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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIIL, Issue 301, 28 December 1878, Page 2

The following items culled from the telegrams by the last San Francisco mail are indicative of the state of afliairs that pre rails among the laboriug classes of Great Britain :— Eight thousand operatives in Blackburn who are out of employment are organising a meeting to express their indignation at the paucity of parish relict — Cleveland mine owners have ordered a 10 per cenr. reduction of wages.— The proprietors of Oldham cotton mills refuse to postpone for three months the 10 per cent, reduction, and the Clyde ship-builders threaten a lock-out unless the men agree to lower wages. Appalling distress and destitution exists among mechanics and labourers in Sheffield, iv consequence of business depression. Hundreds exists In tenements without clothing or furniture, all being sold or pawned to procure food. They are without fuel, and dependent upon the charity of neighbors. The Mayor has called a public meeting to devise measures of relief.— A Glasgow special to the New York Herald gives a talk with a workingman now on strike. He says : " The resolution of the Clyde Shipbuilders' Engineers' Association, which came into force on the 21st of October, reducing our wages not less than one and a half per cent., has been the cause of bitterness of feeling between master and men. The motto towards us has been •no mercy,' and we will give as good as we get. We number over 20,000 members in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and we have at the present moment over 200,000 dollars in our general fund. I hope we shall not see labour riots, but things look as if they were drifting that way very quietly,"— About 60 per cent of the looms and spindles iv Lancashire and Chesshire cotton districts have stopped, or are working on short time.— Agricultural labourers in Kent and Sussex threaten a general strike. The labourers declare the course of farmers is oppressive, and threaten to emigrate to the colonies. There are gcing in for a big Municipal banquet in Wanganui, at which it has been determined that each councillor shall sing a song, under the penalty of "No song, no supper." The Herald say 3 that; quiet folks living in the vicinity of the residences of councillors are disturbed by the most unearthly noises in the still hours of the night. These sounds are a sort of cross between the braying of a donkey and the squealing of a pig. It turns out that the Councillors were rehearsing for their coming vocal performances. Lord Churchill has sued the manager of a theatre for the price of two stalls which he had bought, but which be left when his wife was required to take her bonnet off and leave it in the waiting room. He demanded his money back on leaving the theatre, and not getting it, brought a suit for its recovery.