MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 449, 22 November 1875, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

The Sapphire, 14, screw corvette, Captain C. U. Murray, sailed last monih for the Australian station. At the trial of her machinery the speed averaged 11.33 knots. On the 18th ult a telegram from Melbourne told us of the arrival there of the Pearl and the recovery of the men wounded by the natives at Santa Cruz. Captain Anthony Riley Hoskins, who has been appointed to the Australian command as commodore, the Admiralty being apparently determined not to make it an admiral’s post, has been 33 yea:s in the navy. He has served at the Cape, and on the west coast of Africa, and commanded the Blaney gunboat on the China station, the Hecate, and subsequently the Plumper, in the Pacific, the Eclipse, on the North American and West Indian stations, and in 1873 was appointed to the Sultan, in the channel squadron, which he exchanged for the Hector this year. He has seen plenty of service. The Archbishop of Canterbury, when reopening a church at Maidstone this week, alluded to the great amount of work he was called upon to perform, and the demands now made upon his time by the colonial churches. He said also :—“ Every colony is now as it were independent, and yet it is not independent, in the des re, perhaps more than ever, to unite itself with the centre from which its life proceeds at home ; and every colonial church, forming itself a distinct organisation of its own, still is most anxious, and I am thankful that it should be so, to maintain its connection with the Church of England at home.”

The Explorateur has been giving an account of French Guiana, which it alleges rivals the plains of California with respect to the production of gold. It appears that a company obtained a grant on the banks of the Apponagus in 1862, but the want of labour proved an obstacle. Borne Americans in 1872 started to investigate the statements made about the mines, and appear to have been satisfied with what they ascertained. Hitherto, the men at work have had no experience in gold mining, but now it is thought the new blood will prove the country thoroughly. The mines lie in a mountainous country, where drinking water abounds. It is sheltered from the winds of the marshy plains, which engender colds and fevers in the rainy season. Mr Edmund Gosse, of the library of the British Museum, has been appointed “ Translator” to the Board of Trade, Mr Gosse has been a “Junior Assistant” in the department of printed books for many years.

The Government Resident in the Northern Territory sailed up the Adelaide River in the Flying Cloud, in July, for a distance of sixty-five miles on an exploring expedition The Northern Territory Gazette states that, owing to the absence of good landmarks, the navigation of the mouth of the river is somewhat difficult. For some distance from its mouth the river is lined on both sides with the everlasting mangrove, at once giving the idea that the banks are worthless. However, in a few miles the narrows are reached, where the banks are high and open for about the fourth part of a mile. This portion of the river is much narrower than that immediately above or below it, thus causing a much stronger current than is felt elsewhere; and, owing to the presence of a rock nearly mid-channel, great care has to be taken in shooting this spot. On ascending the rigging of the cutter, a clear view could be obtained of the surrounding country. Vast plains, extending often as far as the eye could reach, were seen. The Adelaide is a tidal river as far as navigation is practicable. Wherever the party landed the soil was pronounced to be very good, and capable of rich production ; rice or maize are crops that ought to do admirably upon it. At a distance of about sixty-five miles from the entrance of the river, a large creek, on the west side —in all probability the M'Kinlay—was explored for a few miles, and a landing effected. It was seen that the country was beginning to assume a more hilly appearance, and more suitable for stock than that lower down. There is an abundance of water in numerous creeks, the water in the river being perfectly fresh at ail times of tide. During the trip up the vessel was visited on different occasions by natives. The Castalia—the double ship which was invented to secure the passengers between Calais and Dover from sea sickness, or at least to reduce the danger to a minimum—seems, if we may trust “ A Resident at Calais,” who writes to yesterday’s Times, to be a real success. He says that he waited for a good stiff wind in order to test her ; that though she now and then rolled, she never pitched at all ; that no one on board of her ever thought of being sick on the passage, and yet that when the mail boat passed her in the same sea, the latter’s deck was covered with sick passengers. The writer returned to Calais by the mail boat and was very sea-sick, though as the wind had risen since his voyage across, it is possible that even in the Castalia on that day he might have suffered. While the Bessemer appears to be as yet a failure, the humbler experiment of the Castalia seems to have earned a substantial success. Mr W E. Forster made an able and elaborate speech on Friendly Societies at Otley on the occasion of a meeting of a district lodge of the Oddfellows. After criticising the condition of this society, he discussed the general effect of the Poor-law and of other applications of the principle of com pulsion to the social life of England. On these more general portions of his speech we have commented at length elsewhere. Here we may add, that while referring to the great resources and large numbers of the Order of Oddfellows, —the total capital being not much short of £4,000,000 sterling, and the total number of members not much short of half-a-raillion, —he declared that if he were a working man, he should now probably belong to the order, but that he should not have said so fifteen or twenty years ago, Some fifteen years ago he looked into the accounts of the society, and found its condition precarious, but even then he advised rather an effort at reform than an effort to replace the society by new and more cautiously managed insurance societies. The effort at reform was made ; in 1871 independent valuations of the assets of the society were not only obtained, but published ; and though the valuation showed some deficiency, the confidence in the society increased, and now it was at least on the highroad to complete safety. It was true that even now only 813 out of 31G8 Lodges showed a surplus on the valuations, and of the forty-eight Leeds Lodges only two or three showed a surplus ; but then, every year the number of Lodges which showed a jswrplus increase, and measures are yearly

taken, by diminishing the grants or increasing the subscriptions, to strengthen the position of the various Lodges. But if this be the improved condition of the strongest or the Friendly Societies, what is the position of the weaker ones ? On this aspect of the case, Mr Forster did not descant. The Spectator of September 18th says : “Though Sir Julius Vogel has been laid up at a German bath, while the present New Zealand Parliament has been holding its last session, his policy, like John Brown’s soul, has been ‘marching on’—at a rate, too, which shows that the Premier’s absence does not produce the same paralysing and bewildering effect upon his colleagues that Mr Burke described as following whenever Lord Chatham had an attack of the gout. The Agent-General of New Zealand has published a telegram received at his office this week, by which it appears that Bir Julius’s great measure to abolish the provincial system of administration has been carried by a majority of 52 to 17, on its second reading. A majority so considerable on the eve of a general election, and in the face of the formidable opposition which, as it was a one time supposed, Sir George Grey might succeed in organising, clearly shows that opinion in the colony is satisfied that the Heptarchy has done its work and had its day. The effect on the finance of the colony from the amalgamation of general and provincial revenue is considerable, and must go on increasing. Major Atkinson, who holds the office of Treasurer in Sir Julius Vogel's absence, was able, in proposing the Budget, to state that the revenue already exceeded that of last year by £185,000, and the Treasurer’s estimate by £IOB,OOO, thus showing a surplus for the year of £120,000. The financial proposals for the current year include the absorption of eight months’ provincial revenue, thus raising the revenue of the colony to £2,476,000 —a revenue greater than that of Canada before confederation, and to be classed as third, almost second, indeed, among the Australasian colonies. The estimated expenditure,including eight months’ provision for provincial services, is £2,400,000; the Government declaring it to betheir policy, after providing for all general and local loan charges, and for the Defence department, to expend £702,000 of the absorbed revenue on special provincial works. This large local expenditure is quite consistent with the views always held by the advocates of a strong central government for the colony, and pithily expressed by Major Atkinson, in a very able speech on the subject last session, when he said— ‘ Provincial Government is not local government ; it never has been local government, and never will be.” But it is somewhat surprising that such views have gained ground so rapidly, and under such circumstances.” The French Home Minister has recommended his subordinates to sign their names legibly. The signature of a Frenchman, even when not surrounded with the orthodox walls of Troy curved lines, would require Mr Smith, of the British Museum, to decipher. Language, it is said, was made to conceal thought, penmanship (in France), letters. M. Egger, the eminent Greek scholar, states that nearly 2000 years ago a minister under Ptolemy gave similar directions to his employers to write legibly. The Egyptian papyri are well written in the body, but the marginal notes tend to drive paleographers mad. Sydney Smith avowed he could never decipher his handwriting after twenty-four hours. Victor Hugo is more screamy than ever. In declining to attend “the Congress of the League of Peace and Liberty,” he renews the expression of his fear that peace must be postponed. “ What France wants to make, is Europe. To make Germany, is to construct the Empire, that is to say, night. To make Europe, is to give birth to democracy, that is to say, light. Between the two worlds—the one gloomy, the other radiant ; the one false, the other true—the choice of the future, be assured, is made.” Again “To speak of an alliance of Kings is to speak of an alliance of vultures. This fratricidal fraternity will come to an end, and to the Europe of Coalition Kings will succeed the Europe of United Peoples. To-day ? No. Tomorrow? Yes. Let us, then, have faith, and await the future. No peace till then.” Probably nothing does more to cool the always vehement European interest in France than these incoherent shrieks about “light” and “night,” and “vultures” and “ peoples,”—which are only the more vexatious, that no one can deny the extraordinary genius of the man who utters them, though no one could infer it from these excruciating pictures of France as an extatica, and Germany as a fiend, falling into cataleptic postures, and answering excited interrogations in monosyllabic exclamations. Never before was a really great genius so far from sane, so wanting in lucidity of judgment, as Victor Hugo’s.