GENERAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 894, 30 November 1871, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

There was once upon a time writes the ' Loafer' in the Canterbury " Press," a man who cleaned out a stable. His name, I believe was Hercules, as there does not happen to be a Lempriere in my landlady's library I won't commit myself positively as to his name. For every shovelful he took out two or three came in. I don't know how he finished his contract, but he rose to some considerable eminence from the way he carried it out. The Early Closing Association have got a similar job in front of them. They have, 1 hope, some persuasive men among them, for they will want them. I hope they will go to work discreetly and warily, and I hope they will he successful. Speaking of a thoroughly able and independent newspaper, the Otago "Daily Advertiser" says:—Be it known that none will succeed in publishing such a vehicle who is not animated by more than merely pedlar's motives. For years such a press might not pay as merely a commercial speculation, but if its object be the lessening of the power of monpolies, and the consequent increase of the power of the weaker classes, we will undertake to prove our emphatic conviction that, politically and atthe end of six months, such a press conducted by large-hearted and large-headed talent, would " pay" in the higher sense of the word; and we are very much mistaken if it would not recoup its proprietor even commercially at the end of two years.

The "Age" calls the following a novelty, but the same has been followed by most of the leading jewellers and hankers of London for the last thirty years : —" One of the jewellers in Bourke street has adopted a novel fashion of protecting his property. He keeps his gas brilhuitly alight in his shop all night, and has a square hole cut through one of his shutters, so that the watchman, or any one else, can look in and see that all is secure. The idea is a daring one, but its very boldness seems to secure safety. The Clunes "Guardian," in referring to the Victorian new Licensing Bill has the following :—This Bill has conferred a somewhat unexpected benefit on the working classes, if but in a small way. The Act provides that houses to be licensed shall possess walls and partitions of either stone, brick, or lath and plaster, and that rooms, too, must be of a certain size. Now, three-fourths, or we might say, nineteen twentieths of the houses for which publicans' will ask licenses on the 31st Dec. do not meet the requirements of the Act, aud the consequence is scores of workmen are now employed in putting these houses in order — carpenters, masons, bricklayers, and plasterers are as busy as bees in the work, for intending landlords are well aware the authorities intend on next licensing day to rigidly enforce the objections provided by the Act in cases where houses are unfit for hostelries.

A nubmer of the public men in England appear to be in favour of com. pulsory elementary education. The Eev. G-. French, Inspector of Schools says : —The greatest difficulty in the way of education in the agricultural districts is the apathy and carelessness of the parents. If the children are to be educated at all costs, and if the difficulties that will be met with are to be overcome, I see no other remedy than some sort of compulsory attendance at schools up to a certain age." Another Inspector, the Rev. M. Mitchell, denies the necessity of any compulsory Act but proceeds to say that " an Act which only applies to the base will be disapproved of only by the base, the number of whom the Act will tend continuously to diminish." The Eev. Dr Bigg, Principal of the Wesleyan Training College, Westminster, expresses the following opinion: "I do not believe that it is practicable to pass into law, or to apply and enforce, an honest and thorough, an important and equitable measure of direct compulsory education." Mr Buxton M.P., thinks that it would be sufficient to give the local authorities power to deal with vagabond children in the streets, and forbid the employment of any child under thirteen without a certificate of education. At a meeting of the National Education League the Eev. Eoland Williams proposed that field or stable labour should be forbidden to children under ten, and that between ten and twelve, children should not be employed without producing a certificate of instruction. Alderman Bomney quoted Mr Redgrave, a Factory Inspector, to the effect that no child under sixteen should be employed without a certificate of attainments, mere attendance at school not being sufficient. Mr Paget, an employer of agricultural labour, stated that he found that eni-

ploying boys alternate days, and sending them to school the other days, paid; and that the boys who had schooling every other day equalled in knowledge those who professedly attended constantly.