MISCELLANEOUS.

Southland Times, Issue 1153, 25 October 1869, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

We (Pall Mall Gazette) recent!/ commented on the item of £3,368 in the Civil Service estimates for presents given by the Duke of Edinburgh in Australia and at the Cape. It will be satisfactory to the British taxpayer to learn that in other parts of the world the gifts of the English Government are somewhat less munificent. The following items appear in the Civil Service estimates, class 7 : — Cost of presents to King Masaba by commander of H.M.S. Investigator, £2 Ob. 4d. ; cost of present to King Peter for care of European cemetery at Biver Congo, 12s. Bd. It would be interesting to know what present befitting royalty could be given for 12s. Bd. The only idea that presents itself to an undiplomatic mind is that the gift must have taken the form of a second-hand dress coat, or some article from a theatrical wardrobe. Further on in the same clasthe following items are given: — Enter tainment of Prince William of Hesse on board Her Majesty's ship Fire Queen, £13 ; cost of provisions supplied to distressed Cephalonians after the earthquake at Cephalonia, £10 9s. 6d. It is again a consolation to the British taxpayer to know that the miseries of the distressed Cephalonians can be relieved for about £3 less than it costs to entertain a relation of the Boyal family at luncheon. It is fortunate that there are some CephaloniADs and King Peters interspersed amid the moreexpensive royal princes and dukes.

In a discussi m on the National Debt in the House of Commons, it was mentioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer that in the ten years from 1858 to .1868 the total had been reduced from £832,843,000 to £795,024,000. But this diminution very imperfectly represents the reduction that has actually been effected in its pressure on the country. By the increase in population the contribution required from each individual has become smaller, while, at the same time, the alteration in the value of the money from the influence of the gold supplies may be estimated to have been equal to at least ten per cent. — a circumstance which would practically take off eighty millions. It is from these conditions that the cry for efforts to be made to pay off the National Debt fails in many cases to meet with encouragement from financial authorities. The argument of the dissentients is that a surplus can be better employed in removing duties which impede the business pursuits of the community and the development of wealth than in discharging liabilities the weight of which, in the natural course of affairs, is yearly becoming less. Sir Henry Bulwer has written a life of Lord Palmerston. Most valuable assistance has just been placed in his hands by Lady Falmerston in the shape of a diary kept by her husband from the year 1827.

When is a bonnet not a bonnet? — When it becomes a lady. If you want to know whether a tree is hollow or not axe it.