230 



THE POPULAB EDUCATOR. 



speaking, the Inland Eevenue department is charged with the 

 collection of all internal taxes, as income tax, legacy duty, and 

 assessed taxes. It regulates the administration of the excise 

 laws, provides stamps of all kinds, licences, public conveyances, 

 collects legacy duty, and discharges the detailed duties of a 

 great fiscal department. There are several departments in 

 which a large number of clerks are employed the offices of the 

 secretary, the solicitor, the accountant and controller- general, 

 the statistical department, and the long room, being the most 

 important. Altogether nearly 500 clerks are employed in the 

 office of the Inland Eevenue. Salaries vary according to the 

 department in which the clerk is placed ; but may be generally 

 stated as Lower Division clerks, 80 to 250 ; Upper Division 

 clerks, 100 to 550 ; principal clerks, 520 to 700. 



Candidates for the appointment of assistant of excise must 

 be between the ages of 19 and 22, unmarried. They will be 

 examined in handwriting, orthography, arithmetic (to vulgar and 

 decimal fractions), and English composition. Failing in any of 

 these subjects, the candidates will not be eligible. The follow- 

 ing are optional subjects, namely : higher arithmetic, including 

 mensuration, square and cube root ; and geography, especially 

 that of the British Isles. Each candidate must pay an entrance 

 fee of 1. 



3. POST OFFICE. (Open Competition.) 

 The chief office is in St. Martin's-le-Grand, in the City. The 

 functions of this office need not be described, for the daily and 

 hourly discharge of them must have made them familiar lo all. 

 It is sufficient to say, generally, that the duties of the office 

 include the carrying on the vast detail of postal administration, 

 both for home and foreign service, in making all necessary 

 arrangements for the transport of mails, and in seeing that 

 mail contracts are properly carried out. To these important 

 duties are added the management of the telegraphs and a large 

 amount of money order and savings bank business. Clerks in 

 the secretary's office must pass the first-class examination, as 

 described by us in a previous paper. 



It scarcely comes within the scope of these papers to give 

 information respecting the employment of boys as clerks and 

 newspaper and telegraph messengers in the Post Office ; but 

 we may say that they must be between 13 and 16 years of age ; 

 that boy clerks, of whom there are a considerable number in 

 the Savings Bank and other departments, must pass an exami- 

 nation in copying and writing from dictation, geography, and 

 arithmetic as far as practice. They receive from 30 to 50 a 

 year. Boy newspaper sorters and telegraph messengers must 

 be between the ages of 13 and 16, and pass an elementary 

 examination ; they are paid from 6s. to 12s. per week. Full 

 information respecting these situations can be obtained at the 

 office of the Civil Service Commissioners, Cannon Eow, West- 

 minster. 



Telegraph Clerks. Since the management of the telegraphs 

 has been undertaken by the Post Office, a great number of 

 appointments, both of male and female operators, have been 

 made. This department offers interesting and fairly remunera- 

 tive employment to well-educated and intelligent young men 

 and women. The age for appointment is between 14 and 20; 

 and candidates should address applications, accompanied by 

 testimonials as to character and ability, to the private secretary 

 of the Postmaster-General, at the chief office, St. Martin's-le- 

 Grand. When vacancies occur, candidates who appear to be 

 eligible receive notice to attend for the purpose of undergoing 

 a test examination in elementary knowledge. Having passed 

 this and it is of a very easy character the applicants are 

 sent to the School of Telegraphy, where they are instructed in 

 the management of the telegraphic apparatus. They remain 

 there two or three months, but receive no remuneration until 

 appointed to clerkships. On the male staff there are 262 first- 

 class telegraphists, from 110 to 140, and 904 second-class tele- 

 graphists, 12s. a week to 100. On the female staff there are 

 196 first-class telegraphists, 21s. to 34s. a week, and 474 second- 

 class telegraphists, 10s. to 27s. We may add that acquaintance 

 with French, German, or any other European language, is a 

 recommendation for promotion ; and that in no department of 

 the service is general intelligence more valuable. 



4. FRIENDLY SOCIETIES' REGISTRY. (Nomination.) 

 This was called into existence by the 18 and 19 Victoria, c. 



63, which provided for the regulation of benefit clubs and other 

 friendly societies. The office staff includes 1 chief clerk, 400 

 to ,500 ; 2 clerks, 180 to 300 ; 4 copying clerks, 80 to 

 J200; 2 ditto (Lower Division). ,80 to 200. The patronage 

 rests with the Home Secretary. 



LESSONS IN GEOLOGY. XIII. 



THE METAMORPHIC SYSTEM. 



THE lowest of the systems enumerated in the eleventh lesson 

 was the " Metamouphic System." That classification arranged 

 the stratified rocks, but this system has many material differ- 

 ences from the rest of the strata which owe their existence to 

 aqueous action. In the first place, the appearance of the mem- 

 bers of this system is eminently crystalline. In many of them 

 the lines of stratification have been almost or altogether oblite- 

 rated, and this has been the result of some action which per- 

 mitted a re-arrangement of particles, and completely metamor- 

 phosed the rocks which were submitted to its power. Hence 

 they are termed " metamorphic rocks." No signs of organic 

 remains have as yet been discovered, nor can this be a matter 

 of surprise, for a re-arrangement of particles would readily 

 obliterate any fossil remains. 



Of course, it is quite possible that these rocks never con- 

 tained fossils, that the epoch of their deposition was previous 

 to the creation of animal or vegetable life on the earth. By 

 those who hold this belief the metamorphic period is said to be 

 azoic (destitute of life). Others, who think that the signs of life 

 have been obliterated or perhaps not yet discovered, prefer the 

 term hypozoic (below life). Such a term does not commit them 

 to any conclusion, but simply asserts that as yet these rocks 

 have not afforded evidences of life existing at the time of their 

 deposition, but that it is quite possible that such life may have 

 existed. 



As might be anticipated, the metamorphic action has not been 

 carried to the same extent in all rocks, just as in the case of 

 fossilisation the whole of the original matter of the organic 

 body may have been replaced, or the process may only have 

 partially proceeded. Hence Professor Jukes divided metamor- 

 phic rocks into two classes : (1.) Those in which the original 

 structure is still apparent. (2.) Those in which it is obscured, 

 or quite obliterated. 



In this, as in every system, the three great kinds of rock are 

 represented 



Arenaceous . . Quartzito or Quartz rock. 



Argillaceous . . Clay Slate. 



Calcareous . . . Crystalline Limestone, Marble, etc. 



These rocks belong to the first of the above divisions, while 

 tcliists and gneiss form the other class, in some specimens of 

 which there is no appearance of stratification whatever. 



In speaking of various kinds of rocks, it is quite impossible 



io describe them so accurately as to give the reader the power 

 of at once pronouncing upon a specimen he has never seen be- 



'ore. Geological museums are now so numerous, and so readily 

 accessible, that well-nigh every one can see specimens of the 

 various rocks whose main characteristics we touch upon, and 

 such practical examination will do more for the young geologist 



than chapters of description. 

 Gneiss is the most prominent of the metamorphic group. It 



icntains the constituents of granite quartz, feldspar, and mica. 



But these minerals are not congregated in gneiss as they are in 

 _ranite. In the latter rock they appear distinct and in good- 

 sized crystals, but thoroughly mixed ; whereas in gneiss they 

 are in small particles, and are arranged in layers, the mica being 

 separated from the quartz and the feldspar from each. These 



ayers are very thin, and the rock readily separates or foliates 

 along the juncture of the layers. This naturally led to the 

 supposition that gneiss was degraded granite: the action of 

 water had worn down the granite, and its particles had been re- 

 distributed ; falling according to their gravities, the same mine- 

 ral would arrive at the bottom at the same time, whereas any 

 alteration in the strength of the current would alter this, and 

 cause to be deposited another of the three constituents of the 

 original rock, so forming several layers of quartz, feldspar, and 

 mica. In process of time, this stratified rock became subject 

 to the influence of heat, which aided the crystallisation of the 

 minerals, and gave to the rock that indurated appearance which 



