NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 13 May 1901, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

As supporting the view taken by the Premier at Hokitika the other week that British manufacturers were lagging behind, and were less anxious to meet the requirements of their customers than were America or Continental manufacturers, the Agent(Jeneral at London tells the following story ;-The colony wanted some locomotives, and ordered them in England from an eminent firm. The eminent firm said it would be happy to supp y them of a certain pattern and a certain weight. The railway authorities thereupon pointed out that the weight was too much for the bridges, lyhich were already constructed. The eminent firm said tho v were sorry, and recommended that the bridges should be rebui t. Mr Beeves vouched for the truth of this story, and added that British engineering work was still the best in the world when you can get it.”

A brief comparison of the state and condition of affairs in Britain at the commencement of this century, as e mpared with that in 1801, will give some idea of the altered Condition of affairs, and of the great advancement that has been made in the interests rf humanity. The wages that were paid then would be laughed at now. A mason received about Is 8d per day ; a wright, Is 4d; a shoemaker, Is a tailor, making up cloth in a farmer’s house, 9d and his food; an agricultural day labourer. Is 3d in summer in winter; a male farm-servant, £7 to £8 per year; and a female farmservant, about £3 10s or £4. A trifle was spared for the in those days, but the savings batik did not get a chance. As for the people, male and female, who were employed in mines and salt works, what wages could they expect? Until the last year of the eighteenth century they were serfs, attached to the works in which they toiled, liable to be transferred with the works to a new owner or master, and receiving 22s a year as the wages fixed by law. Colliers were lega'ly bound to work in the mines all their lives, and their children after them. Only in 1799 did Parliament give them their freedom. The difference in miners’ wages between 22s a year with slavery, and 8s a day with liberty is one of the notable differences between the end of the eighteenth and the end of the nineteenth century.

Again by comparison are weto judge of the liberty enjoyed in Britain with that in some other countries in Europe,—Reviewing the events of the century just closed, the Liberal Rnssian monthly, “ Yestnik Jevropy,” as an instance of the measure of freedom of speech enjoyed within the Russian Empire, points to an article in the “Moskovskya Niedomosti" dealing with “ The Press and the Censorship in Finland,” in which the Moscow paper pharisaica ly exclaims ; “ The new' Governor-General has displayed not only great forbearance, but also also a truly humane consideration and a most obliging attitude with regard to the newspaper Press of Finland. During the two years he has been at the head of the local administration only seven newspapers have been totally suppressed, '■ and about 20 more stopped for longer or shorter periods.” As a matter of fact, the Governor of Finland has suppressed 11 newspapers altogether, and 31 more for different periods of time, ranging from one to six months; but as the “ Anglo-Russian ” asks, what is to be said of a journal in whose opinion seven entire suppressions and 20 stoppages of newspapers in the cpurse of two years in a peaceful and loyal country are evidence of the forbearing, considerate, and obliging attitude of the executive power ?