ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 714, 5 June 1852, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

At a meeting of intending colonists, held at tne offices of the Canterbury Association, 31st December, it was announced that letters had been received from the Canterbury settlement to September-2. Lord Lyltelton said, — "The period was now approaching for the reassembling of Parliament, when there must, of course, necessarily be some important legislation about New Zealand, because the present Acts of Parliament, which regulated the condition of political affairs there expired in 1853, and therefore the Government would have to consider-' what permanent provisions should be made for the constitution of the colony. Of course it would be premature to vaticinate what the proposition of the Government would be ; but the society would endeavour to secure measures which would throw as much as possible the weight of government upon the local management on the spot. That was what the society proposed to do, and he presumed that the Government proposition would tend to the same end ; but he feared that they would not go far enough in that respect. He was sure any one who would take the trouble to peruse the Lyttelton Times, and to see the excellent business speeches made at the meetings there, would have no doubt that the colonists were quite fit to receive any amount of self-government that might be entrusted to them." (Cheers.)

A Flourishing Place. — Not four years ago Caipha was an insignificant fishing village, with a population of little more than 200 souls, and resorted to only by small Arab boats, or vessels, for protection from the inclemency of the weather, id its safe and commodious harbour. At the pre*fent day its population may be reckoned at 3000, and houses and huts cannot be constructed fast enough for the numerous new settlers (hat arrive almost doily. From the middle of September up to the middle of November, 1850, a space of on T Vy two months, no less than 8 English vessels, whose joint measurement amounted to 2300 tons, loaded at Caipha 13,000 quarters of wheat for Falmoutb and Cork alone, and besides those there were several large Greek vessels for Falraoutb and the north of Ireland. Such a sudden ■start of trade on a gigantic scale brought, numerous speculating Arabs from the surrounding villages who found it best suited their convenience to £x their permanent abode within the walls of Caipha itself. Everyone, even the most wretched and destitute, found ample employment for themselves and their families. The men and boys worked as labourers in assisting the numerous reasons employed on new buildings ; the more robust became porters and watermen ; and the women and girls were actively engaged from sunrise to sundown in sifting wheat and sessame seed at the warehouses of the merchants. Yet, notwithstanding the daily influx of strangers, readj and eager to find employment, the trade grew faster upon the tovrn than its rapi lly increasing population, so that the merchants and ships were totally at a standstill for want of hands. The natives being fully aware of the power they were thu« invested with, refused to work, except at the most exorbitant rates. Merchants were bound down by charter parties, ancLthev had no alternative left them but to agree to these rates. I have known .porters who carried sacks of wheat from, a warehouse not twenty yards from the landing place, gain as much as from 30s. to 40s. a day, a sum hardly to be gained by a month's labour at any other port . of the Mediterranean. These creatures, who a few months before had crawled about from door to door, begging a morsel of bread, to appease the cravings of hunger, grew insolent in proportion as their independence increase 1 ; and I _ have' seen Arab merchants, who were tortured out o^ their existence by the masters of thfr English" vessels consigued to their houses, actually ■ craving as a favour of these porters to carry down their grain for a sum twenty times the amount ordinarily given. ( -„.'' Possibility of Intasion by the French. — A friend of mine, a Frenchman, has often as r •aured me, with an appearance of sincerity" which proved to me that he" was himself positively convinced of the fact that a dozen French steamers could, at any time, land an airay of 20,000 men •ou our coasr. Do you really think thi3 can be done? — A k Octogenarian.— We do not deny that if is possible to do this, and if England were to be taken by this number of men merely landing on r our coa^t, we might have some cause for alarm. AW feel assured, however, that the celerity with ; which this wonderful feat must, if done at all, be perforated, would be slow compared with the " haete ttiih which such to army would try to get

ewny again. This subject is well handled in Mr. Charles Knght's " The Land we Live in," where he says : — " The news of the abdication of James II was three months reaching the Orkneys. How soon would the rail, the coach, and the steam-ship tell the bold descendants of the sea king to gird on their sword,? if a foreign foe should dare to plant his foot on British soil 1 Invasion ! It is a joke. Invasion ! Open the map of England and show the spot, from, the North Foreland to the Land's End, where an army of 100,000 men could not be gathered in four-and-iwenty* hours. Look, especially at the most accessible 1 coast where CK'ar landed his legions and Horsa' his rabble. How many hours would it require to employ the arsenals of Woolwiph upon Southampton, or Brighton, or Hastings, or Folkstone, — with a coast line uninterruptedly communicating wiih London as a common centre ? No, no, The Land we Live in, said, ' come, if you dare,' in the days before steam had remodelled its communications. The first pulsation of the electric telegraph that proclaimed a hostile fleet in the Channel would have an answering movement from the Admiralty that would make the island throb to its remotest extremities. Invade a country that could collect the sturdiest of its population upon any given. point within eight-aud-forty hours, and provide them with all the materials of war in half the same time ! The thing is too ludicrous ! The colliers of ' Northumberland could' be whirled from the north to/ the south by the fffel which their sturdy hands have brought to the surface, and they alone would be a host to sweep the aggressor from oar earth." — Maidstone Gazette.

Value of an Idea. — A Fact. — A well known and respected draper visited Paris professionally not long ago, where he saw a very tasteful cap, which took bis faucy very much. Knowing that the blonde and other materials of which it was composed only cost a few sous, he was a good deal surprised when he was asked 35 francs for the cap. Having referred repeatedly, personally and through his agent who accompanied iiim, to the trifling value of the materials as a reason for cheapening the cap, the ingenious modJst replied, — " Messieurs parlent toujours dcs materiaux ; il nest pas question ici da prix. de la yaleur de Videe; a trente-cinq francs le bonnet est tres boa marcLe pour Monsieur."