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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 120, 20 May 1873, Page 4

An Appalling Fact. — Statistical returns show that there are iu France at the present time 1,967,797 widows. Tbe Thames Advertiser suggests that as " the Agent-General appears utterly unable, to get the colony out of the hand of Shaw, Savill, & Co,, whilst a clearheaded man of business would probably find little difficulty in doing bo, the Government should take advantage of Mr Russell's visit to ;f England, nnd give him authority to deal with Shaw, Savill, & Co. We believe he would come off successful.--' Our readers have read of the repulse of the Dutch troops in Sumatra in the telegrams, without being aware of the war in which they are engaged. The following paragraph from the New Zealand Herald will, therefore, be acceptable : -—The Dutch troops appear to have sustained a disastrous repulse at Acheen, a fortified town in Sumatra. This town is the capital of an independent State of the same name in the north of Sumatra, and bas a population of about 200,000 inhabitants. Acheen ia under an hereditary sovereign, who is a despotic ruler. The Acheenese are described as taller, stouter, and darker colored than the rest of the inhabitants of Sumatra. They are also more advanced in civilisation, and carry on a flourishing trade with Hindustan, from which they obtain cotton goods in exchange for gold dust, jewels, sapan wood, and spicee. They are also expert fishermen, and possess a multitude of fishing boats. Tlie Dutch having recently concluded a treaty with England, under which they ceded their West African possessions to Great Britain in return for the exclusive right of establishing their power in Sumatra, have set about pushing their conquests there. They first established themselves in tbe island in 1666; and the English established themselves also at Bencoolen two years later; but this presidency with Fort Marlborough was ceded to the Dutch in 1825 for Malacca. The Dutch now hold six Governments in Sumatra,- the native population subject to their rule being over two millions, their territory covering an area of 140,263 square miles, Tbere are five independent States io the island; but the Dutch appear determined to secure the sovereignty over al!. Although directly under the Equator, the " thermometer ranges on the plains of Sumatra from 70 deg. at sunrise, to 85 deg. in the hottest part of the day. It contains lofty ranges, some of ihe peaks of which reach an ) altitude of more than 12,000 feet. The/ plains skirting the mountains consist of/ the most fertile soil. Every kind bs tropical produce flourishes. Gold, irom copper, and tin abound. Sumatra has am ancient fame for its gold. The native population is about 4,500,000. It is clecr that the Dutch made a good bargain with England. We should regret if such a magnificent country were closed to tl e commerce of the world, through the exclusive policy of the Dutch Departmei t of the Indies. I Mr Augustus Weiser, boot dealei, and insolvent, appears to have taken timp by the forelock and something else ap well, seeing that he has left his creditor! in the lurch, and carried off a Mrs Bennett! together with £400, the property of hisl creditors. Mr Weiser and the fair partner! of his flight are enjoying the balmy' atmosphere of New Zealand, and his creditors will have to whistle very loudly before they have him back. How MiBennett feels we cannot say, but we should imagine he would much rather prefer that his errant spouse remained out of his sight for the rest of her natural life, and for ever after, — Toxon and Country. We (Spectator) have often asked why the English people fixed upon 5 per cent, as the national rate of interest, the just rental for money, than which any higher demand was extortionate aud wrong, and have at last found an answer, at least] apparently good. It will, we believe, be/ found that for many years before and/ after the passing of the great Usury/ Btatute (1714) land yielded on the averi age about 5 per cent. The landlords who then ruled the Houses thought, therefore, that five was the proper maximum rate of interest, it being highly improper that money, which, as they were accustomed to say, " could neither beget nor breedf, " should yield more than land, which /in the nature of things was anually productive..- It is a curious fact, known) to most journalists, though to few of (the public, that this theory is still entertained by men able to spend money and time on phamplets in its defence ; and that there ore some hundreds of men in London who hold the demand for large interest, irrespective of all controlling circumstances; morally as wicked as theft. Their ground when hard pushed is always twofold, — - that money cannot breed, which is a mere

misstatement of terms ; and that Moses prohibited usury, which he did not do, except within the nation he desired to make purely agricultural. What Shall we Eat. — We are not at all surprised to -learn that tea-drinking is unwholesome. We have lived long enough to know thnt everything that enters the mouth of man is utterly destructive to his soul aud body in the eyes of somebody else. Alcohol has no friends; from the son of Noah downward everybody has had his fling at that. Then there is tobacco. Can there be anything more profligate than to smoke a cigar ? Why three drops of nicotine will kill a dog. The vegetarians tell us that nothing can be so unwholesome as beefsteak, and that nature intended us to live exclusively upon marmalade, and almonds, and raisins. Then the BautiugUes lift up their voices against farinaceous food, and pronounce a mealy potato the sin for which there is no forgiveneEP. Peas and beans are indigestible, No man who values his life will oat a carrot. Oatmeal produces skin diseases. Everything that is sour is bad, and the sugar that we use to sweeten it is bad also. No constitution can long stand black coffee, and if you put cream into thecoffee then the beverage becomes bilious. Salmon is the worst thing you can eat, except, indeed, the cucumber and lobster sauce which accompany it, which, impossible, are even worse. Salt pork is bad, first, because it is salt; and secondly, because you eat egg sauca with it, for eggs are extremely unwholesome. Cheese is very unwholesome when raw, and utterly ruinous when toasted, and maccaroni and mustard. In short, if we take the opinions of separate doctors, and the sum of scientific opinion, we ought never to have been weaned. Since we were cruelly takeu from the earliest nutriment we have never tasted anything really wholesome. With the Bingle exception of milk, which very few of us like, aud scarcely any of us can get, every article of food which nature bas provided, or taught the ingenuity of man to prepare, is more or less unwholesome] and for the most part exceedingly deadly.— llaickes Bay Telegraph.