GENERAL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2646, 30 October 1909, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

One of the facts quoted to the commerce delegates at Auckland as illustrating the wonderful development and expansion of New Zealand as a young country, was that one of the first settlers at Auckland (Sir John Logan Campbell) still resides on the shores of the Waitemata Harbor. Alany of the visitors expressed a desire to meet the esteemed . “Father .of AuckhuKl/ 7 havmg learned of his. close identity with the progress of the city, and of hi* civic beneficence. They also thought that his ripe age of 94 spoke well for the salubrity of the climate. Speaking at a Budget Protest meeting at Salisbury the Earl ot Pembroke declared that h e never made a penny profit out of his 40,000 acres of estates in Wiltshire. If lie had the value of them in Consols he would have been a rich man. The-Earl added: “The Government has singled out landlords for special taxation because they are opposed to the Liberal politics.” If the noble Earl is such a bad manager it is time he gave someone else a chance to see what could be done with 40,000 acres of English land, Referring to the projected visit of Lord Kitchener to the Dominion, the Hon. W. Beehan, of Auckland, stated in the Legislative Council that no one would be more pleased than himself it 'it became an accomplished fact. At Home his father was a tenant on Lord Kitchener’s father’s estate. Fond or sport, Lord Kitchener as a youth appeared to take no special interest in military matters. Although lie belonged to the “upper ten” lie was never happier than when visiting among his father’s peasantry. It was only upon the death of his father and the sale of the estate that’ Lord Kitchener began his training for the military service.- Everybody knew the progress that he made in his studies, and the great success which has marked his career.' Mr. Goyen, Chief Inspector of Schools in Otago, speaking on the; calibre of boys leaving school for office work, said that a lot of absolute nonsense was talked about it. Boys and girls, fourteen years of: age, were expected to ho first-class writers; to bo able to compose a good letter on matters of which they knew .'absolutely nothing, and employers expected them to cast up, under now circumstances that did not tend to concentration of thought, several columns of figures. It was not fair to expect a boy or girl of fourteen years of /age, to go into an office and tackle columns that possibly very few men could do. -'