LIVINGSTONE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XVIII, Issue 1039, 2 November 1889, Page 3

LIVINGSTONE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) A good man, in the person of the school teacher oi the Macrewhcnua district school, has just joined the great majority, leaving a widow aud five children. He took such interest in the religious and social welfare of the district that his decease "will leave a gap that will not soon be filled. Mr. White was related by marriage to Mr. Stevens, Presbyterian minister, Papakaio. The Livingstone school was examiued last week by Mr. Taylor. lam told it was more severe than in former years. The result was 69 per cent.; and though this is not as high a rate as some others in this neighborhood, in view of the fact that there hus been no cramming, but steady, honest work throughout the year, the result is very satisfactory. Cramming for examination is so general that seme interest has been felt here as to the result in our school, as it is the first time for perhaps ten years that increased energy, closer application and special effort lias not for a month or two been observable in the school work. It is quite a treat to meet with a teacher who is honest enough to stake his credit on the exam. 011 the even, solid work of the year, when the majority have so little faith in their year's work as to make it positively necessary in order to obtain a creditable pas 3 to put on a great spurt some months prior to the annual ordeal, increasing in intensity as the day draws nigli; so much so that the children have been imbued with the same feeliug* and look upon the inspector's visit with foreboding and dread. An examination under such circumstances is no criterion of the progress the school lias made in its studies, and is, further, very injurious to the moral as well as intellectual well-being of the children, involving as it does a certain amour.t of deception. 'I hen the strain being past, a season of apathy, lack of interest and absence of assiduity follows, necessitating a return to the cramming as the year rolls round if disgrace is to be avoided.

I On Sunday week some evil-minded person during evening service threw a stone at one of the windows of our schoolhouse, breaking two panes and a part of the window sash.' Fortunately the Venetian blind was down, or more serious consequences might have followed the dastardly act. Another act. probably the result of neighborly illfeeling, was perpetrated about tha .same time by some Que cuttiug holes in some hides at the local slaughteryard. Some weeks since, some one made an attempt to burst an iron pipe at a claim with chisel and hammer. You will see by these incidents that we are a happy family at Livingstone, and have great ueed to be evangelised. Little is doing in mining operations. On Livingtone side the gold is scarce; on the Maerewhenua side the water- is almost equally short, so that on the whole we are far from prosperous, the recent blow in the " Witness " notwithstanding. I recently had occasion to travel to Naseby and back by tho Pass. I sincerely pity all whose business necessitates that journey. I would like to know if the county councils would be liable for damages in case of an accident, as it would be a sort of consolation to know that somebody could be made to pay the doctor and something more if one got a leg broken—a by no means improbable contingency. I used to think the ivaseby side, of the pass was kept in very fair order, much better than the Waits ki side; but this state of things is now reversed. There are undoubtedly some very bad places on this side, but they pale into insignificance when compared with the other side. From the top down to the first creek the track is in a most disgraceful condition, in places highly dangerous. Culverts are nearly all broken or choked, so .that the various little rivulets and general draiuage is and has been for a long time sluicing a channel where the track should be. Fancy taking a horse along a steep track where the centre of a four-foot path is channelled to a depth varying from twelve to 30 inches deep where the rock would allow of such depth ! .Where rock prevails it is almost a3 bad, as there is no foothold on it. Jagged and rough, broken knees would be a certaiuty if the horse stumbled. From thence down to the first house at Kyeburn the road is on the whole much better, but there are.many very bad places in that part. I should think that during the last six or seven years uot a shilling had been spent on it. One told me the other day who has made the journey frequently, that nothing has been done on it for ten years past. Be that as it may, it is high time something was done, and not a little either. I estimate in some places the cost of thorough repair will exceed the cost of a new track. , J have long known the track to be much in need of repair, but thought while the Naseby-Oamaru road was before the public that possibly the councils delayed the work pending the result of tlie agitation. As it is now quiescent, further delay is culpable, if not criminal. As summer is near, the unpleasantness of surveying and repairing a track in such an exposed situation will be reduced toa minimum ; sol now dismiss the unpleasant subject with the hope that a word to the wise will be sufficient. A quartz-reef has been found here worth lodwts. per ton. A trial crushing lias been sent to Dunedin. It is situate on freehold property.