EXTRACTS FBOM HOME PAPERS.

Southland Times, Issue 1658, 5 November 1872, Page 3

EXTRACTS FBOM HOME PAPERS.

High Peice or Butcheb's Meat. — An " Old Farmer," writing to the Glasgow Herald, observes : — I am the oldest farmer in the parish I live in. T have seen many ups and down in that time. I have Bold cattle at less than half the present price. In these days I could get an Irishman to dig at a dyke back for one shilling per day ; offer him three now and he will give you a queer answer. Ploughmen's wages hare exactly doubled in my time. I recollect when the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was in course of construction, the cry was that horses would not be worth rearing ; they have more than doubled in price since. What I is the cause of all this? Why, just the ever-increasing trade and prosperity of the country. Horses and eatti© of all j kinds are rising in price from the very j aame cause. The country's power of supply is not equal to the demand. I can tell your Nairn friend that farmers tire taxing their powers to the utmost to produce irore cattle of every description, and bis suggestion to forbid the slaughter of calves and lambs is sheer nocsense. Is there no way, then, to reduce the price of beef and mutton? I say there is, and tbe working classes, as well as others, hay* the remedy at hand. I have myself tried the Australian preserved beef and mutton, and can say it is rery good. Let the working classes stick to it for a year and the difference in price will soon appear. I maintain the working classes are the chief cause of the extra large consumption of butcher meat since the great rise in wages took place, and I have it on the authority of a surgeon to a large public work in this parish that many families have butcher meat three tiroes a day. Grocers in the parish tell me the working classes will not buy Australian meat ; they can afford to buy the best home meat, hence the great rise in price. With respect to the removal of restrictions to the free importation of cattle, I will only say it would be sheer madness. The working classes should not complain of dear beef, which is caused mainly through their own and the country's prosperity. The staff of life is cheap. I have seen the quartern loaf double, and oatmeal more than double, present prices, tea 5s per lb., soap, sugar, and groceries in general double present prices. Earthquake nr Scotland. — A shock of earthquake was felt on Thursday afternoon, Bth August, about 4 o'clock, at Bridge of Allan. The shock was not confined to Bridge of Allan, however, but was experienced orer a considerable extent of country. At Braco and Kinbuck panes of glass were broken, and elates were shaken off Ardoeh-house. In Dunblane and Bridge of Allan a number of houses were severely shaken, and glass was broken on sideboards. At the same time the shock was felt in Stirling at Allan-park, Gladstone-villas, and other places, and was attended with a loud rumbling noise like thunder. One person who felt the shock compared the sensation to that caused by the passing of a railway train. A lady residing in Bridge of Allan described the noise as reeemWing that caused by a carriage being taken from the adjoining coachhouse. No such shuck of earthquake has occurred in Scotland Bi'nce 1839, when the shock passed from Lisbon, through Pn-vrce and Great Britain, to the northw. st of Scotland. Accobdikg to the official censuß published at Berlin, the population of the German empire on the Ist of January, 1872, was 41,O58,149inhabitants ; Prussia figures for 24,643,415 ; the remainder of the northern confederation for 4,167,707 ; Ssxodj and the Southern States, for 10,697,558 inhabitants ; the annexed provinces for 1,649,459. Berlin contains a population of 825,389 souls. It is now the third capital of Europe, of which it was only the eighth in 1832. It now comes after London and Paris, the population of which has doubled since that year. At Vienna the increase is still more considerable. The census of Liverpool has almost trebled. Tbe population of the different states has not at all increased in the same proportion. Of the 13 states of which Europe is now composed six only bare a population which goes beyond 25 millions of souls, namely, Russia, 71,000,000;Germany,41,000,000;France, 36,500,000; Austro- Hungary, 315,000,000; Great Britain, 32,000,000; and Italy, 26.500,000. The Discoteet of Livingstone. — The Athenaeum states that Mr Stanley is preparing for publication an account of his adventures in Africa. The book will be published in England by Messrs Low. Tbe Livingstone Expedition, the same journal states, cost the New York Herald between £8,000 and £9,000. The Potato Disease. — In several parts of Caithness the potato disease has " made its appearance to such an extent as to excite fears for the whole crop. Entire fields are already affected. The potatoes are much diseased, and the stems and leaves are entirely withered. The turnip crop is also threatened with fingerand toe, but not yet to any serious extent. These disastrous results are traced to the extreme wetness of the season, and to recent fogs followed by rather severe frosts. A scheme is being talked of on tbe Stock Exchange for raising the fare 3 of railways to meet the present enhanced charges, on a sliding scale, so as not to bear so heavily on passengers as to be likely to affect the traffic. Thus, it is proposed that all fares under Is shall remain as at present That fares of Is to 2s 6d, single or return, be raised Id ; from 2s 6d to ss, 2d ; 5s to 10s, 3d ; 10s to 15s, 6d ; 15b to £1, 8d ;£lto £1 lOs, la; and above that amount, 2s. — Kailway 2?6W0.