ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 128, 21 October 1846, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Repeal of the Corn Laws. —The following summary of the division on the third reading of the Bill for the repeal of the Corn Laws, from the Times of Monday, May 18th, was published as a supplement to the Australian of Sept. 29th :—: —

At last the colonial business of the session appears to be about to be begun. Mr. Charles Buller has given notice of his intention to move resolutions upon the state of the colony of New Zealand on the 21st May. In the House of Peers, Lord Lyttleton expressed on. Thursday a hope that he would be able ere the end of .the session to introduce a measure relative to the convict colony. , ' The continued inability of the Colonial Secretary to find a seat in Parliament is an apology for government resting on its oars.. And it is a delicate matter for any independent non-official member to move while government is thus hampered. It is only on rare and very extreme occasions that, a majority in Parliament can be hoped for to overcome the passive resistance of government. At the most we only look, in ordinary circumstances, r to have Ministers sufficiently pressed to teach them that they had better be moving before worse comes of it. Confident as we are in Mr. Bailer's tact,: we are therefore not inclined to augur much of promise for New Zealand, from his feeling himself compelled to take the initiative io, Mr. Gladstone's absence. It looks as if the NewZealand Company found the spirit of obstruction still strongly entrenched in the Colonial Office ; as if it had become obvious that government must remain inert. The paulo-post futurum promise of Lord Lyttleton respecting Van Diemen's Land is quite compatible 'with such a state of affairs. We are more inclined to regret than to be surprised at this. Mr. Gladstone, we believe; — 1 and-always have believed — ii anxious to do

well, and capable of doing well. Circumstances have come to our knowledge which convinces us that,- more than any of his predecessors, he has already ventured to look with his own eyes instead of slavishly continuing to peep through the spectacles presented to him by the office. But his emancipation is not complete. It was announced lately that an additional Under Secretary for the colonies was appointed to relieve Mr. Stephen from part of his labour. This is doing the work by halves ; another Under Secretary should be appointed to relieve Mr. Stephen from the Test of his labour. Never was retiring pension so well bestowed as that will be which lures Mr. Stephen out of the corner in which he has worked so much mischief. — Colonial Gazette^ May 9.

A Monster Steam Boiler. — On Thursday, about one o'clock afternoon, a huge steam boiler, drawn by no fewer than ill teen horses, passed along Argyle-street, Glasgow, on its way to the Broomielaw, for the purpose of being weighed. It is made for the works of the Glasgow Iron Company, now being erected at St. Rollox, and weighs about fourteen tons. Three such boilers are required for the same engine,which must necessarily be verypowerful, and which is also being made by the same firm, on the high pressure expansive principle. The boilers arc forty feet in length and seven feet in diameter. Some of our readers may not be aware of the way in which an article of fourteen tons is weighed. A very powerful steelyard, on the principle of cart-weighing machines, is attached to the article to be weighed. The powerful crane on the north quay acts as a fulcrum, the chain of it being attached to the centre on which the yard turns — a centre about six inches removed from the one on which the article is suspended — the crane is turned, and weights are attached to the end of the yard till equilibrium is restored. A weight of 561bs. counterbalances an article of four and a half tons weight, and consequently less than two cwt. weighed the huge boiler of 14 tons. — Scotthh Guardian.

"The Daily News." — This journal is understood to have changed its proprietary, .and it is reported that its future proprietor is to be Mr. Dilke, editor and proprietor of the Athanceum. After the Ist of June it is to be reduced in size from a double to a single sheet size, and in price from sd. to 2^d. — a bold experiment for a daily paper, with its enormous expenditure.

Penny Postage. — The annual returns, just published, show that the progress of penny postage, during the year 1845, has been much greater than at any former period. The number of letters delivered in the United Kingdom was 271|- millions, being an increase of nearly 30 millions on the year 1844. The gross revenue for the year amounted to £1,901,580, being an increase of nearly £200,000 on 1844, and nearly four-fifths of the amount under the old system. The net revenue, notwithstanding that more than £100,000 was paid to th,e railway company for work done in former years, was £775,986,beingan increase of£5O,QQO on 1844, while the London district (old twopenny) post letters have increased to such an extent, that the revenue derived from them must far exceed that which was obtained from the same class of letters before the reduction of the rates. In January of the present year, the number of letters delivered in the United Kingdom was at the rate of 303 millions per annum ; or, excluding the franks, four times the number under the old system. The money orders, since 1839, have increased about 30-fold.

Majority flellers includedj. Conservatives . . . . . . 106 jiberals . . . . . . 223 329 Minority (Tellers includedj. /onservatives . . . . . . ' 222 .liberals . . . . . . 9 ——231 Lbsent (Conservatives). . .. 46 )itto (Liberals) . . . . 40 95 ipeaker . . . . . . 1 ieats Vacant — Sudbury . . 2 658

SUMMARY OF THE DIVISION.