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Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1715, 22 May 1886, Page 2

. An exchange says: — English papers are full of accounts of the. great trade depression m the United Kingdom, collective and individual instances of dis- r tress, meetings of unemployed, and so on. But the following paragraph we have extracted from the Standard gives, perhaps, as sinister an idea of the state of -affairs as anything that has yet appeared m print. It says: — "The two companies of Rifle Volunteers have but one officer between them, and he is a lieutenant. The others have resigned. The difficulty in' obtaining. Volunteer officers is said to arise from 'the general depressiou m the country — especially m agricultural eo.uritieB — a coiumisHion m the auxiliaryLforces entailing a greater . eSpense than the 10ns of gentlemen and commercial men .can afford m these^hard, times.' ' And ths paragraph tells 113. tjbat < m Carlisle, Penrith, Appelby, Kendal and Lancaster the large. number of unemployed has necessitated special organisation for their relief. ; It,, is many years t since distress has been so acute and wide- 1 spread. At Kendal the guardians 'have again opened relief works, and a large number of men are daily employed, at a< ■ quarry just outside the town. In West. Cumberland the number of unemployed is also very great, and special relief measures have been organised. A different phase of the question is presentedas follows: — "Mr John Knowles, of Darnhall estate, through his agent, Mr C. Gerrard, . has decided to reduce the rents from, the 2nd April. The reductions are ten per cent, on tho large hold' ings, while those of less than 50 acres have been dealt with . according to circumstances. In the latter case the re-> ductions vary from twenty-one per cent, downward."