MAIL NEWS.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3167, 14 April 1879, Page 3

MAIL NEWS.

In the Daily Telegraph of the 20th of November you will find a letter entitled "Visit of the Cabinet Ministers to Cyprus," and this is the story it tells. It is rather long, bnt it is interesting:—"The visitors had now seen something of the interior of Cyprus; they had learnt its dreary aspect and its terrible stillness and absence of life, due to its scanty population. They were now to see some other features of the country. On Saturday night the Himalaya' steamed round to Famagusta, and on Sunday that city of the dead was inspected. Captain Inglis, the commissioner, was found like a ghost from fever. The seat of government of that district must be changed. From Famagusta they steamed round Cape Andreas to Kyrenia, the one charming site of a district station, where it was expected to find the 42nd Regiment in perfect > health and spirits. But IS ature had determined that the Ministers should have no false impres.-ion of her handiwork, and had preceded their visit by what we ignorant people call another ♦fever wave,' co that 99 soldiers out of the 500 there, or about 29 per cent., were ill with fever, and even the Colonel -^■Cluny Macpherson—wafr despondent. November was already on its way; the weather was fairly cool; the first rains had passed and gone; the cessation of fever had' been promised for September at latest; yet here was a distinct fresh outbreak of the disease. It is sad to see such a splendid regiment as the 42nd Highlanders rapidly deteriorating under the influen.ee of this mysterious -sickness —deteriorating physically—and it would be a wercy to the men and a good act for the country to send them away at once. One fact may show what Cyprus is better than a thousand theories. The English arrived here at the end'of July. There are five stations oil the coast, each of which is the, residence of a commissioner. Out of the first five commissioners appointed to these five seaeoait- stations, three are invalided Home within three months, and the other two nave been, or are, luffering from severe illness. Yet these $$$*:: alf picked pen., General, captiils 'Ql? idbaltern; cavalry, infantry, or" irtiilefyrettcii; has shared the" same fate. It is not necessary to speak of the entire Pay and nearly the .whole Commissariat Departments expended in even'less time; and:; our first principal medical officers, wiiQ only got Home in time to die/*?'-'":-l *««; --■.— ■;■ -■;• :; :;-.'■..: TlkerfolJpwin^ is, an extract from , a letter-appearing in The Times upon the present state of trade in' England, and shows the independence and want of consideration^ occasionally , shown by? the working - classes, for which, they dearly pay in,times;of depression, in a measure broughtabout their own actions:—" An irori'master iitt Bilßtbn told me a year or two ago that a large order for hoop-iron had been offered him from a Russian source at a certain price ; but he could' not accept the order unless his men were j prepared to reduce their prices* ■ He could not do so himself without giving the men six months' notice. He therefore called them toother, and stated the case; The men consulted, and said, 'Let us draw cuts' (draw lots); and they ultimately voted against a reduction. They were then earning from £5 to £6 jper week. The master told them that the ordei would go to Belgium, and that their obstinate blindness was fast driving the trade but, of the country. The men's reply was (in their own words), 'We don't care. Let the trade go to Belgium; we will follow it there; it will be a bit of a houtingJor us." The result i 3 that these men are now living on meal and water, ■arid; the master whose counsels they sat at naught is obliged to take care of their wives and children. Mr Hill, a merchant trading in iron manufactures, in a letter to the Times, speaks as follows :—" You ask me to state the results of my observations in America, and the causes operating in favor-of American productions being cheaper and better than the English. In the first place, tho Americans certainly employ, machinery a great deal more than Iwe do, Indeed, the bulk of our English locki are hand-made, and there it toa much "of the ♦ rule and thumb' aboutf them.-Secondly, the Americans, both; masters and men, seem to have more technical and general education than we caff boast of here. We do not think enough of our manufactories, whereas it would pay us to keep a man to do nothing but invent arid, improve and think out the requirements! of our customers. The Americans keep inventors and encourage their men to intent, and the American Patent Laws are certainly more favourable to inventors than burs. In the third place, the men work longer* hours in America, and I was surprised to find that they worked as long on- Saturdays as on other days. Fourthly, I found less drunkenness in America, and I certainly could not hear that the men neglected their work through drink. Here, however, our men seldom begin work in the lock trade and many other I trades till Tuesday, They hold what they'call'^aint Monday.' every week, as titakes them Sunday and, Monday to re-; cover from the effects of Saturday s dfiftkfcwv- This ' Saint Monday ' is reliSsly (P) observed in the ' Black Country ' Fifthly, thelpck manufacturers in this oouniM with one or two exceptions (such as Chubbs and Hobbs, the latter of whom is, an American), are men of small capital and cannot afford to buy machinery*. Manyl of > our smail manufacturers are called "garret masters,' and are little better off than the men themselves.«. The consequence is. they are not in a position \6 resist the action of the men, nor^o compete with machine-made goods. In America small firms are the exception, large ones the rule. The majority are known as 'limited manufacturing companies,' and a vast amount of capital is invested in . plant, tools, and machinery. ' Hence they do not hesitate to entertain orders for special goodi, which our small makers here could not undertake. -Judging from the fact that we could hold our own against such countries as France and Germany, where hand labour, prevails, and that we are beaten by America, where machinery predominates, you can readily understand that machinery is the weapon with which we are being successfully beaten. I visited a good many manufactories in America-^not conGned to locks—-aod I was struck with their manifold mechanical appliances, many of which approached in action and intelligence as nearley as machinery could do to tho manipulations of the human hand.