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Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1711, 28 January 1874, Page 4

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A private letter, dated 4th December, received by last mail from, Fiji, via Auck--1 land, from : an -officer on board H.M.S. Pearl, now at Levuka, contains the following interesting' notes :—^" We visited the Samoa Islands, stopping 'on our way for' a few hours at Savage Island; , The na : . tives there are quite and civilised, .. ; the ship being Blirfdundefl withr canoejs, ,-' fall of curiosities for jbarter. : ,. The - ': almighty ' dollar, wp found, went down as well as anything in this' place as in 'all others, although there were only two . whites on !the, island,.; ttfe next visited' Tutula, and anchored in] Pango Pango Harbor. It is a 'most { lovely place, entirely' 1 landlocked; -ft with hills on each Bide 2600 feet high." l -From ' one side. of the shore, thp Pearl looked ' ' : ' like, ja; : immature, ship, jdwing to the . . immense height 1 of the back-ground Of ' .hills. We then visited th 4 large. town of ... Apia, in the island of Opolu. This I 'is a „j , beautiful , island ': the natives are handsome, strong, and intelligent, and the i -women -very pretty. Thejy all read and write well, and are well educated, but, I — think, lazy. -We are very < sorry, to get away, and would have liked to stop another month. We thtn proceeded to Levuka, wherf we have niwbeen about a fortnight, waiting-for Mr CLaya'rd. Sonic- ; thing detained him, so he is now expected at the end of this moi|th. The Commodore is examining hird into every-. .:•..-. thing that is brought befc re him, but will II .give no opinion until Mr Layard conies. The Government here is against annexation, but all the other people are for it, and if Fiji is not annexed, I expect there will' be a revolution. However, everyone awaits patiently Mr Layard's coming, when they hope every-

thing will go well. The Blanche and Rbßario are away % at the New Hebrides and Solomon Islands. The schooner Alacrity is hero, and H.M.S. Basilisk and the Southern Cross, with Mr Layard, are expected at the end of the month., .We, -give a performance in aid of the hospital" -here on Friday, 19th December; This is all the news j can think of, except that on dit, New Zealend is to be our headquarters instead of Sydney." Bits of straw professedly taken from the Pope's " dungeon " are being largely sold by the pedlars in ultra-Catholic districts of Italy. The Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Civil Service, expenditure, in their third report, find that the charge for superior officers, clerks, and clerical assistance in the Civil Service is about £3,000,000 per annum, and that the number of established clerks is. about 11,000