MISCELLANEOUS,.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 23 June 1880, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS,.

The Dunedin Herald devoteq a lending article to the education speech of Sir j Hercules Robinson. We quote the'foU lowing extract s— " We question if there be a serf ant of Her Majesty's iv ail the colonies whose words have so much vve ight as those of Sir Hercules Robinson. He never speaks lut \?hen the occasion prompts him. which is of ecrarsß one of the s-'erets of his influence ; another is, that he is always equal to the occasion ; and this, as we hare already implied, not so muofa on account of any great original powers of mind as on account of a large endowment of good sense. Sir George Grey is, for instance, a much more briU licint rhetorician, ani altogether a man of * more original cast of mind ; and yet hi.* opinions are not nearly so aothorita/ive. There is, in fact, no comparison between the two men, either in point of originality or in point of judgment, Si? George Grey being a 8 superior to Sir Hercules Robinson in the former respect as Sir Hercules Robinson is superior to Sir George Grey in the latter, ft 8 fc'xeel!ency could not possibly ha?e equalled the late Premier's address at the opening of ths Auckland Grammar fc'iool — the glow, the eloqueneaj in a word, the genius, of that fine dis-eourse being quite beyond him ; but neither, on the ether j hand, has Sir George Grey any l>ut the very slightest pretensions to the steadi* ness and solidity of judgment that so highly distinguish the Governor's f-oliti* cal speeches; They are both, however, we need hardly say, very admirable men — men of whom the colony mny well feel proud ; and the only pity is that there should ever ha?e been a jar between them. With Sir Hercules Eobinson as Governor, and Sir George Grey as Premier, the colony ou^ht to have been a political paradise. But it somehow turned out otherwise." The following extract rill convey to our readers some idea of America as a wheat-growing country-^The magnitude of the American wheat esport is hardly comprehended wi'hoat practical explanas tion. If, says an American writer, the esport of wheat for 1879 was loaded on freight ears, 60 feet long, 4CO bushels to a car, i*. would require for its transporta* tion 256,452 ears, which, if made -up in one continuous train, would extend 2346 miles. If loaded in ships 300 tons burden, it would require a fleet of 825 ships to convey ths wheat atone across the ocean. Ibis esport of whest has brought into the States in exchange for it, in gold or its equivalent, more tLan £20,000,000.

*%