TARIFF DISCONTENT IN FRANCE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1234, 16 September 1911, Page 9

TARIFF DISCONTENT IN FRANCE.

The following message from its Paris correspondent appears in th« London "Standard":—More thaa a hundred deputies and senators attended a meeting called last night by syndicates interested in the meat trade. There were altogether two thousand peopH present, and after hearing speeches on tho damage done by the special restrictive tariffs and the.regulations against importing cattle arid meat, a h«t of resolutions was passed amidst great applause, condemning the new Customs regulations, demanding a return to the. law of 1892, and urging the encouragement of importation from tho colonies free of duty. Tho Customs Commission of tho Chamber has now decided to listen to a delegation from'the butchers' syndicates, and questions are alse promised in tho Senate immediately. On tho same subject tno Paris correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" says :— The general outcry against the high price of food is just now being directed against tho cost of meat, wlueh has nearly doubled during the last decade, and over 1000 Paris butchers have been attending a meeting of their syndicate and listening to an elaborate report drawn 'Up by its president. Among other very noteworthy, facts he showed that they paid last year more than ■in ■ IDO2 for the same number of cattlo at the Villette market alone. This sad state of affairs ho attributed not only- to the dnty en foreign 'cattle, rintrodnced in 1903, but to the fact that breeders were exporting more and mi>ro tc Germany and Switzerland. Thus in April and Slay tho Department of tho Nierre alone exported 800 oxun per week.. Then there were tho intermediaries, who made large profits for themselves. Last, and certainly not least,, there has been a considerable decrease in the/number of oxo.i and sheep bred . in France during the past 10 ycers, and this the president partly attributed to tho public-taste for veal and lamb and partly to disease among tho animals. All this is bonnd to be takej up in Parliament and also at the Hotel do Ville, if only in thh interest of tho lower classes, who do not kucw how to make- both puds m«t. What with higher rents and clearer food the workmen ar-; really i'ar worse off than they were before they, went in for strikes and won steady rises in their wages.

Speaking to Archdeacon Oakes (administrator of the Anglican Bathurst diocese), 'the Archbishop of Melbourne referred in most eulogistic terms of tho Bishop-elect of Bathurst , '(Canon Long). Ho said: "You have one of the finest preachers that ever entered a pulpit. He is equally good on the platform. Ho is a definite Churchman, but in no sense a party man." "I think," says the Archdeacon, "that thore will be only one person in Bathurst more. popular than our new bishop, and that will bo his wife."

At Yarmouth, recently a schoolboy performed the remarkable feat of dismissing six batsmen in five overs for no runs, firo men being bowled with successive balls.

A curious incident is reported from Farcet, near Peterborough, f>orthamptonshire. Tlio water in the River Neuo was low and the heat of tho sun rendered it tepid. The fish basked lazily in the stream. Suddenly tho sluice tfates were opened, and tho was an inrusli of deep, cold water, with the remarkable result tlint large numbers of the fish were instantly killed by tho sudden change, and were seen iloating dead on tho surface of tho stream.