TIGHT FOR POSSESSION.

Patea Mail, Volume VI, Issue 542, 6 July 1880, Page 3

TIGHT FOR POSSESSION.

A sanguinary conflict between settlers and United States officials took place at Hingford,Visaalia County, in which seven persons were killed. The circumstances in brief arc these: The settlers were on lands claimed by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, under Congress grant. They had been, there some fifteen years, and claimed that their rights wcrc.anteccdent to those of the company. They re-

1 ' LETTERS FOR THE PEOPLE.; Although the r coloriy is passing through a period ot great .depression, which is much increased,by.superabundance of labor; in the market, and the great scarcity of cmpigment, still,,in the course of ,nur...progress from the early "days of settlement until the present time, we have weathered worse storms, and. when the outlook was even blacker than in these present days. Sixteen years ago we were labouring under quite as severe a depression as atthe present time—surplus of labor, no employment for that labor,"debt, bankruptcy, and the land depreciating in value. What shall we do with our surplus labor? Labor is virtually capital, and why let such capital bo idle ? Why not turn the labor on to the land, some will answer. Unfortunately, now that the most accessible land has been settled or appropriated, new settlers must go further back, and where the laud is heavily timbered it requires time before a return can be expected off it ; meanwhile our laboring population must exist. High wages they can no longer expect. It was far''different when the Government was the chief employer, and the wages fund was supplied from borrowed money ; now the Public Works no longer employ such largo numbers of men, and, as a necessary consequence, the price of labor must come down. When the farmer employs labor, and only realises ten shillings a day out of the land, he cannot afford eight shillings a day as wages to a laboring man . —Nelson * English Opinion on New Zealand. The Westminster Review says:—“ Affairs in New Zealand have passed to the charge of a moderate, zealous, and hard-working Ministry. Of late years Now Zealand has shown the world the groat field which colonial political life offers for individual ability in the case .of the prominent career of Bir G. Grey—a career resembling closely that of Mr Berry in Victoria. But with this tendency to delegate all to one man there exists ‘under the surface a political shrewdness somewhere among, English political masses which always is present to bring about the withdrawal of support when even a cherished minister goes too far. Sir George Grey and Mr Berry have both lost their power. Economy is the order of the day with the present Ministry. Among other measures it is proposed to tax the salaries of the Civil Service, and to withhold from them a promised increase of salary for the present. Such measures are fraught with danger, ami, in less degree have the effects of the notorious Black Wednesday in Victoria, of discrediting the lone of the profession in the Colonies. This is a serionsmatter, forinfne colonies there is no moneyed class to do confidential work at merely nominal salaries. The success in (ho floating of the new loan has given just satisfaction'} and as assisted immigration is virtnally_ a standstill, most of this money will find its way to the completion of the railway system and to other public works of a reproductive character. At present these works are ahead of the population, and when there are sufficient to make due use of these facilities an ora of groat prosperity will set in. An interesting fact for onr land reformers in England is the growing tendency among New Zealand farmers to rent instead of owning the land they till. Sufficient access to land, they argue, costs less than full-bodied possession.” RAGE FOR FLOWERS. Flowers arc all the rage in London society. It is the fashion to wear them and show them everywhere in the richest profusion. Dress and costumes arc always made up of them. Groat boqnets are fastened in tiic skirts, smaller ones at the nock, others in the head ; one costume has flowers instead of buttons arranged alone- the whole length of the dress ; while another is so designed that the body of the dress seems made up of largo leaves, out of which the head and shoulders rise like a beautiful flower. A. good idea of making tbc most of these floral decoration is to be soon in a costume of tulle, the weaicr of which appears to have-stood under a jessamine tree and to have been thickiv powdered with blossoms. But this profuse use of flowers is not confined to dress. They arc employed in all manner of ways : and most of all on the table at dinner-time. It is nothing new, of course, for each guest to have a “ specimen” glass at his elbow containing a gardenia, geranium, or choice rose ; but now the flowers are doubled—-one for tbc person to wear, the other to give to his or her neighbor*, either as a matter of encouragement to begin conversation, or as a reward for having done one’s best. In addition to this, each guest finds in front of him a gold-headed pin wherewith to fasten the boqnet into his coat. Hion, later on in the evening, the children of .the house bring in fresh flowers iu small baskets and distribute thorn generally.— Home News.