Miscellaneous Extracts.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 812, 11 August 1870, Page 4

Miscellaneous Extracts.

T)?JS H. 6%% @OyJESNMBH? AJTD Uj^r 3Ssfe|v Zealand seems to be past ftp worsjt hour. last telegram from the £o.lpny announces a considerable defeat of Te sootj by the friendly natives, with the daughter ojf nineteen of his comrades and sb,e capture of 3<G)O more, —but not, unfortunately, Te Kooti's capture. What is pore extraordinary still, our own Government, alarmed by the resolute tone of the >Vw Zealand Commissioners, who did not poneeal fhejr belief that the colony had sickened of the embarrassment of a Connection with England which has for so Jong a time produced only bickerings and pavalier despatches from the Colonial jQIHee full of taunts and good wishes for fhe enemy, and declined even to recommend the acceptance of the proposed guarantee for half a million, have offered she guarantee of a million, and offered it, moreover, in courteous and even complimentary terms, referring tQ the "gallantry" displayed by the colony when cast upon jts own resources. The Commissioners ?*ill advise that this peace offering shall be accepted ; and we hope the colony, when jt understands the Bjtuatfon, will accept the advice. Fpr the offer means, as we have pointed out in another column, a good deal more than a veering round of Lord Q-ran-yijle. It means that the Government find the feeling in many of the most powerful ponstitui'iiiues against them, and that a rupture with Now Zealand, caused as in this instance it would have been caused, would probably have been their ruin finder such circumstances, those who have fought heartily in this country for the pverburthened colony have some right to express a hope that they will not have fought in vain.—Spectator.

AsCFIDEACOJf DEKISOK'S FIEST Ml 3 £ITING. —It is not easily credible, and we are quite prepared to find that we have J?e.©u under an illusion, but there seems something like reason to believe that Archdeacon Dcnison is admitting,—we wish to put it in a form as little inpredible ps may be, —some faint reflected ray oi Jhjht from sources external to his own .ecclesiastical clique into that outer chamber pf his conscience which Mr. Disraeli once happily termed the " historical conscience." We are anxious to make a guarded statement of an impression which has so little verisimilitude, and will therefore quote the sentence of tho Archdeacon's in Convocation which has suggested a possibility so fanciful. The subject of discussion was the Government Education Bill, and its yrigina! conscience clause, which the Com roitt.ee of Convocation proposed to recom mend. The A«'<-'hdeacon, in opposing, said i* he was speakug his last words on the subject, and giving his vote for the last time. He felt as if he were going to be executed —as if the platform on which he had long stood were slipping from beneath hi.- feet, and he were left swinging in the pir as a self convicted fanatic. He shoulo not divide the House, but should vottj against the motion." Surely the Arehdea con must, have meant to suggest that he pntortamed a doubt—we might almost say a serious doubt —as to his own infallibility. What a picture for a painter—" Archdeacon Hcuison's First Misgiving."—Spectator.

The Smartest Qnih in Michigan.--At Port Oneida, on -La!ke Michigan, lives, it is said, " the smartest girl in Michigan." She is a German, about seventeen years pld, and the oldest of a family of an even dozen, living in a little double log cabin on the shore of the luke. She delights in outdoor life and employment, especially boating and fishing, pnd for the last three years lias been " master " of a handsome fishing craft and set of *' gill-nets." She put* them put early in April and continues them till late in the fall. She is out ever) morning at daylight, and again in the evening, except iu the roughest weather. She takes a younger sister along with her to help draw in and set nets. She often brings in two hundred fine trout and whitebait at a haul. She dresses them, trios out the oil, and papks and sends them away to market. Her August and September catch amounted to over 300 dollars. Besides her fishing receipts she has taken over 170 dollars this season for berries, picked at odd hours by herself and sister. Hanger and hardship seems unknown to her. She wil' go out in any blow, and como in with full tails. Her white mast and blue pennon are known by the people far along the coast. Boats salute her in passing ; bpvs swing their hats in proud recognition.

The Australasian on Protection.— V. Thehorseleech bath two daughters, crying * drive, give,''' says the Bool* of Proverbs, and protectionists all over the world emulate the rapacity of the horse-leech's offspring. It was so in England and it is so in the Pnited States and in Victoria. In a weak moment the head of the present Administration, when the Chief of a former (government, surrendered his convictions as a free-trader and yielding to th,e clamor pf the least instructed portion of the comUiunifcy, consented to make protection the basis of our fiscal policy. As a matter of pourse, that concession has led to increased (demands for protection. The tariff which was to exclude British and foreign mcr chandise, to keep all the gold iu the colony, to diffuse universal prosperity, and transform Victoria into a fool's Paradise, has disappointed the expectation of its enthusiastic partisans. It bas not repealed the laws of nature. It baa not dotted the country with manufactories, covered our fountain slopes with vineyards and olive gardens, nor " scattered plenty q'er a smil u;g land." Therefore the Melbourne disciples of Colonel Sibthorpe, assembled in public meetiuing at St. Patrick's Rail, have jubisied upon"tJbc imposition of additional

#nd heavier duties. When Mr Lazy Loon experiences what he cajls ** a sinking," he has recourse to a nobbier of brandy, to remedy the inconvenience. The relief is only temporary. In fact, the stiinulant increases the evil it is intended to allay. Whereupon Mr Lazy Loon takes double the quantity of brandy, and takes it twice as often. J}y persevering in this system of counteracting the " deplorable depression" from which he suffers, he eventually succeeds in landing himself in a fit of delirium tremens, under the influence of which he cuts his throat, or puts an end to his life by hanging, drowning, or poison. Me has protected himself out of existence, just as America has protected its mercantile marine off the face of the ocean. If, on first experiencing the " sinking," Mr Lazy Loon hud gone to a respectable physician instead of to the dram shop, and had been advised to work hard, eschew stimulants, and obey the natural laws of hygiene, he might have been a prosperous and happy man. And in like manner, if every description of industry were left to start, and sustain i'self in the bracing atmosphere of healthy competition, and if shallow-minded, and short-sighted politicians would only bring their minds to believe that Good's laws are infinitely wiser and better than anything which colonial sages are capable of devising, we should not witness th<? humiliating spectacle of a room full of people looking for more protection and talking childish nonsense about an "alarming decrease in the circulating medium." There was a protectionist ooee, JEJ-Jop tell* us, who, when his bullock dray got bogged, flopped down in the mud, and implored Jupiter to extricate it for him. The an swer which the god made is still on record, and we recommend it to the attention of the friends of protection.

I A SUGGESTION TO PROTECTIONISTS. —As |i:he decree has gone forth, says the Australasian, that the tariff must be increased, and that there is no necessity for the im portation of numerous articles that now reach us from abro d, we trust we shall not be considered guiity of presumption in suggesting to the protectionist* the applica-1 tion of their principles to an article of universal consun ption —to wit, tea. We hire made a otavful calculation which leads us to the conclusion that tea might ba grown here so as to be retailed, with profit to the producer, at about half a guinea a pound ; the difference between that price and the price at which it is now sold representing the difference between the value of labor in China and Victoria A. protective duty of Ss or 9a a pound would bring up the cost of the imported article to the consumer to the required figure. In the year lSf.9, duty was paiti upon 5,175,4431bs of tea, the value ol which may be roughly estimated at half a million sterling. XUl.uk of that! We might keep half a million of money jn the country, and employ some thousands of uur pojpii ation in planting, hoeing, wateritig, gathering, sorting, drying, sifting, roasting, twisting, manipulating, artificially coloring, classifying, and packing tea if we only had au import duty of 8s or 9s a pound upon the foreign article. Why should we go on paying half a million per annum to a hordrf of ignorant underpaid pagans when our own soil and climate are admirably adapted to the growth of tea? vVhy should wo continue to " buy in tincheapest market" wiiat we can raisa at our own doors, at not more than quintuple or quadruple the price we now give fur it? Only ima ine the number of masons and slaters who would be employed in the construction of sorting, drying, roasting. and packing houses ; and wiiat brisk em p'oyraent would be afforded toirontounders in making the pans which fire ued in the various processes. We are conscious that we are borrowing arguments from the armoury of the protectionists, but we trust they will excuse us, in consideration of the practical direction which we are giving to their efforts. To be sure, the consumers of tea in this culony might object to pay half a guinea a pound for the materials of the beverage which " amused the evening, 1 solaced the midnight, and welcomed the 'the morning" of I)r Johnston, but ali genuine protectionists will bear us out.iu assertion that they never consult the interests of the consumer, and that protection rightly interpreted, means the plunder of the many for the gain of the lew. One o? this Phases op Bush Life.; —Under the title of '■ What I saw, and what is to be seen," a roving correspondent pf the Pastoral Times contributes,; siys a contemporary, to that journal a sketch of one phase of bu-h life, as startling in its grim truthfulness as an etching by Caliot, or a picture of a rustic debauch by Jan Steen. He says; —" A shepherd is travelling with his swag on his back, and a pair of good sturdy dogs at his heels ; he has a cheque in his pocket, the emoluments perhaps of a couple of years' scraping. He cads at a public house to have his dinner; he is heartily welcomed by the landlord, and the landlady declares it was only last night she was dreaming of him; he is then asked of his welfare, where he came from, and where he is going to; next he is asked to drink, but declines; the landlady then says he must have one frpni her, that it is good, and will do him no harm ; he takes the one, his firm resolution is broken ; then he has, after a little talk, another froin the landlord, just to give him an appetite for his dinner which is now coming in; a couple of most bewitching girls now make their appearance in the bar, the tails of whose trains are yet in the next room, and the poor man thinks he is on the straight road to happiness, and that this pair of 'cherubs' are sent to conduct him tli ; thcr. He then shouts for a round, and hie cheque je change is

spoken of, but it will be given after dinner; the poor man knows no more until he finds himself on the hard boards of a verandah, and wonders where he is % he feels his ppckot—he lias neither purse nor money ; he palls his dogs, they are not to be had ; he then goes to the landlord for a solution; he is told he spent all his money, sold his dogs, made a blackguard of himself, and had to be kicked out, and if not off in a minute will be given in charge to the police. Th& landlady mns out half'dressed, shies a pewter measure at his head—calls him a contaminated scoundrel—roars out for the hostler to go and fetch the police. The poor man is again bundled out, and he leaves having uothmg but the horrors. In a few days a dead body is found; it U searched ; there is nothing in the pockets of the old clothes, and consequently never was; a word is sent to the police, but no heed is taken." Such is the process of "lambing down," which was formerly much more prevalent than it has been of late, and which licensing benches might surely du something to discourage by refusing to renew the license of any innkeeper known to be guilty of practices of this kind..