TEMS FROM HOME PAPERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1345, 18 September 1886, Page 2

TEMS FROM HOME PAPERS.

I* ISH LAND PURCHASE. Under the Gladstone 1-iah Land Bill some of the landlords would have received formidably large sums in the event of their wishing to sell. The Marquis of Downshire would have received £1,529,720, Sir Richard Wallace, £1,358.900; Duke of ' Leinster, £931,430; Earl Fitzwilllam, £928,880; Lord O’Neil, £893,940; and so on. The Marquis of Lansdowne would have received £630,720; and Earl Dufferin, £4.0,860 CORRUPTION IN THE WAR OFFICE. There are many provincial towns in and around which various manufacturing industries that supply necessaries to the army are located ; and every one who haa lived in these towns is aware of the common belief that nothin? can be sold to the War C ffica except by the aid of bribery. It is commonly said in aneb localities that the rejected goods of the manufacturer who will not bribe are accepted when sent la a second time b j another who is leas scrupulous. It is also said that there is quite a thriving industry which consists in buying condemned atorea at one depot, and sending them in again as new at another.— Times, July 29. GOOD EFFORTS OP TEMPERANCE. A New Orleans paper tells of a printer, who when his fel'ow-workmen went out to drink beer during working hours put in the bank the exact amount he would have spent if he had gone out to drink with them. He kept bis resolution for five years. He then examined his bank account, and found that he had on deposit 521 dollars 85 cents. In the five years be had not lost a day from 111-h»alth. Three out of five of his fellow-workmen had, in the meantime, became drunkards, ware worthless as workmen, and were discharged. The water-drinker then boogfat the printing office, went on enlarging his business, and in twenty years from the time he began to pat by his money he was worth 100,000 dollars. A NOVELTF IN PARASOLS. Tha Americans have introduce! a special novelty in parasols called f * Yum Yrnn' probably after the interesting young lady in Mr Gilbert's “Mikado,” and while it can scarcely be said that It is distinctly Japanese, it is particularly pretty. The frame is quite fiat, and the adjustment of the lining is almost a work of art. The outs : de is made of India or China silk, laid in the fine side plaitlngs from tha top to the tips cf the ribs. The «I:k, a! ready plaited, is gathered full about the top and ted with a large bow of satin r<bbon, and a full puff of the plaitei silk seta up around the stick above the ribbon with a pretty effect. The handle is of carved natural wood, and the satire structure, although strong, Is very light and easy to carry. SOCIAL ANOMALIES. England is the richest country in the world, and yet in no place will you see such concentrated squalor and splendour lying side by side as you do in London, not a stone’s throw from each other. The statistics are almost incredible. flfhen we consider the luxuries—the second necessaries of life—which are so right, so necessary, we find that they are almost entirely confined to a comparatively small upper glass. The whole wealth of tha United Kingdom has been estlmatedat6ooo m 1 ions of money, and 4800 millions fall to the upper c'asaes. Half the labor of the United Kingdom is engaged in providing, not the necessaries, but the luxuries of life. £370,000,000 goes to produce the luxuries £< r 480,000 families alone. A MUSICAL NOVELTY. One of the moat unique performances ever witnessed on an English stage was the appearance at St James’ Hall, London recently of a party of Russian singers, under the direction of a gentleman with the euphonious name of Domitri Slaviansky D’Agrenoff, who performed selections of Muscovite national music. All were in brilliant costumes, ostensibly of the sixte nth century, lot the conduct e presented a particular gorgeous appearance as he stood on a pedestal and waved his h rd in lien of an o.dl isry baton. Russians songs! resemble a form of the Church of England service happily almost obsolete. The teller slugs a phr >sa ala pars n, and the choir respond a la clerk. Some of the effects were extremely quaint and original, and the gradations of tone from a mere whisper to a thundering fortissimo, in which the tones of the basses resembled the pedal reeds of an organ, were very remarkable.