that prizes be given to the first and second pupils in each class ; also fo£ best sewer ;in each ctas3 or standard.— A vote of thanks to the Chairman., brought the meeting to a close. THe^l fpllo'wiDg~ letteri, addressed to the Manager of ' the Tuapeka Prospecting and MibfnVAsaociatioh, has beeu handed to us for publication :—" Mines Department: Welling ton, 29th November. -pSir : In further jeply to, your letter of the 21st' of October last, upon the subject of assistance, towards the. Tuapeka Prospecting and Mmmg 1 Company, 'I am now - directed to info'rjn/you' Hh&fc ifch"e> Q-j»emment' will grant a subsidy nut exceeding £150 as a final contribution in the proportion of £ for £ towards^ the actual expenditure by the Com pany-upon' labor in prospecting, and that the subsidy will be payable upon your forwarding to this, office vouchers certified by the Warden and accompanied by receipts (showing rate of, wages and* period , when the "men were em< ployed) for T the amounts paid for labor. .The vouchers should shew the amount" expended upon labor i>y the' Uompany, the subsidy ap> plied for being oue-bfalf of; this ., amount. —I have the the honorjrto^bel *&c., Ohvjer-Wake- FIELD, Under-Secretary fur Goldfields." Mb Abchibald I^O'hbes," in ,' replying to the toast of Lis^ea^th at the banquet given to Uitu at InvercargiD, said, ißlere -was one thing that had much puid^d him, and he believed it had been equally f puzzling to others : It was, Where did all the Scotchmen come from. It seemed to him tha^ s 'Qr| world was chiefly populated With Scottd&teß, yet when he^weite^ the Old' Country, it seemed just as full as ever. In Tasmania where he had been lately, he had found Scotchmen forming an jmportant part of the populaftaoj. Some of them had come out at the countryl^'expense. However, the offence committed yinv in the great'^ majority of in stances beenf nothing more than a little ex. cusable poaching. A. gentleman once asked an Irishman if there'were any GahAn the Liffey. The answer |rasMihat the water- was stiff with them. Welfc ihe~ found that most places he visited were st^ff with Scotchmen. There was one thing afibut a Scotchman that he had always noticed, and that was shyness and un obtrusive modesty. He never went to the front unless pushed by force -by the vis inertia of circumstances. 