The Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1874.

Evening Star, Issue 3669, 25 November 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1874.

The ‘ London Mail ’ of September 11th contains a letter from the ‘ TimeaV reporter on farm laborers’ cottages in England, that strikingly illustrates the condition of that important section of the people, and should be a lesson to us in the Colonies to avoid those social arrangements that have for a thousand years kept so many of our fellow creatures in a state of discomfort that no farmer would allow his horses to be subjected to. The letter is too long for insertion, and has been written to show the nature of the evils that have led to this degradation. The district spoken of is a village near Ipswich. Three cottages are described, having each only one bedroom, in one of which a solitary old man lived ; in another, a woman with four children, the eldest thirteen years old \ and in the third, a widow with a grown-up son. The widow’s cottage was “ shored up” to keep it from falling ; a rent in the brick-work was made up with a few hurdles, furze bushes, and clay, and in other places sacking was hung to keep out the wind; the rain streamed into the bedroom, and pails were set near the beds to catch the water as it poured through ; the stack of chimneys tottered in the wind. In that wretched place the widow had lived forty-four years, and brought up six children. The old woman was brewing the son’s harvest beer when the ‘ Times’s ’ reporter visited her, “ his harvest money being £B, with three bushels of malt and three pounds of flops,” In ' the next parish there were four cottages in which families lived, with but one bedroom each. The rain went through the roof into the pantry of most of the houses. The well was dry, but there was a running stream not far distant. The dryness was therefore secondary to the condition of the well itself, which was in so ruinous a state that the “ sides were tumbling in,” the lid was rotten and scarcely covered the mouth, so that it was “ a miracle ” none of the children had fallen into it. Those cottages were on the estate of “the largest landowner in Suffolk.” The rent of the first batch of cottages we understand to have been paid to the farmer on whose farm they stood, and of the second, for which a shilling a week was changed, to the landlord’s agent. “On Lord Leicester’s estate, in Norfolk, the pottages are let direct to the laborers, on the nomination of the farmers who employ them j” on Sir Edward Kerrison’s estate cottages are let directly to the laborers, and “ a register of their families enables the agent to check aver-erowding and adapt the family to •the house and the house to the family.” The reporter absence of any intermediate tetianey rightly throws : upon the actual landlord the respojjsi- ; bility of seeing that his cottages are ! in habitable condition, and do not become, through want of proper bed-room accommodation, the means of lowering the self-respect and corrupting the unorals of their inmates.”

Such is the picture drawn of the mode of dealing with English agricultural laborers : such is the condition qf life that has grown up under England's land system. It is evident that whether the rural population are cared for or not depends upon the character of the landlord. The * TimesV correspondent speaks of the landlord's ((responsibility,” and seems to infer that he is to some extent relieved from it when he remits a portion of his duties to a tenant; but this, in our minds, is only shirking them. Three different systems are described in what we have quoted:—First, a plan by which the farmer is made the middle man between landlord and laborer ; he pays rent for his farm and farm cottages, and charges rent to the tenants. Secondly, the farmer names the cottage tenant, but does not receive the rent. And lastly,; the cottage tenant is selected by the landlord himself, without reference to the will of the farmer. Nothing can show more fully the abject condition of England's peasantry in the purely farming districts. Of the three, the last is to be preferred, for the greater the distance between tenant and landlord the less chance there is of suffering from favoritism or cabal: but when one speaks of England’s freedom, the agricultural laborer should never be included in the idea. He has privileges above his servile forefathers, but is still, in most respects, a serf. The true condition cf Great Britain is this : the land is divided amongst a number of chieftains, each of whom is virtually absolute in his own territory. The Central Government prescribes general laws to enforce morality, but allows tire territorial chief, for his own profit, to house those who are called its subjects, but who are really his dependents, in such a manner as to induce the crimes for which it decrees punishment. Nor is there any prospect of relief for them. The territorial chiefs have the construction and carrying out of the laws. In their hands is the power of saying who may and who may not live upon their estates j for how many or how few shelter shall be provided. If a Government interfered to the same extent with social arrangements as they do, the country would ring from end to end with indignation : political theorists would talk big about the rights of property, forgetting that while

those “rights” are conventional, the men affected by them have natural, though unrecognised rights. We had a specimen of this moral and intellectual squint here when private enterprise, not being equal to providing cottages for immigrants, tbe Provincial Government, timidly, but in strict fulfilment of its duty, proposed to aid it. We sadly fear, from up-country accounts, that no improvement will be found in Otago. Our farmers are not remarkable for providing house accommodation for laborers. Bad as their lodgings are at Home, they are in many cases equally bad here, and would be worse, were it not that our climate renders dwelling in cents endurable ; and land does not fetch such a high rent as to lead to refusing to allow them to dwell in tents. Squatters do house their shepherds decently, but their dwellings are few and far between. Our social state is young. We are at that stage of national existence at which it is possible to take a direction for good or evil. It is hardly likely that those trained in Home ideas can shake them off on their voyage hither, and there are many who are interested in thrusting us into the old groove, and reproducing another landlord-ruled Britain. It depends upon the people themselves whether this shall be sp, or not. They have power over legislation denied to the masses,at Home, and if fetters are placed upon them, which have produced such sad results there, it must be by their own consent. The power of landlordism in England is hedged round by the law of primogeniture, and the special privileges claimed for what is termed “property” in land. Our land legislation has a like tendency.

After we went to press last evening William Hall, of Bristol House, ; was fined LSO and cost, for sly grdg selling, by Mr Bathgate.

At the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Port Ohahoer*, this morning, John MacManmara was lined sa, or twenty-four hours’, for drunkenness. Mr Mansford, R.M., presided.

The English Opera Troupe have been again remarkably successful at Christchurch. They have been playing nightly to overflowing houses. When the “Bohemian Girl” was played, hundreds were unable to obtain adm ttance, though every effort was made to accommodate those who crowded in;

We may shortly expect a visit from a pedestrian named s. Kellie, who styles himself the champion long-distance runner of the Colony, and who backs himself to do ten miles within the hour. At Nelson, on the 9th instant, he completed the.ten miles in 55min. 28sec., or nearly five minutes less than the hour. At the Waikato, he ran the ten miles in SS^min. The following is an extract from a letter received last evening by Mr Hawkins from Mr Grace, manage-: of the Shotover Company’s mine :—“ I cannot say much to you about the ipine, as 1 am this last fortnight timbering the water-drive. lam not getting much gold’,’ as I hja s 4 tp stop blocking till I secure the ground ahead of yhgrp I am at work. 1 must secure it for fear of a break down. Tbe yield for last forfcught is 220z ISdwts 18grs.” . ~ • • The following will remind many old Victorians of former time s : —The Carandiuie have been in tbe Clarence River district, N.S. W., and a communicatien to the ‘Grafton Observer’ says: “ On*the departure of Madame Carandini and her company, by the Helen M’Gregor yesterday morning, a number of the leading youths of Grafton waited on that iady and presented her with a purse of twenty sovereigns, W a mark of their devotion and esteem.

Night trains once a-weqk are being tried as an experiment on the Watt railway, which has much sharper curves than the Port Chalmers line. The Government run these traius on Thursday evenings, but trains on other evenings, when required by the promoters of public gatherings, can be arranged for by guaranteeing a receipt of four shillings a-mile each way, which, to the Hutt, amounts to L 4. We commend the matter to the attention of the railway authorities here. It appears, although Mr Bowen has consented to join the Government, be is not a Minister. The ‘ New Zealand Times ’ questions whether he has even resigned bis Resident Magistracy, and says “ Certainly his resignation has not been received and accepted by his Excellency, or it would have been gazetted, so that we have tqAomplein of a further breach of constituifeal practice, of which much more is pertain to be heard hereafter.” Mr Bowen is expected to meet the Marquis or Normanhy on his arrival at Wellington, and will then be sworn into office.

There was quite a rush for female servants at the Immigration Barracks to day, and within half-an-hour The whole of the single twenty-five in number—were engaged, while several ladies had to go away disappointed, The following were the rates of Syages obtained ;—Domestic servauts, L 26 to L 35 per year and fougd; housekeepers, L4O; nurse girls, <ss aud 7s per week. The wages obtained ’by single men who found employment were .•—Ploughmen and shepherds, L 53 each; agricultural laborers, L 52.

During the past few weeks Nelson has received 500 immigrants, and the ‘ Colonist ’ thus refers to the circumstance : We asked for immigrants, and we got them; but a serious question arises at this juncture, and it is necessary that we should consider whether we are not going a little too far. hat is to say, are we nop importing more people than we can at the present time find employment for ? Nelson is not a very hirge place, and although there is room, perhaps, for additional inhabitants, yet there is a limit beyond which it is unsafe to go. M Nelson’s wants in the matter of population appear to have been supplied.

An Auckland telegram in the ‘Evening Post says : —Captain Babot, of the Bydaspes, intends bringing an action against the government for the loss sustained through diseased immigrants being placed -board hi* ship at Gravesend, He alleges that the immigrants pn whom scarlet fever first appeared were immigrants taken off the Douglas for Wellington, that they showed signs of disease, in consequence of which they were placed aboard tbo quarantine ship at Gravesend, and then shipped in a diseased state on the Hydaspes. It is reported that the dep6b at Gravesend is in a fearful state with all manner of disease among the immigrants awaiting ships, and consequently healthy immigrants run great risk of infectiun.

Sir James Fergusapn delivered a lecture on “Hygiene” to the Natives of estaki, whom he visited an route to Mr Foif’s homestead at Marton. He alluded to the decline of the Native race, and expressed a desire to efis it survive the f&te of mtftt aboriginal

peoples. He touched the vital point when he appealed to the ordinary laws of health as the remedy. “ I See strong men and line women and healthy children,” he remarks, “ but why should they not grow up as Well as ours 1 It is not that you are careless and neglect what is good for them. I told some of your chiefs last night that I was afraid while we give our children milk and forbid them tobacco, you let yours use tobacco, and of (Ten do not give them enough milk But you have -fine grass, and you could, every one of you feed them well. I beg of you see that your children are well nourished; give them good milk morning and wight, and try to prevent them doing what is bad for them.”

“The Streets of New York” attracted atiother very large audience to the Princes i Theatre last evening, and its repetition was, if possible, more successful than on the first occasion of its representation In connection with the fire scene we have been requested to state that the members of the brigade who took part in it gave their services gratuitously, arid with the sanction of Captain Wain, one of the main reasons for their volunteering to do so being that the production of this piece was the cause of the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, being burned down, some three years ago. There will- be no change in the programme to-night; and in consequence of the great success of the drama. Mrs Bates’s benefit has been postponed till next week. For several seasons the merchants of Canterbury, who ship large quantities of wh*at to the London market annually, made experimental shipments of flour, but in no case was the result such as to indue * a repetition of the experiment. The perishable nature of the article, and the varying degrees of temperature through which it passed during its transit to the Old Country, interfered so much with its qu dity that it seldom arrived in firit-cla-'S condition, and (says the * New Zealand Times’) exactly the some results have been experienced in regard to a shipment of about 100 tons sent Home from this port in the Douglas last year. When taken out of the ship in the London docks the flour was as “dry as a bone,” * ut through some process which evidently could not be counteracted, the cont,en*s of*each sack were like a block of chalk, Flour, under these circumstances, is not a success as an article of export. The remainin' cargo by the Douglas turned out in splen lid condition. An inquest was held at Frankton Flat, touching the death of William McAllister, a flue boy three years of age, who was found drowned in the Shortburn Creek, Half-way Bay. The evidence went to show that on the Friday (the 13th) evening deceased and his elder sister were playing in the neighborhood of the creek, which is only about a stone’s throw from Mr M‘Allister’s house ; that the sister went home leaving him near the creek, and soon afterwards he was missing ; that an ineffectual search was made the same evening along the creek down to its debouchure with the lake; that it was then flooded, owing to melting of snow on the ranges ; that next morning, when the flood had subsided, the search was renewed, and after cutting away a great portion of a large bush overhanging the creek, a few yards below where deceased must have fallen in, the body was discovered immersed under water aud suspended or caught by the bush—the stream at this place being some five or six feet deep. The jury returned a verdict that deceased was accidentally drowned. The * New Zealand Herald ’ complains that the immigration agents at Home are not acting with strict impartiality to the Provinces. For instance, while only one organ-grinder has been sent to Auckland, two have been forwarded to We’lirgton by the Douglas. Otago has been furnished with six professional pickpockets, lyhile, a,s a set-off by way of compensation, we’ have ohly received four French dancegirls. Christchurch can show two street acrobats, \yhi)e at jbhe late gathering at the Agricultural Show and’ Snorts, Auckland was only able to produce among its immigrant new arrivals one enterprising man with an “ Aunt tSally,” and even this was bub an indifferent specimen. Our con temporary suggests that the Department should now turn its attention to sending out a supply of Italian boys with white mice, a few Whitechapel coste> mongers, some walking stilt girls, and an assortment of Derby j and Doncaster race-coni se gentry, who will teaeji the Colonial youth something new in “under and oVer seven,” “three throws a penny,” and “ ringing $hQ peg.” The Registrar-General's report on the vital statistics of the principal towns of the Colony for October has reached us. The total number of births was 294. Dunedin, with a population of 18,499, contributed eightysix to that number; and Wellington, which has 2,228 fewer people than Auckland, contributes fifty-five, while the latter only gives !|fty-£our; and Christchurch, with 10,294 people, not fpofe than fifty births in the month- At the Thames, with 8,078 people, there were only seventeen} at Nelson twentytwo, with 5,662 of a population j r and at Hokitika ten, with 3,952 people. The total number of deaths was 130. The highest percentage was 2‘97. in Dunedin ; but it was the unsatisfactory figure of 2'28 in Wellington, while it was 175 in Christchurch, 1-40 in Auckland, 0 90 'at the Thames, 0"89 at Hokitika, 3,nd.0 '70 in healthy Nelson. Compared with the deaths ip September, there is a small reduction ’in some glasses, but a slight increase in those ogcurrihg from local causes. The deaths from measles increased from two to nine, and all occurred in Dunedin. The deaths from influenza decreased from twelve to one. Deaths from heart disease numbered tern as against six last month. Bronchitis carried off eleven persons, the bulk being infants ; while four of the victims of that disease were from sixty- ; three =fco seventy-three years old. There were seven deaths of persons of sixty-five years o-f age and upwards:— namely, three females from seventy ’to and three males of sixty-five, sixty-seven, and seventy-six respectively j three of these deaths occurred in Dunedin, two in Christchurch, aud two in Auckland. The average temperature in the shade was highest in Auckland and Nelson, and lowest in Dunedin. The rainfall was greatest (8'99) at Hekitika, and lowest *(1.770) at Christeuurch.

We are requested to remind our readers that the .choice of seats at St. Matthews’ Church will be ballotted for this evening at 8 p.m., in the school-room adjoining tfye Church. A meeting of Licensed Victuallers, to yhom objections against their obtaining night licenses have been made, will be held at the Oriental Hotel to-morrow evening, at 8 o’clock. The members of St. Joseph’s Choir have tendered a complimentary concert to Miss Hesford, which will take place at the Temperance Hall on Friday evening. We hope to see % crowded house.