The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 3025, 30 October 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1872.

A summary of news from Europe up to the 23rd of thus month is the first fruit of electric telegraph communication between London and Australia k Henceforth each steamer from Melbourne may be expected to bring its quota of intelligence, and thus the means are provided by which, practically, communication is rendered easier and more certain between Dunedin and Great Britain, than it was between London and Edinburgh at the beginning of this century. AVe have known even in our day, during winter, a longer delay than a week on the great postal routes at Home. In every respect this is an advantage to the Colonies. It places merchants in possession of the earliest market rates of goods, and will enable them to regulate their shipments to meet their requirements. Every political movement, every circumstance likely to affect prices, can now be known ; contracts may be made, and the best markets for produce ascertained. The telegrams published to-day, though containing many items of very little interest, illustrate this point : albeit some of them are rather confusing through one day’s news overriding that of the day or two preceding. They, however, have this advantage—they tend to shew that the fluctuation of the market is on the whole trifling, and probably the result of speculative opinion rather than the consequence of actual demand. Thus, on the 21st October, New Zealand hemp is stated to have advanced 20s to 30s a ton; but on the 23rd, a large parcel was placed at a decline of 21s: that is, in other words, the market was steady, with an upward tendency. Wool seems to be in good demand, at highly remunerative prices; but the slight decline in the value of Consols, probably caused by the anticipated rise in the rate of discount, renders a further advance not very likely, and possibly there may be a slight decline, should money become dearer. But on the whole matters look favorable to the Colony. At Home the social aspect of affairs is somewhat puzzling. The struggle between capital and labor seems general. No sooner is one strike at an end than another is announced. After the carpenters have had their turn, the colliers have theirs, and next comes a rumor that the bakers are about to •turn out. This, however, appears to have been a mistake, as they have been too wise to drive the people to the old practice of baking their own bread. The most extraordinary circumstance connected with this disorganisation of the labor market is that all these strikes are in the face of a bad harvest, which twenty years ago would have been the cause of wide-spread commercial and manufacturing distress. And noc only is the harvest reported deficient at Home, but in Kussia also, whence large imports used to bo drawn when home supplies were deficient. Nothing could more clearly demonstrate the altered state of affairs at Home than the fact that labor chooses such a time to strike for higher wages. The truth is apparent that commerce has set the idea of famine at defiance. The world is now England’s granary. Her own fields may refuse supplies, but they pour in from East, West, and South. One or two millions of money invested in grain would at one time have crippled other pursuits, and thus, through being withdrawn from investment in them, have added to

famine prices of food the aggravation of want of work. But now there is money enough to carry on all trades at once. The country can pay for food, and have wherewith to spare for investment in raw material. At the same time, the prospect of a good market for their produce dawns upon our farmers, who may fairly calculate upon having a share of the profits obtainable through supplying the necessities of the dense population of our native land. This change is duo in great part to the commercial policy of the last twenty years, and partly to the application of science to navigation. The combination of the two has been advantageous to all clas.se, but mainly to those who live by labor. It has given to them a social status to which the world has hitherto been a stranger, and the next few years will see them in a still more advanced position. The chief political feature is the confirmation of the alleged settlement of the Alabama claims. The cost is trifling compared with what might have resulted by any other mode of settlement, and it introduces a new featui’e into international law which may tend to a clear definition of the position of neutrals in any quarrel between nations. All these arrangements favor the peaceful adjustment of differences; for the heavy penalities to nations through subjects breaking international law becomes a serious tax when to pay it three shillings a head have to be levied on every man, woman} and child ifii the country;