Local news: A meeting of the Protestant Teachers Association of the county of Pontiac was held at the model school, Portage du Fort, Mr. Vaughan presiding. About twenty teachers were present and some of the residents of Portage, among whom was noticed Mayor Brabazon, who extended a hearty welcome to the visiting teachers.

The Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada at the request of the bishops, having appointed Sunday next as “the day upon which all the people of this Ecclesiastical province shall be called upon to meet in solemn service with the special object of a united acknowledgment of the power and wisdom of Almighty God and of seeking that He, in his mercy and goodness, will bring the present unhappy war to a right and lasting peace.”

The concert held in Elliott’s Hall on Wednesday evening last under the auspices of the Presbyterian congregation, ranked as one of the best entertainments of the season and, considering the numerous calls that have been made upon public patronage during the past two months, was favoured with a very good attendance.

The program was choice in every sense of the word, and the several numbers were rendered with good effect and on the whole were well received.

Robert Smiley, aged about 25 years, son of Mr. Samuel Smiley of the 5th Range, Clarendon, while engaged in the lumber woods of Washington territory, met with an instant and untimely death by a blow from a falling tree which fractured his skull. The remains reached the home of the grief-stricken family on Wednesday night last, coming by way of the C.P.R. to Haley’s Station. The friends and relatives of the deceased have the deepest sympathy of the community in their sudden and unexpected affliction.

A C.P.R. short line through Pontiac being talked about: last Wednesday’s Ottawa Citizen had the following which will be of particular interest to some of our readers: the residents of a portion of Pontiac county wish to see the grain carried through their district on its way to the ocean. As part of the scheme, it is proposed to double-track the C.P.R. line from North Bay to Carleton Place, but the Pontiac residents claim an even shorter route can be secured and at less cost to the railway company. The residents of Pontiac, Bryson and vicinity are likely to shortly make representations to the C.P.R. to build a connecting line between the main line at Government Road, 10 miles east of Pembroke to connect with the P.P.J. Railway at Wilson’s Mills, four miles west of Shawville.