MR. J. C. RICHMOND

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 155, 6 May 1873, Page 3

MR. J. C. RICHMOND

HcsriNG in England —The London papers for November contain a list of 170 distinct pucka of hounds — stag hounds, lox hounds, and harriers — whoso meetings are advertised. Some pack* meet four tinie«, some three, some twice a week — the mrjoi it \ three. Tht-<c packs represent, in one way or another, an expenditure amounting in the aggregate to somewhere about JL' 2 ,000,000 The iuu.il estimate for mamtaing a pack ol hound* is C3,(><>o .t joar ; but this N for the mere subsistence) of the hounds and the stall 1 which attends them, and does not, of course, include the expenditure on hunting of tluw who follow them. The number of hunting men has been increased b\ the raihvin rendering it easy for persona living remote from meets to attend them. The trams run ao quickly that numbers of men, compelled to close attendance in " the city" most of the week, manage to get their one or two days' hunting in the iame period. Thus the Irish mad, which runs without stoppage the 80 miles, from London to Rugby, lapping up, from troughs placed on the line, thr food, m the bliape of water to sustain it on it* long stage, does that distance in two hours, and landn young Nunrod m tune for a Warwickshire pack, whilst an afternoon train will pick him up again at 6 i) m , and bring him to town in time for a late dinner. The ruddy, jolly appearance of men on the Stock Exchange and other of the great London marts of commerce, is often, in no slight degree, attributable to "that glorious run we had" with her Majesty's, the P\ tchlcy, or the Quorn, yesterday. A Q-KooBAPnicAL Mtstkrt Ei.rniMTEn. — A geographical imstery has been cleared up, and nn illusion of commerce dissipated, by the explorations of some French travellers, whose narrative has ju*t been published. M. Louis de Came started in the summer of 1866 from Snicjon, in French Cochin-China delta, to track the great river of Cambodia, the Mekong, to its sources. The hope of the French Colonial Office was that this large stream, unknown like the Salwecn, the Meinnm, and the Tonquin, might offer an available water-road through Laos and Gunan to the back of China, and give to the Cochin-China delta which is held by France the coinmerco of a soeond Nile or Ganges. Thii hope has faded ; the Mekong, which the Frenchmen traced at the cost of terrible hardship* and great sacrifice of brave and valuable life, is an " impitfttnble mer," broken at least thrice by furious ca'ara t<, and hn\ in;: a current againat which nothing could be navigated. The dutuotery, purchased at the cost of existence by the leader of the expedition, and by M. de Came, whose story is posthumously published — takes away half the value of Cochin-China* It ii our turn to find out whether the great streams which have their embouchure at Bangkok and Moulmien offer mi} better chance of a back-way to the Yang-tse-Kiang.

Tni: lion. J. C. Kiclimond left Nelson for England by the Albion, yesterday nft ernoon. A* this gentleman has been a public man, in the best -ruse of tlie word, for niuny jears, we may be p.ircloned for calling a few moments' attention to him. He is one of the low un-n who have sat in the Now Zealand Cabinet who was bound up with no particular interest. Neither squatter, settler, merchant, nor working-man ; hii efforts hare been invariably directed to the general intere»U of the colon) . Nelson ia in an especial degree a lo«er by his absence. At the Central Board of Education, Mr Richmond was most regular in attendance, and the respect in which that body held him, ant" his devotion to the interests which it ii the especial office of the Board to promote, it made evident by the fact that since his presence m it, scarcely a single committee has been appointed of which he has not beeh a member. The Town School Committee appear to hare rallied find emplycd ins services no less than the Central body. His interest in education was further illustrated by j the disinterested manner in which he gave his services to classed in drawing, modern languages, and especially English. In Mr Richmond this journal losci a contributor to whom it owes those political and social articles which have excited the attention of friends and foes throughout the length and breadth of the islands, and have been more freely quoted and commented on than the articles of any other writer in New Zealand. It m an instance of his foresight that Mr Richmond, in our pages and elsewhere, ha* for many year* advocated the very same railway policy for Nelson which his bitterest antagonists have of late sought to appropriate the credit, and which, but for the obstruction of those same antagonists might long since have been carried out under circumstances far more favourable than the present. Hii importance as a political writer is best illustrated by the scurriht which aas all that his opponents could oppose to his cogent arguments, mature thought, and evident honesty of purpose. In assaulting this journal they in reality assaulted him, for in him they found a determined and able foe to the short-sighted log-rolling and jobbery which disgraces the present administrator of New Zealand finance, and is destined beyond all question to involve it in the most serious financial confusion, if not to bring it to the verge of ruin. — Nelion Examiner.

Bbactt Goivg UyADOKNiD to Church.— The ladies of Nashville, Tenncniee, set our religious ladies an example which they might well follow. The Union has the following :— The lady members of the first Baptist church of this city have agreed that they will dispense with all finery on Sunday— wearing no jewels but consistency, and hereafter appear at church in plain calico dreisei. Such a movement may excite ridicule ; but no reform was ever effected without its supporters first being laughed at. They laugh, however, who win ; and the reformers generally win in the long run. Swabating thb Sexes in Placks of Worship.— There •was a very lively scene (lays the Manchester Examiner) one Sunday evening at a Ritualistic church in Exeter, which bears the imposing name of St Michael and All Angel*. Perhapi the dual title suggested the practice which it seems the rector adopts of dividing the icxes — the ladies, or the angtls, occupying one side of the building, and the masculine sinners the other. It appear* that a gentleman who found a wife in Exeter fifteen years ago paid a visit to the ancient city a few days since, and not being aware of the peculiar practice at St Michael and All Angels', he sented himself beside his wife in w hat turned out to be the ladies' quarter. He was at once politely requested to seek the opposite side of the building, but considering the substance of the demand impertinent, ho declined to comply with it. A churchwarden than interposed with no better result, and at last the rector informed him that he was violating thp regulations of the oburch, and adding that until Jie withdrew, the servico would not be proceeded wish. At this time the visitor— who is a •tauncb Churchman— declined to enter into argument with is persecutors, and contented himself with shaking his h«ad at their fervid remonstrances. At last, when the rector tueended the chancel steps, and made a lengthy speech to the congregation, repeating that he would not proceed with Divine service until the intruder had withdrawn, that astonished individual left tho church — accompanied, of course, by his wife— rather than cause any further dissension. On exchanging a few civil and explanatory words with the churchwarden in the restible, he learnt thnt that functionary had •ent for a policeman to remove him by force ! The sittings in the church, it should be stated, are free and unappropriated," and it wns the intimation to this effect which led the visitor to maintain such a protracted attitude of defence. The Western Times, which publishes a letter irom him minutely describing the circumstances, adds that at this church " they have a curate who disgusts good people by licking the cup, offer the service of the Sacrament, in a most I offensive way, to show that he does not let a particle of the ! transformed fluid pass out to secular hands." Pbitatb Munificenck fob Prune PcnrrwES.— England and the United States have produced km enil men during the last 30 or 10 jear? who have, either during their lives or by testamentary bequest, made a munificent appropriation to public purposes of the wealth they acquired by industry and enterprise. In December last her Majesty bestowed the honour of knighthood upon Mr Josiah Mason, a Birmingham manufacturer, who some years ago erected a stately orphanage at Erdington, at a cost of £60,000, besides endowing it with landed property of the \alue of a quarter of million sterling ; from which it is anticipated a revenue of £12 OK) per annum will be derived ere long. This act of princely bounty he has just followed up by the establishment of a noble college for practical science m Birmingham. In the deed of foundation he records very briefly his own autobiography, by way of encouragement to the young, and relates how " from his earliest youth he was engaged in earning his livelihood, first as a shoemaker, then as a baker, and then as a carpet weaver ;" subsequently becoming a jeweller, a manufacturer of steel pens, and a copper smelter. In these diversified occupations he discerned " the necessity for und benefit of thorough systematic and scientific instruction, specially adapted to the piaetical, mechanical, and artistic requirements of tho district." And hence the establishment of Josiah Mason's College. His wealth could scarcely have been more wisely or advantageously applied ; and the institution cannot fail to be a* great a boon to the people of thf midland counties as the Cornell University is to the United States. One excellent feature in the system of instruction to be adopted is, that theological teaching will bo prohibited, and no religious test of any kind is to be applied either to teachers or students. Probably some of our opulent men in Victoria have been painfully revolving in their minds for some years past how they may best keep their memories green, and make a wise use of their surplus wealth. Here is ft solution of the difficulty. Let them found and endow a •cientific college, after the model of Sir Josiah Mason's, and •aye the succession duty by effecting this in their own lifetime ; not forgetting what Pope said of wealth :— •'In heaps, like ambergris, astink it lies, Hut well dispersed, is incense to the skies." Education in England.— Tho London correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald writes as follows :— We have other social troubles, not the least being the position of bitter antagonism assumed by the rival education associations, one being in favour of purely secular, and the other in favour of religious instruction. Birmingham and Manchester represent the opposing factions, which are busily preparing for a contest of the most savage character. To add to the general perplexity, we have the Government pledged to deal with university education in Ireland, a step which ii likely to lead to a kind of triangular duel between Secularists, Protestarits, and Roman Catholics. Meanwhile, the school boards are actively at work, doing all that lies in their power to increase the existing amount of school accommodation, albeit the ratepayers are beginning to grumble loudly at the increased expenses entailed on them. Already one effect of the working of the new Education Act iri the metropolis in observable in the almost total absence of children from the streets and lanes during school hours. The great fight in Parliament will be on the proposed abolition of the twenty-fifth clause of the Act, namely, that which permits school boards to pay fees in Denominational schools. The Established Church were not slow in turning this cause to practical account, a result the reverse of pleasing to many of their dissenting brethren, who find themselves placed in a dilemma, for if they oppose the retention of the clause, they at once piny into the hands of the Secularists. Mr Forster has, it is said, been engaged during tho principal part of the recess in devising a plan for the removal of the difficulty, but his success vat least problematical. Already the note of opposition is being sounded. The ground taken up by the Dissenters is that summarised by the Nonconformist :—": — " We entirely object to the use of the ratepayers' money to pay for the sectarian education of children of the poor j and this proposal is one to meet the objection by paying it with the left hand instead of the right. The present plan transforms the school-rate into a church-rate. Tho battle of religious equality against sectarian predominance would bo transferred from the school boards to the Board of Guardians ; and a new religious difficulty would be added to the existing difficulties of the poor-law administration. Nor can we see a greater indignity put on decent poverty. We should first compel a poor parent to send his children to school, and then compel him to become a pauper in order to do so. Mr Cobden pointed out many years ago thnt tho only way to make education universal would be to establish free schools — and it is clear that there is no other solution of the difficulty except that of remitting fees in board schools, which is practically making them free schools to those who need it. But to stamp on free education the brand of pauperism would be treachery to the very cause of popular education. The policy of Mr Goscben and Mr Stansfeld hns beep to limit pauperism to the utmost ; to cut off all the indiscriminate charity by which pauperism is fostered and fed. But by this proposal a whole clnss wonld bo added to the pauper ranks j nnd while tho poor-law administration is carefully helping as nmny as possible out of the pit, the Education Department, for the «nke of saving a few fees for sectarian schools, nould be pushing a multitude into it." There is a nice position of affairs. The lato Lord Lytton once published a work entitled "Whnt will he do with it." Had lie lived he might have givou us another entitled " How will it end ? "