PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume IV, Issue 221, 25 April 1872, Page 8

PROVINCIAL AND GENERAL.

The following lelter, addressed by Mr. Edward Wilson (one of the proprietors of the Melbourne "Argus") to the editor of the " Times, " which gives the true conditions of the competition between Australian preserved meat aud fresh butchers' meat, is stated to have had an effect on the meat market iv England: — " Sir, — The other day I scut to one of your contemporaries the results of a little experimeut I had made in a matter of considerable domestic interest ; and from the comments made to me upon the calculation therein contained, I feel sure that benefit might accrue in many households if you would allow me to bring the figures uuder the notice of your readers as well. In a comparison between the cost of butchers' meat purchased at the shops and pre--served meat imported from Australia, your contemporary had quoted the difference at about two-thirds of the English pi'ice. My little experiment seemed to show th.it the difference was nearly twice that amount. Wishing to know exactly what was the loss in cooking and what the proportion of bone in an ordinary joint, I had a leg of muttou weighed as it came from the butcher's, weighed agaiu when roasled fit for the table, and I then had the meat accurately pared off and ifc and the bone weighed separately with the following results: — Leg of mutton before roasting, 9 lb. 10 ozs ; do. after roasting, G lb 12 ozs.; weight of cooked meat, 41b. 13 ozs. ; bones, 1 lb. 15 ozs. ; gravy, 10 ozs. By this calculation we find, what probably our thrifty housekeepers know, bub very many of us do not know, that 'if we pay the butcher 9|d per pound for a leg of muttou,the cooked slice of mutton on our plate costs us about 19d per pound ; and that we must compare English meat at that rate with Australian meat, cooked t'nd without bone, at 6d or 7d, to judge jnstly between them. It is delightful to reflect that your journal enters thousands of establishments in which it is a matter of indifference whether meat is eaten at 19d per lb", bub ib enters thousands of other houses where such a consideration as this is of very serious importance, and it is in the hope of doing a little good there that I take the liberty of addressing "^ou. otx the subject. " A letter from Constantinople says the Girdle of the Holy Virgin was, by order of the Patriarch, pitched from I Mount Athos as a charm to allay the ! ravages of the cholera. 'The ceremonies of the occasion attracted an im--inense throng of people. The Irfcest return shows that there are 12 lighthouses in New Zealand. Over 40 have been recommended by pilots and harbourmasters. Messrs Bail Here & Co, of Melbourne, have, succeeded \n -procuring iv Hull a j

complete file' of English papers from 17D9. The file is composed of the "Morning Chroeicle" from 1799 to 1820 and Lben the "Times" takes up the continuance. The Journals are bonnd in volumes, and most of them have already arrived in the colony. As showing the difference in journalism of the past and the present, we may mention that the account of the battle , of Waterloo in the " Chronicle " takes up only about a third of a column. J After the account of the battle follows a list of killed and wounded, occupying nearly a column. The whole matter is compressed into a space that to us of modern days seems incredible. Many a column would be now occupied with so important a battle as that of Waterloo. Our forefathers were however, compelled to be satisfied with what they could | Set. j The London "Spectator" of 30th December, thus writes of Mr Duffy, Chief Secretary of Victoria: — "He has the pride and enthusiasm which givea heart to politics, and the imaginative sympathy which lend significance to Imperial polities; and bis early experience h.°ve been au admirable school for both. We cou only hepe thai; it may be given to the most powerful minister that the colony has seen since it bad constitutional govemmentto complete cbegreal work l-e is beginning, and succeed in effecting for Australia what his old friend and colleague Darcy M'Gee, effected for- the Canadian Dominion. There is but one work in Jife for which he could be more nt,and that is very unlikely ever to be within the range oc his political opportunities. But M*\ Gravan Duffy as Minister for Ireland in the Cabinet of Mr. Gladstone or of some Premier of like-minded policy, might divert effectually all Irish popular enthusiasm from the cause of treason, aud fu^e at last the long cherished political sympathies of the still far from United Kingdom, iv an indissoluble identity. Millaud, banker and newspaper speculator, who died recently in Paris, and who founded the " Petit Journal," which at one time had a circulation of nearly half a million copies, was an enthusiastic believer in the advantages of liberal advertising. One day be had at his table nearly all the proprietoi'S of the leading Paris dailies. They conversed about advertisiug. Millaud asserted that the most worthless articles could be sold in vast qu.mlities if liberally advertised. Emile de Girardin, of "La Presse," who was present, took issue with him ou the subject. " What will you bet," exclaimed Millaud, " that r cannot sell in oue week 100,000 francs worth of the mostcoramon cabbage seed uuder the pretext that it will produce mammoth cabbage heads ? All I have to do is to advertise it at once iv a whole page insertion in the daily papers of this city." Girardin replied that he would give him a page in his paper for nothing if he should wiu bis wager. The other newspaper publishers agreed to do the same thing. At the expiration of the week they inquired of Millaud bow the cabbage seed had flourished. He showed' them that he had sold nearly twice as much as he had promised, while orders were still pouring in, but said the joke must stop there, and no further orders would be i filled. At a dinner given at Ballarat, the Hon. G-. Duffy wound up his speech as follows : — We have every inducement to unite, for there are here all the conditions of a happy and prosperous country if we agree to enjoy its blessiDgs in peace and good fellowship. The sun in his circuit does not look upon a land where individual and public liberty is more secure, where a career is more open to capacity and integrity, or where more genial skies shed health and pleasure on a people. We have all the elements of a great nation in the seed. 1 may apply to x\ustralia the graphic language of one of my friends-— we have more Saxons on this continent than King Arthur had when he founded the realm of England ; we have more Celts than King Brian bad when he drove the Danes into the surges of Clontarf ; we have more Normans than followed William the Conqueror to Hastings ; ancl to fuse these into a nation, it only needs the honest adoption of the sentiment, that we are all one Australian people. A fellow citizen is exultant over his discovery of the strengthening influence of lager beer. Said he to a friend yesterday: "wheu the keg was first taken to myroom,twodayssince ; l couldscarcely lift it, but now! can carry it wilh tbe greatest ease." A warm friendship, says a New York letter, exists betweeu two of the leading editors of that city, belonging to rival sheets, and utterly opposed in politics. I refer to Horace Greeley of the " Tribune" ancl Ivory Chamberlain of the "World." Though indulging iv a most violeut political warfare, burling scathing philippics against each other in public,J;hey are in their social intercourse, anu have been for years, on terms of the closest intimacy. Every Sunday, nearly, you will find ; the veteran editor of the " Tribune " enjoyiug the hospitality of his contemporay of the " World," at his delightful borne on Forty-second street, and Miss Chamberlain and the Misses Grreeley, Ida and Grabrielle, are inseparable companions, and many aje the summer days they roam together in, the woods on the celebrated "farm lit Chappaqua., ■*'*"'