IMPORTATION UMBRELLAS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1409, 17 November 1886, Page 3

IMPORTATION UMBRELLAS.

The Pioneer is a travo snd resprnaible organ, and when it dec’ares that fi ty thousand umbrellas were imporied from England last yea", "cue of the lesstjpocu* lons provinces of India,” we may take it for ganted that the figure is exa;t enough. It Is the cool e class which demands such a large supply, and those who repeat the foolish statement that its members are mined and oppressed under our sya em should porder this evidence ’* The coolie is often seen nowadays carrying hi" own mnbrella, and puffing his own cbe*o t —not a stump of another man's ” Something must be allowed, cf course, for the dignity of the thing -A monpst our peop’e whom history can trace the nmbrslla w>s a sign of rank, as in many part? it is a ill. Englishmen had lost tha tradition ling before tha Inst-unment was re-in'roduoed as a mere convenience ; our earliest illustrations show Kings and Thants parading under this shelter, upheld by a ■lave, Jntfc as did the of five thousand years ago, or negro caboceers at the present day. Bat it is probable that the coolie has a strong motive. We are o»ed to think that the inhabitants of hot floantrlea are indifferent 'o .ho heat which oppresses onraelv s. But the have long been aware that it is *dr ro and the fact mentioned by the Pioneer is welcome testimony. fNo living thing—pot even a plant—repnires or likes the beat to which it is subjected in the Torrid Zone. Oonclusiv evidence of this truth is offered by the “warm»st” orchids, which flmrish mo it in a temperature twenty or forty degrees below that they experienced in their native olime.