CHOICE EXTRACTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 243, 1 February 1877, Page 2

CHOICE EXTRACTS.

FOOD HERE AND THERE

Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper for October 22, in an article headed '' Recent Food Seizures," furnishes materials for selfgratulation to New Zealand folks, on the fact that, although good and wholesome food is in some cases dearer here, it is, at any rate, not so scarce as in the old country. The popular journal, edited by Blanchard Jerrold, tells us, however, that " John Bull is extremely obstinate, and has doggedly declined to patronise every attempt which has been made to add new articles to his cupboard, or to cook the few lie does admit in a manner that presents a minimum of waste." It appears to have become the fashion to explore the woods for new eatable and nutritious fungi, other than the ordinary varieties of mushrooms and truffles ; but the West of England yokels interrupt the gastronomic experimenters with the caution, "You manna eat them Kangaroos," such being the common name of every fungus in that part of England. More serious to the poorer people, however, is the enormous waste of cheap food, in putrid rabbits exposed for sale, condemned and destroyed by the hundred, and "thirty vans of stinking fish polluting the neighbourhood of Billingsgate, deliberately conveyed there from the Great Eastern terminus ;" the stench of which the sanitary Record declares to have been truly horrible. " It penetrated into nook and corner of the surrounding neighbourhood—a pestilence as well as a wicked waste." Lloyd's ha 3 also heard of "large quantities of poultry allowed to rot unsold—so much of the common store of the nation's food wickedly sacrificed in the midst of hungry hosts of poor citizens !" But "the fashionable poulterer loses nothing. Just as the honest customer of the credit-giving tailor pays the bill of the dishonest customer, by the tradesman's simple device of charging his trade losses among his ordinary expenses, so the purchaser of a Christmas turkey pays for the bird that ' turns ' in stock. It comes to this, that the waste of dealers in food enhances the price of the goods they sell." The remedy proposed is this : —" Poultry, fish, rabbits, vegetables, . p or wliich there is not a ready sale, should be cooked, and sold cooked. There need be no waste. In every continental city the poor and the well-to-do can buy good cooked food at any moment. The poulterer, should become a votisseur also. In Venice the people buy nearly all their vegetables at the greengrocer's ready cooked. The poor assemble round enormous cauldrons, into wliich the fishermen cast basketfuls of fish, retailing it all day long. In any continental city you can obtain a well-

cooked dinner in half-arijhour. If an Unexpected friend drops in Paris, yon send out for a which you will obtain in perfection, together with prepared spinach, or artichokes, or potatoes, at a reasonable rate. The poulterer and the greengrocer have no waste to cover with profits to be made out of you.

Observe, again, the economy a "cooked" department in our popular markets would be to the poor. In the summer it would save them fire ; in the winter it would give warmth to those whose grates were empty. If the tons upon tons of fish, which are occasionally wasted at our fishing ports, could be cast into boilers and brought up to London boiled or pickled, the land would lose some valuable manure; but the starvelings of our great cities would feast often where they now fast. At any rate we do hold that in this country, where food is dear, and the hosts living just outside pauperism are immense, we are one and all bound to do all that in us lies to prevent the waste of "a, single red herring." Food is much dearer here than it ought to be, especially bread, partly owing to a protective import duty on one of our greatest exports, grain, and on its produce, flour. Fuel is shamefully dearer here than it ought to be ; there is plenty of good coal in the country, accessible by our present railways, or easily ta be made so by short cheap branch lines and tramways ; but the imported article remains protected by the excessive cost of haulage and terminal charges, which keeps our inland minerals out of the market. We have no "immense hosts living just outside pauperism " here ; but we have plenty to whom a considerable saving in the prices of food and fuel is a most desirable object, as enabling them sooner lo lay by from their earnings enough to buy some "land of their own." Much, food is wasted here. We read in a Wellington paper a year or two ago, a description of the wilful throwing of half a. ton of stale fish into the harbour at dawn of day, which the greedy fisherman had allowed to become unsaleable, because he would not sell it the day before at less than about a sl.illinga pound; and the reporter who -witnessed the criminal waste is now by our side. Fisi* Sse smoked, or salted, as well as cooked for sale ; not an ounce that is fit to eat should be washed. Fuel should be made cheap ; markets instituted, with penalties for destruction of food ; the taxes taken off the necessaries of life, and property, landed or not, made to pay its fair share of the cost of Government instead. But, unfortunately, " public opinion" is very loth to be organised into action ; and however justly individuals in this "free" country may grumble at home or in small assemblies over the unnecessary cost of living, when it comes to an election the masses are almost invariably cajoled or controlled by the rich graspers of cheap land, and the greedy -vendors of dear food. And these make our laws, in their own favor. —N.Z. Lie. Vic. Gazette. THE CLAIMANT AT DARTMOOR. The Birmingham Gazette furnishes these particulai's : —" The convict rises every morning at five o'clock. He then has to dress himself, clean his cell, get his breakfast, wash up the utensils employed therein, and then be in readiness ( for chapel at a quarter to seven. The service is brief, lasting only about fifteen minutes ; and, should the weather permit, at its conclusion the prisoner is taken out for parade. Before commencing his day's labor, which he is supposed to enter upon at half-past seven, he has, like his fellowconvicts, to undergo the operation of searching. We should state that his daily task is to work a sewing-machine, at which he has beceme quite an adept. After working three-quarters of an hour, he is allowed a quarter of an hour's rest. At the termination of this respite, he is summoned to dinner, and confined in his cell till one o'clock. Previous to resuming his task, he is again searched, and

then works the machine entrusted to him till ten minutes past five. His day's employment is then at an end ; he is escorted to his cell, served with tea, and, at a 'quarter to eight on week nights and an hour earlier on Sundays, he retires to rest. The only privilege he enjoys over other convicts is an extra allowance of a quarter of a pound of bread a day and an ounce of meat daily, and this concession is said to be allowed at the special direction of the doctor. On Monday he dines upon beef, on Tuesday soup, Wednesday mutton, Thursday pudding, Friday soup, Saturday beef, and Sunday cheese. This stern dietary has naturally brought the claimant a little nearer to Sir John ridge's idea of the real Roger. % s; knickerbockers have had to be alte«& V) y','

«m >st tiiß«s r and some significance may fteatliaehed to- the fact thai; he is redacett in girth abont IT inches*! Yet his general health ia said to be good, itthough he begins to assume a careworn and haggard appearance. He is uniformly courteous and obedient to the prison officials, and from six to eight marks per day for good conduct fall to his share. By reason vt hia exemplary behaviour ho has tafcety been promoted, and is now what is tcrrned a second-class prisoner. Should fie continue to conform to the prison discipline, and conduct himself as heretofore, his sentence wilt be reduced three months in every year, so that the entire terra of fourteen years will be at an end in about nine years and eleven months." More recent advices, however, have informed the public that, by some misconduct, the nature of which is not disclosed, he has since forfeited tliis reduction, and has to recommence better or undergo the original term.