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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 233, 13 October 1879, Page 2

A special London telegram to the Post says : —The Times devotes a leading artcle to the present political crisis in Victoria. JRef erring to the despatches which have passed between the Premier and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, it compares Mr Berry's struggle with Sir Michael Hicks-Beach to > drawn battle, which is likely to be renewed, unless the Victorian people interfere at the elections The Times fears that Ale Berry, by his action, will precipitate questions demanding great self-control on the part of those dealing with them, if they are to be preserved from exciting violent passions on both sides, which cannot but be prejudicial to the conduct of 1 the business of the eclony, if not disastrous to the people at large. Not only are these bad times, of which we hear so much, by no means so bad as the bad times which our fathers had to endure, but we have compensations of which they never dreamed. Bread is cheap. From, all the granaries of the world corn poura into the English markets. Qur poor may earn scanty wages, but they have still the big loaf. Nor is it only bread that is cheaper. Bacon— and fat bacon, next to oatmeal, is the most nutritions food consumed by man — is cheaper than it has been for many years. Cheese and sugar, as well as tea, are all down in price. In meat and milk and eggs the reduction in price is considerable, h,ui not so great. Oil and coal are also, cheap; and, all round, money goes further than it did. Then, again, there is no longer the rankling sense of injustice to embitter the suffering of the poor. Household suffrage may b,aye Us faults, but it has made the householders see that there is notbiug tp be gained by noting. Together with free trade, it has enabled us to pass in profound tranquility through a very trying winter. The removal of all embargoes upon trade unions has also had a very beneficial effect. No one can now complain that the law prevents the working man from doing the best he can by combination to meud Us position. Education is extending. Sedition is unknown. Another alleviation of the suffering of bad times unknown to our fathers 13 th.c facilities which are offered for emigration. Vast territories many times the size of Great Britain have been opened up for the surplus population of our time. The cheap press and the penny postage diffuse information as to opeuings for labour, and the same agencies rob separation of half its pain. — English I'aper, A German satirioal weekly shows Lord Beaconsfield in Zululand talking with a German, and examining arms of English manufacture. "Is it possible," says the German, " that England sells guns to the Zulus whjle eho is fighting them ? " «On $b.a contrary, I my dear sir," replies E,ea,consseld, " we sell them arms first, and tljeri declare war. We have no other way of encouraging home manufactures."

During the first four months of 1879 there were io Italy 545 murders, 406 attempts to murder, 1409 assaults with serious bodily injury, 7015 assaults with slight injury. This gives a diily average of 93 armed attacks against persona. There were, besides, 472 robberies effected without employing anna, 11,329 thefta, and 1052 attempts to steal. Very remarkable is the different proportion in which these crimes fall to the share of the several provinces. Foremost stands Sicily, in which daring those four months there was a murder for every 12,000 inhabitants ; next come 3 the province of Rome, with a murder for every 13,000. In the Neapolitan district the ratio was a murder to every 16,000 ; in Sardinia, one to every 26,000 ; in Tuscany, one to every 56,000 ; in Piedmont, one to every 87,000. The condition of things in the former Austrian provinces was the most satisfactory. In Lombardy the ratio was one murder during the four months to every 109,000 inhabitants, while in the districts formerly comprised under the term Venetia the ratio bad decreased to one in eVery 122,000. J