General Items

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 240, 18 October 1901, Page 4

General Items

The Hank of F.ngiaiid destroys about dbO.OOU of its notes every week to replace them with freslily printed ones. One evening in each week is set apart for the making of this, expensive bonfire. The effect upon Mew South Wales may he best calculated bv the effect upon ourselves. This eolotiv sent her last year 12.091) tons of potatoes, which sold at something over .1:21,009 : they would now have to pay £12,000 duty. We sold In r 0.'.0 tons of cheese at over AiU.OOU : this would now have to pay over £14.090 duty. And always the consumer pays. Her clothing rises 25 per cent, at a bound : everything else imported increases in price cither more or less. Truly shy pays heavily for Federation, nor is it to be wondered at that our Sydney contentpories tell us that our colony should have joined the Commonwealth in order to help to solve its serious linaneial problems,— FEZ. Herald. Addressing a public meeting in Auckland in May, 1.499, the Premier said : 1 may say the ’Frisco service is the best service New Zealand has got, and the Government intends to keep it. Since Auckland lias had the monthly (’Frisco) service t do not know that anyone has the slightest idea of taking it away. All I can say is that Auckland will never lose that service so long as l am Prime Minister, or so long as 1 have a voice to lift up ill their defence. 1 wish tp remove, and 1 think I have removed, the little undercurrent that the Premier is prepared to sacrifice Auckland in the interests of Wellington.

fcjome information was given in the New South Wales Assembly the other night by the State Premier with reference to the proposed establishment of a Government clothing factory. Mr See said he had been in communication with the Tender Hoard and with the Chief Commissioner for Railways, and lie was hopeful in the next few days of reporting that arrangements had been made for the purpose of carrying on this important business under State control. He had premises in the resumed area under offer now, and lie believed it would be in every respect an advantage to the State to provide their own rcijuirements in the shape of clothing. This would put an end to the pernicious system of sweating. A report inis been received by the Minister for Public Works in New South Wales that some of the men sent to relief works in the country have been in the habit o!' indulging in gambling on Sundays and in the evenings. U is stated that at one place about fifty men and youths oongiegated regularly for the purpose of playing “ two up,” and that a number of sharpers accompany large gangs to the country for (he express purpose of taking down the inexperienced, and thus the very object of the relief work is defeated.

One hot summer's day a gentleman who was waiting lor his train at station asked a porter, who was lying on one of the scats, where the station master lived, and the porter lazily pointed to the house with his foot. The gentleman, very much struck at the man’s laziness, said : “ If you can show me a lazier action than that, my good man, I’ll give you two and six pence.” The porter, not moving an inch, replied :

j “ I’lit it in ni.v pocket. guv'noL'.” There is no doubt that the immediate efiect ot the tariff will be to close the Australian market to us. When wo say the immediate effect, we do not suppose that for the present season, or even the next, any great difference in the exports from tiffs colony will he noticeable, ft will take time, no doubt, before the Australian growers can take the place of the New Zealand exporters. Hut allowing time for this change to be made, there is no doubt that we are shut off from one very remunerative outlet for our surplus produce.' It must be borne in mind that it was only in New Souffi Wales that we have hitherto found this market. In ail the other colonies there was already a heavy duty on our chief exports, in many cases considerably aboyg,.. the duties now ' proposed.— 2.8. Herald.' ; i Mr F. ,1. Sullivan, manager of the i Otago Trawling Company, interviewed upon the Federal Tariff question, gives it as Ins opinion that, as far as fish is eoni eerned, the export trade will not he affected, nor will fishermen suffer in any degree. The prices will remain just the same, and those in the Commonwealth will have to pay the increase brought about hv the tarrili, for the simple reason that they have not gob the particular | varieties of fish in their waters that are j found in the waters along the New Zea- j land coast. The export in oysters, he I thinks, may be slightly affected, but oniv ! slightly, as the tariff(2s a hundredweight) ! is a very light one. “Finance” wants to know who is the party, or who constitute the clique which has lately been busy trying to prejudice the city mind against New Zealand and her financial position. It says: “That influences capable ot making an impression in some quarters are at work he who runs may read. We should much like to know who is ‘pulling the strings, because we should then in ail likelihood be able to account for the line taken. If this be due to umbrage because die colony has net joined the Commonwealth, we need do no more than refer the impartial to the weighty report of the local Royal Commission. Should it be a consequence‘of the radical public works policy thc-n its Opponents should come out and fight fair.”

. We are fallen now upon tbe drab days of Criticism, a grudging, thin-lipped fashion of praise, a split-sfcrawed. sublimated way of judgment. Listen to a lovely old Irish critic »n the subject of Sarah Siddons, in the Dublin -Journal, more than a hundred years ago, and acknowledge that the rascal’s beau-

tiful brogue, glorious extravagance, and ! sumptuous bulls are infinitely better reading than the criticisms of the average impassionate paragrapher of to-day. Here he is: “ Yesterday Mrs Siddons, about whom ail the world has been talking, posed her beautiful, adamantine, soft and lovely person for the first time in the Theatre Eoyal, Smock alley, in the bewitching, melting v - • D ’ — of ana antearful character of Isabella. From the repeated panegyrics in the London papers we wore taught to expect the sight of a heavenly angel, but how were we supernaturally surprised into the; most awful ioy in beholding an earthly goddess. The house was crowded witli hundreds more than it could hold (!) with thousands of admiring spectators who went away without a sight. ~ This extraordinary phenomenon of tragic excellence, this star of Melpomene, this comet of the stage, this sun of the firmament of the Muses, this moon of blank verse, this queen and princess of tears, exceeded expectations, went beyond belief and soared above all I

powers of description. She was nature itself; she is the most exquisite work of art: in short, she was the bouquet of Parnassus. Several persons fainted before the curtain

went up. but w hen she came to the scene of

parting with her wedding ring, oh what a s ght was there The very orchestra, * albeit

unused to the melting mood.’ wept like hungry children. Nature sure, in one of her heauiiful moments, in one of her humane

leisure hours, in one of her smiling days, in oue of her weeping months, made this acme

of perfection. Oh, happy Hibernia ! blessed isle, what bright excellence of excellence

stands on the turf of tby fruitful earth.”