MISCELLANEOUS

Southland Times, Issue 1590, 11 June 1872, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS

Laboeetjs' "Wages. — In Belgium the day laborer earns about Is per day, and pays about lOd a week rent for a cottage. In some parts of the kingdom the wages of the agricultural laborer reached la 8d a day, without food. "When fed by his employer, he is content with rj r e bread, potatoes, aud curds, with ■ occasionally a bit of bacon or fait meat. At his own cottage his food is still worse. The laborer in Denmark receives from 7s 6d to 9s a week, the hours of labor, being twelve. or thirteen in the summer, and while daylight lasts in the winter. When f-tfroTrmployer finds the food, the wages J may run from. 2s 6d to 5s a week. He is ; not much worse fed than the Somersetshire laborer, although wheaten bread and bacon must in themselves be more nutritious than rye bread and cold salt , pork. ' The l)anish master is far worse | j clothed than the English peasant, and | above all far worse housed. The charges | for the relief of the agricultural poor are on tho iucrcase in Denmark, buin^ about 2s per head for the country population. ' Negative Knowledge!. —We never knew a cabman with an eyeglass, or a chimneysweep with' spectacles. We never knew a lady to buy a bargain at a shop .sale,; and not afterwards ' regret it. We never knew a man to propose the.,, toast of the evening, without his wishing, that it had been placed in abler • hands. We never knew a* waiter iv - a hurry, at a i chop-house who did not say that he was ' "Coming, sir!' when really he was going. We nevei* lost a game to a professional at billiards, without hearing him assign his triumph chiefly- to his flukes'. : The imports of wool (sheep and lambs') from abroad have reached the large amount of 85,792,3881b5. in the first quarter of the year 1872. This is above 1,1, 000,0001 bs. more than 'in : the corresptinding period of, .187.1,,. and above 22,000,0001b5. more than in the same period of 1870. Australia has Sent us in the first quarter -of— this year nearly 57,000,0001b5., being yearly 8 ? 000,0001bs. more than in the corresponding quarter of 1871. The arrivals of woollen rags to be used as wool have also exceeded 16,000,0001b5. in the first quarter of 1872, being 7,000,0001b5. more than in the corresponding period of 1871. — European Mail. ; The fifth session of the Parliament of the Dominion of Canada was-opened on April 11 by the Governor- General, L who in his speech said that the members were summoned later than usual at the instance 'of the Imperial Government. He promised to lay before the House the correspondence relating to , the Washington Treaty, and invited their serious .attention to this important subject. . He expressed his gratification at the recovery .of the Prince of Wales, and the repulse of the Fenians at Manitoba, as also at the prosperity and the "flourishing condition of the revenue. The Grovernor- : General recommended a vigorous immigration policy, the enlargement of the canals, and the construction of the Pacific .Railway. An irate lirtls man rushed into the publication office of one of our leading daily papers lately, and pointing to a certain article in a late issue, demanded to know who wrote it. An advertising clerk, who is six feet in height, coolly answered, ' I did,' which, -so amazed the questioner-, that without another word. he turned and left the office. 'My friend,' said an American hotelkeeper to an over avaricious boarder,. ' you eat too much, 1 shall have to charge you an extra half dollar.' 'An extra half-dollar !' replied his boarder, with his countenance the very picture of pain. For goodness sake, don't do that ! I'm most dead now, eating three dollars' worth, and if y.o.u put on an extra halfdollar, I shall certainly burst— l shall.' * A Pious Cabeieb. — A Scotch carrying firm iv the last century, announced that a waggon would leave Edinburgh for Inverness ' every Tuesday, God willing, but on Wednesday, whether or no i-