FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 153, 11 June 1879, Page 2

FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

The bakers of Dunedin have found their match at last. On the 17th April (says a writer in the ‘Witness’), they raised the price of the 41b. loaf to SW, and on the 26th they receiver! domiciliary visits from certain young gentlemen connected with the ‘ Otago Times.’ These youths bought loaves from seven master-bakers, and weighed them ; the result showed that there was a considerable deficiency in weight, amounting in one case to 12| per cent. These revelations produced no comment in the public Press, but their effect was felt very widely, and I now hear that a largo factory has been started with the avowed purpose of producing a, loaf which shall be sold retail at sd. The undertaking will no doubt meet with much hostile criticism, and any shortcomings in quality or weight will be made the most of. However, this is merely an introduction to a little favor I want to ask. Gandide lector , wilt thou clip this paragraph about cheap bread and send it to some needy man in England, with strong hands and stout heart ? Tell him, also, how well grown mutton sells here freely at Is per leg ; that tea averages 2s 6d per pound by the box. Add, also, the current wages of ordinary mechanics and tradesmen. “ Nothing extenuate”—don’t put any tinsel on your pictures—but also “ set down naught in malice,” that is, don’t say anything about meetings of the unemployed, unless you also say that these “unemployed” turn up their noses at Government pay of 36s per week. I will add a scrap from a letter 1 received from a country parson in Wiltshire. He says : “ The brewery here gives 13s a week and beer ! So, the poulterers, the wholesale grocers,, also, butchers, have men at 14s and 14s 6d. The letter-carriers get 15s. My laborers get 12s a week all the year round,.etc.” What a contrast ! And in England mutton is worth about Is a pound, and a “bit of land ” is utterly inaccessible to the rising, active laborer. In dealing with a judgment summons casein the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Dunedin, Mr Bathgate said creditors'made a great mistake in thinking, as they generally did, that the law intended money should be demanded from a man who had none. Imprisonment for debt was abolished, and it should be proved that a man has had the means to pay his debt, or, is able, to do so, before any magistrate could send him to gaol. No creditor should use a threat of any kind, otherwise he might defeat altogether his expectations. A detailed list oempiled from the official Edinburgh Gazette shows that the total number of bankruptcies in Scotland during the six months ending 31st March, 1879, was 593, as compared with 340 during the corresponding period of 187778. The rate of increase is therefore no less than 74-j per cent. Fully two-fifths of the failures were in Glasgow. The most unfortunate people seem to have been builders, farmers, groeors, spirit dealers, merchants, and contractors, in the order named. With regard to the building trade, it may be mentioned that in Glasgow, where reckless, speculations have brought it into a deplorable state, the city assessor reports that there are at the present time 9395 unoccupied dwellings in the municipality, besides 6743 in the surrounding burghs and" suburbs. This makes a total of 16,138 houses, which at an average of only £l2 each, gives an annual loss of £193,656 for rental alone, irrespective of the burdens which, l have to be paid whether houses are let or not. The general depreciation of house pro-

pcrty jn Gias;;nw produced by the preaJr depression of trade is computed to least 20 per cent. In EI in burgh jm are not so bad, but building has ne*fc{. less received a severe check, especjppyg regard to villa residences, which evoi.<: years ago were rising everywhere \\\ amazing rapidity. In an article on the proposed Melbouir Exhibition, the ‘ Argus ’ says r JBL estimates of expenditure adopted by exhibition buildings committee at its meeting, and bronght under the notice ( commissioners on Tuesday, will, W; imagine, somewhat astonish the public. Of course, no one expected that such an undertaking would be carried out for anything like the £IOO,OOO, or thereabouts first spoken of, but those who were sanguine did hope that about double the sum would see us well through the business. However, it, is evident that we were all reckoning without our hosts. The contract for ffesmain building, including the substitution of brick for wood in the dome, amours to over £75,000, and this, with the inevitable extras, including the cost of the new palisading round the gardens, laying out and planting the grounds, etc., will assuredly be increased to £IOO,OOO, The further estimate submitted by the committee amounts to £130,552, and may safely be put down at £150,000. This makes a quarter of a million to begin with. The working expenses will necessarily be very heavy, but as a considerable portion will be provided by the charge for admission, we do not include i anything, for. them. If the Prince of Wales should honor the exhibition with a visit we imagine that the official expense of his reception and entertainment Will' considerably increase the bill."

A correspondet sends the ‘ Argus’ the folio wing resume, of a speech by Cardinal Manning, which shows that ecclesiastical associations have not in any way diminished the national feeling in this great dignatory of the Roman Catholic Church: —“Speaking at a large meeting of the Roman Catholic clergy and laity in Liverpool, on behalf of St. Joseph’s Foreign Mission Society, Cardinal Manning said that the missionaries were intended to cope with heathenism beyond the bounds of Christendom, but within the boundaries iOf the British Empire. And here came 1 new obligation. Some would ask' What had they to do with the British Empire 1 But they had all helped to rear up that mighty fabric, the mightiest in the world. When God raised up a mighty empire, He did it for a purpose. The old Roman Empire did its work, and it was crushed, crumbled, and utterly destroyed. The great Catholic Empire of Spain had passed away like a shadow, and the greatest empire the world had ever seen for extent was the British Empire, which they had helped to build up. They had what Spain never had. They possessed at this time an eighteenth portion, at least, of the habitable globe, and had over 245 millions of fellow- , subjects ; and these 240 millions of men, with their 100 princes and chieftains—these realms and kingdoms and principally • ties—were all gathered under fesP ' sovereignity of the British Empire. Was' this without a Divine purpose ? Was-, it to pass awav as a shadow like Spain ? Upon them it depended to give answer unto God, if they were to be faithful to their duty. If they partook of the greatness of that empire, the}’ partook of its responsibilities. If the partook of/its wealtiij they partook of.its duties. If they partook of its powers, they would partake of its doom. Empires were raised to be the servants of God, and if they would not fuifil this duty, God would crush them.”

Of Mr Arthur O’Shauglmussy, one of, the younger British poets, and the son-in-law of Dr Westland 4 Marstou, an amusing story is told. ; Mr sO’Shaughnessy was a protege, of Sir- Edward Bulwer Lytton, who assisted in getting the poet appointed to a position in the Natural History Department of the .British Museum. One day the unfortunate O’Shaughnessy accidentally sat on a number of very rare South American butterflies, which had just arrived at the Museum. Horrified, he proceeded secretly and hurriedly to repair damages, but being in truth rather ignorant about butterflies and natural history generally, he got the pretty insects very much mixed up, glueing wrong wings on wrong bodies in the most reckless manner. Great was the astonishment of the wise men when they came to contemplate and classify the contribution. Such species were never seen before ; the insert world and its history were revolutionised. And many were the discussions that occurred before Mr O’Shaughnessy’s awful misdeeds and skilful glueing were discovered. Then there was a very mad collection of scientists, and the young man would have been dismissed had not Bulwer used his influence. Warned-' by his blunder, Mr O’Shaughnessy undertook the study of natural history, and there is now no one in the Museum better skilled iu that department.

The departure of Prince Louis Napoleon to the Zulu war affords some merriment to several of the Paris illustrated newspapers, ‘Le Don Qichotte ’ publishes a flaming purple and yellow cartoon representing the . fiery young.: “ Lou Lou” astride a hobby-horse, holding in his outstretched right hand a document sub v scribed “.Plan of Sedan,” and accom- ? panied by a large but rather famished and • dilapidated eagle, whose feet are attached by a long string -to the stiff wooden tail of the horse. The design is very spirited and humorous. In ‘La Oarrillon’ the Prince appears.on a velocipede in a London street, surrounded by notable Bonapartists,'followed by a regiment of soldiers, who carrydumb-bells, and cheered vehemently by a side-walk full of Cockneys. Two of his suite are mounted on asses and one on a goose. Marshal Bazaine leads with a huge flag, on which is written : “ Morte tux ’Zojfigs.” ‘ L’Etrille ’ depicts Louis at Ohisemurst, about to receive from the Emperor William the sword which the Prince’s father surrendered to that monarch. The weapon has become twisted, and is snakelike. £; Lou Lou” bends over itdn prise. He is shocked. Beyond himTs a row of five Napoleonic statesmen deeply affected. On the first 5 page of ‘ Le Grolot’ he appears iu a warlike attitude, with carpet bag, canteen, and sword. An immense ramrod with, a swab on the end of it is borne across his shoulder, and his wild-opened eye is full of sanguinary fury. Wo are sorry to see that in all these journals the Prince is cruelly reprepresented as hiving enormously long and wide ears.

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