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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 733, 8 November 1869, Page 3

A Valuable Vaunish foe Shoes.— U is a bad plan, says Hall's Journal of Health, to grease the upper leather of shoes for the purpose of keeping them soft. Tt rots the leather and admits dampness mors readily. It is better to make a varnish; thus—Put half a pound of gum shellac broken up into small pieces in a quart bottle or jug, cover it with alcohol, cork it tight, and put it on a saelf m a warm place; shake it well several times a day then add a piece of camphor as large as a hen's egg; shake it again, and add one ounce of lamp-black. If the alcohol is good it will be dissolved in three days ; then shake and use. If it gets too thick, add alcohol; pour out two or three teaspoonfuls in a saucer, and apply it with a small paint-bru«h. If the materials are good it will drv in about five minutes, and will be removed only by wearing it off, giving a gloss almost equal to patent leather. The advantage of this preparation over others is, it does not strike into the leather and make it hard, but remains on the surface, and yet excludes the water almost perfectly. This same preparation is admirable for harness, and does not soil when touched as lamp-blackpreparationsdo The Weights and Measures Act.—We take the following from the Evening Post, October 18 s—" The Statute Book of New Zealand is a curious volume. It contains a multiplicity of laws framed to meet particular emergencies apparently only half considered, as the said laws seem to want constant alteration. A large portion of time of every session of the Legislature is occupied with amendins acts already passed, and substituting new, or supplying defective clauses, and still much remains to be done m order to render our laws suitable to our requirements. An act to consolidate and amend the laws relating to weights and measures, is an instance of this system of defective law making. Its provisions are apparently most ample 5 it goes into all sorts of particulars; it annihilates the Winchester bushel, the Scotch ell, and the old memorial table of heaped measure; it lavs down in stringent terms what goods shall be bought and sold by troy weight, and what by avoirdupois; that all weights and measures used shall be in accordance with certain standards, but nothing m the whole act compels vendors to use weights at all. They can sell goods and call them what weight or measure they please. In proof of this it is only necessary to say that the Wellington bakers are at the present time driving their carts through the act with perfect impunity, and defrauding the public by selling light bread. Nominally they sell a loaf of the weight of two or four pounds for a certain price, and the purchaser thinks he has secured two or four pounds*of bread, but>n examination he finds that the names applied to the loaves are fictitious, that in reality they only contain what weight the baker chooses to consider it will pay him to sell for the price, leaving a margin pront. In fact, it appears as if the fluctuations ot the grain market weremavked in Wellington by the contraction and expansion of the working man's loaf. Bakers are not the only tradesmen in the world who aro extremely ready to take advantage of a rise in the market, and equally loth to give their customers the bonefit of a fall. The present anomalous state of affairs can, only be remedied by a change in the law. A law withoutpenalties attached for itsnonfulfilment is a dead letter, and most certainly the bakors will sell light bread when it suits them, unless they are deterred by the fears of punishment. Wo have an Inspector of weights and measures, receive ing a salary of £l5O a year for doing absolutely nothing. No doubt tradesmen will take good care to keep weights and measures of the required Biandard—they have no inducement to do otherwise when they need only use them if they choose. Legislation on this matter is urgently res qjr red."

£IJE NEWS BY THE SEPTEMBER 3JAJL. (Sydney Morning Herald, October 25.) if HE lijail telegram contains a long fist of items of minor importance, mid some that have a wide interest. In the mother-country the Parliamentary recess is naturally accompanied by a lull of political excitement —a state of things also partly jdue to rhe re-action consequent on ■the intense interest aroused by the last Parliamentary campaign. But though the leading men are quiet, agitators are at work preparing the material for future Parliamentary Lattles. The questions of the ballot and of the re-arrangement -of she suffrage are being discussed by those who are enthusiasts on these points, and the Irish land question seems aiming into importance as the Irish Church question is fading from vie*v. The Times, which generally feels the pulse of public opinion pi etty accuDately, has dispatched a commissioner to Ireland to write letters on the subject ; and with Mr Blight in the 'Cabinet, and after the distinct enunciation of his views, the country may perhaps look for a bill on this question which will be still more unpalatable to the House of Lords than that which they passed last session. To disestablish the great landholders may be a more disagreeable thing to them than to disestablish a Church.

Even the Land question in lie land is settled in a way satisfactory to the people, the Education question still promises to be a bone of contention. Dr Cull en threatens to withhold the sacraments from parents who send their children to the Model National schools. This is an extreme step, and seems to indicate a difference of sentiment between the clergy and the laity: for such a threat would hardly be necessary if parents were not largely disposed to patronise these schools. The circular issued by gentlemen in London interested in the colonies, and suggesting a conference on the relations between the mot her country and her dependencies, seems to Jiave given rise to a good deal of comment. The newspapers, in the lack of Parliamentary matter to occupy their attention, have been discussing what to do with the colonies, and do not seem able to find out ; and some of them, in despair of discovering any solution, seem favorable to getting rid of the difficulty bv srettiii£ rid of the colonies. 4. O O

There seems to be a pretty full of accidents and crimes, and amongst commercial disasters are chronicled the failures of two Assurance companies the Albert and European. The wreck of the Carnatic in the Red Sea will be a serious loss to the P. and 0. Company. No Australian mails were on board, a« the si earner was bound to Bombay. Considering the number of years that this company has been ab work, and the dangerous seas the vessels have had to navigate, it is to its credit to be able to boast that this 5s the first time it has ever lost a mail, and only the second time that its passengers have suffered death by shipwreck.

Squatters, and others, interested in meat-preserving, will feel particular interest in the information that a pioneer attempt has been made to phip live pattle from South America to England, nineteen bullocks hav ing been landed in good condition after a voyage of thirty-one days. Nolhing is said, however, as to the financial results of this venture. It will be noticed with satisfaction that the wool market is firm, prices being from a penny to a penny-halfpenny better than at the fjune sales. Money is still cheap, and colonial debentures command I*llll prices. The Great Eastern has left England with the submarine cable on board that is connect Aden and Bombay, and it is said that no fewer than three companies haye been formed tor the purpose of promoting telegraphy in the East. There seems to be abundant room for their labois, for the only Indo-Europpan line at present at work has been much interrupted. The wires between Bagdad and Bussorah haye not been respected by the wild inhabitants of tli-it district, and messages haye had,

to be conveyed by steamer. Our latest elates, it will be seen, are nearly a month old. The chief item of continental news is the serious illness and recovery of the Emperor Napoleon. Four physicians were in attendance on him, and Europe got somewhat alarmed People began to speculate on possibilities, and the elements of unquiet,, doubtless, showed themselves. When the Emperor was well enough again to take a drive along the Boulevards, it is that he was loudly cheered —a cheer perhaps expressive of the sense of relief at the postponement of possible calamity. Meanwhile, the great anxiety that has prevailed is as to what might happen, not only to Prance but to Europe, in case of the Emperor's decease, has strength ened the hands of who have been contending against the system of personal government ; and even those who have been content to see the supreme power lodged in the hands of one who on the whole has understood the interests of France, are anxious to see some substitute provided ready to take his place when the inevitable event does come. The relations between the Porte and the Egyptian Government are still anything but cordial. The growing importance which Egypt possesses in consequence of the Suez Canal, and the growing risk of its being detached from the Ottoman Empire, make the authorities at Constantinople jealous and suspicious; and out of the discord may at any time arise a difficulty which will open out the whole Eastern question. The (Ecumenical Council will not be quite so fully attended as was designed ; fur Rome three hundred bishops have intimated their intenof not being present. To make up for their absence, however, Dr Cummins, though not invited, has announced his intention of being present, and his wish to take part in the proceedings. The dignitaries of the Russian Church, it will be re membered, declined the invitation, and it would appear are getting up something like a rival Council. There is very little American news, the principal item being that the reciprocity treaty between the United States and Canada has again been negotiated, the American Government having, in its cooler moments, discovered that what it did in the haste of anger was injurious to its own interests, and that fie# trade with its next door neighbor is more beneficial than protection.