E.—la.

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crest of I a broken roller —a black forsaken-looking boat amongst menacing, misshapen waves that shoulder past each | other in their efforts to strike and stamp her to the bottom—and feel the relief | that sweeps through the blood as the men reach shallow water and leap out to 2 drag J her beyond the savagery behind them. Sit in the boat as she is brought back to | the ship; sit and quake with white fear fluttering round and round your heart! In front |of you the men, with set faces and tightened mouths, work strainingly at the long oars; | above them, dancing spasmodically against the grey sky-line like a shadow, is the steer-oarsman. As | 3 they drop giddily into a hollow a blind wave lifts in front nearly twelve feet high, | grey and hideous, while the fear creeps up from the heart to the throat. Screaming down | upon the boat comes the broken water, and, under the blow, she reels and turns her | nose aside. Halffilled, she faces the waves again, and, down on his knees, one of | the crew is bailing as a man who is paced by death. Again and again the | apparent uselessness of it all rushes to the 4 tongue for expression; again and again the desire |to be free from the boat, to escape the look on the faces of men at | the edge of the point where physical endurance fails, is quieted only by the hope that | will not be denied in man until the end. Suddenly it is over ; highthrown the I boat goes staggering over a roller, and the broken water is past. The crew of the I " Hinemoa " have been selected because of their fitness, because of their skill, for such 5 work. They | come of families that have all their lives been whalers or eealers—men who have earned | their living in open boats and practically lived in open boats—only such men could do I the work they are asked to do, and only such men would take the risks they | are asked to take. To return to Palliser Bay ; there was no difficulty in landing this | 6 time, and very quickly the piles of sugar and flour and groceries and coal were safe | on the beach. Cape Palliser is comparatively a new lighthouse. It was built in 1897, | and is a revolving white light, flashing twice every half-mmute, with an interval of | three seconds between the flashes. Through the great glass prisms the head keeper points out the | place where the " Ben Avon " went ashore, and we are told how she came down and | piled herself 7 up on the rocks almost under the light. " No," said the keeper, in | answer to a question, " they did not see it—the night was too thick." No sign |of the vessel is left now; she stood for some time with all her sails at | the yards, until one morning the heavy seas crowded upon her. At 3 o'clock in | the afternoon her hull was broken into three pieces, and before evening all that remained was | loose, floatable fittings. Other wrecks are told of. The 8 keeper points where the good ships died. |

No. 87. — Shorthand. — For Class C and for Civil Service Senior. Time allowed : One hour and a quarter. [For Supervisors only.] Instructions to Supervisors. 1. Inform the candidates before the time for taking up this subject that a candidate may use pen or pencil as he pleases for taking notes, which should be written in a ruled note-book, but that he must transcribe those notes into longhand with pen and ink in one of the ruled foolscap books provided. 2. Inform them also that the clearness and accuracy of the shorthand notes (which must in every case be handed in together with the transcript) will be taken into account by the examiner. 3. Inform candidates that when once you have begun to dictate you cannot stop until the passage is finished. 4. Dictate the passage at the rate of 130 words a minute. N.B.—lt will be well to practise reading the passage aloud some time beforehand, looking at a watch or clock, so as to accustom yourself to reading at the exact rate indicated. The matter to be read is marked off by thick lines into sections, each of which is to occupy a minute, and also by thinner lines into smaller sections, each containing the number of words to be read in twelve seconds. As the candidates hear the passage read only once, the reader's articulation ought to be very clear, and the candidates ought to be so placed as to be able to hear well. Passage for Dictation at the Rate of 130 Words a Minute. [The passage takes 8 minutes.] The next subject I have to deal with is that of defence. The proper way in which we should try to secure the efficient defence of | our colony is by combining with the other colonies, and having a comprehensive system of imperial and colonial defence under one control. It seems to me I that in these days when guns and the methods of the defence of harbours are constantly changing, when things which are in use one year may j possibly be obsolete the next, it is highly necessary, and would be of great advantage, that we should follow such a course as he suggests, and I that we should make a larger and more worthy contribution to the cost of the navy of Great 1 Britain. When we come to consider that in | the past we have paid a very trifling, I may say a paltry, sum, and when we remember that in recent years the British navy has | called upon the inhabitants of Great Britain to increase their taxes largely for the purpose of the navy—they are now paying something like 20s. | a head of a population of forty millions for the navy alone, and we here are only going to contribute £40,000 with a population | of eight hundred thousand— to me it does seem an extraordinarily small sum for us to give. Ido trust as time goes on the people I of this colony will recognise that it is to our interest, and that we cannot too freely give 2 of our substance to help the Mother-country Jin times such as we have had recently. There seems to be a possibility that this^Russo-Japanese war may eventuate in the long-run in | European