholly a charity-school, as regards board, education, and even clothing ; and it is an express provision of its charter that no person having more than L3OO a year may have a son elected to it. All classed of society are represented there. The boys are educated and maintained till they are fifteen, when they are compelled to leave the school, unless they have succeeded in qualifying themselves for the Universities by proficiency in either classics or mathematics. Eight scholarships in Oxford and Cambridge are filled from Christ's Hospital ; and ten boys are annually sent from itto the Navy. Altogether about 800 boys are educated there: of these the majority, of course, are apprenticed to trades, or find manual employment of some sort or other, and are never known to fame ; of the rest some are sent by their friends to the Universities, or take the places in society assigned to them by circumstances, and turn up again as clergymen, lawyers, doctor, soldiers, sailors, authors, journalists, or what not. A few, and but a few, rise to eminence. Of these, Charles Lamb and Coleridge are two of the most noticeable examples. Christ's Hospital is a school where rank is ignored ; where all start from the one dead level of assumed poverty ; where discipline is ruthlessly maintained ; and where the cleverest and hardest working boy gets on the best. — " Timaru Herald,"