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Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3161, 5 April 1879, Page 2

The writer of London Town Talk in the Melbourne Argus says: "It is curious that the fi/st realisation of a Utopia should have been embodied in an Admiralty report, and if Admiral de Horsey's account of the Fitcarin Islanders is true (which there is no reason to doubt), it seems there is a community on this planet which has almost attained to social and moral perfection. It is, of course, in the ' Pacific '; but there are not only no wars but no crimes there. ' The almost puerile simplicity of the laws ia the best evidence of the good conduct of the people.' Theft, illicit love, and the use of profane language are the only transgressions contemplated by the Pitcarin code, and none of these are ever committed. Their religion is that of the Church of England, but a little different; there is no High Church, Low Church, Slow Church, or No Church, and there is no clergyman. I need not add, since (hey live in harmony, there is no lawyer. •No alcholic liquors except for medicinal purposes are used, and drunkenness is unknown.' There is no money in the island. There is a population of ninety ~forty males and forty forty-one females —and they speak English only. Fancy a people without a Bradlangh, a Kenealy, or even a Whistler. My only fear is that the' publicity given to the existence of such a paradise will cause Mr Cook to ' organise '.an excursion thither."

It is somewhat startling, says the Army and Navy Gazette, to mark the absolute control over the Press which is being acquired by foreign Governments, and the use made of it for official purposes, to which the telegraph is the potent instrument. It is well known that the great Continental agencies with which Reuters Agency in this country is affiliated are in direct communication with the various foreign offices in Eussia, Austria, Germany, and France, so that when we read our telegrams from St. Peters burgh, Vienna, Berlin, and Paris, we may be pretty Bure that we are perusing despatches approved of by Prince Gortschakoff, Count Andrassy, Prince Bismark, and M. Waddington— and now it seems, as if we might add Lord Lytton. The public may feel Bure that they have the best information as to what the Govern, ment thinks they oaghfc to believe.

Good Scenter-piece for the 'Dinner Table.—A bowl of flowers.