GENERAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 937, 6 March 1872, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

An association is being formed at •'jDunedin for i he • promotion of a national system of education, and an 'influential ' committee has been ap- •- pointed. The success of the Earik of New Zealand has brought a rival into the Tield. The Southern Cross learns by advices from London that a new bank "with a large capital ah'd an influential hoard "of directors, has been sueeess'fullv floated, and that our colony is to he the field of operation. 'lt is'also rumoured that Mr Kennedy, late of the Bank of New Zealand, is to have the management here. The Rev. T. W. Perry points out a strange mistake in the title-page of the new prayer books and Church Services printed at Loudon, Oxford, and Cambridge. They all retain the "words " according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland," whereas no such Church now exists. The same error occurs in the heading to the preface to the Ordina'tion Services. The Civil List of the Colony is !made up as follows : —The Governor, £4500, The Chief Justice, £I7OO Pour Puisne Judges at £ISOO. The Premier and four other Ministers receive £IOOO a year each, and various minor offices bring up the total cost to £19,000, to which £6OOO may be added for native purposes. Mr Edmund M'Grlove, laborer, was drowned on Sunday, Eeb. 22, while bathing in Auckland harbor. " Attieus under the Verandah," in the Melbourne " Leader," says that the last commander of 11. M. S. Rosario was a philanthropist, and ran amuck of all the traders in the Pacific ; the present captain seems to be a ■nigger-hater, who considers it his mission .to administer doses of " civilisation" flavored with saltpetre. The Pope still refuses to be reconciled to King Victor Emmanuel. One hundred and twenty soldiers' cottages are to he erected on the 'vacant ground behind the Eoyal Ma'rine barracks at Woolwich.

Commander Harvey, R.N., has been invited by the Italian' G-overnment to proceed to Italy for the purpose of instructing the naval officers of that power in the Management and use of hi* torpedoes. The Oxford examinations are now of > so severe a nature, that more than 'one-half of those who present themselves get " plucked."