THE DISTRESS IN THE COTTON DISTRICTS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 6, Issue 319, 27 November 1862, Page 3

THE DISTRESS IN THE COTTON DISTRICTS.

In the manufacturing districts in the north, after a twelvemonth of 'difficulty ,and distress, matters are, in every respect, worse than even 1 . Under this beautiful weather, when even a Lancashire operative must have a few more chauces of irregular, employment, there were 7000 more “ paupers ” last week than the week before. Indeed there never was a more gloomy prospect. Work diminishes; pauperism increases week by week : the unmanageable mass of unsettled poor is becoming enormous; the patience and temper of the sufferers are giving way ; the mischievous men who rise up in such emergencies to aggravate and to mislead are becoming more prominent ; savings are consumed, charity cooled, rates. pushed to the utmost; winter is not distant, and there really seems not a chance of a timely snpply of cotton from any source whatever. Every-body can understand what it is for a quarter of the entire po: pulation of a town to be receiving relief from a charitable fund, besides more than 10,000 actual paupers. Preston is not the most distressed place in Lancashire, and this is the case thore. The town, or rather the union comprising the township and its suburbs, contains about 110,000 persons. Rather less than a quarter of these—that is about 26,000 — are operatives connected with the cotton manufacture. Their wives and children make up the best part of the difference between that number and the whole population. Of these 26,000 persons, hitherto supporting themselves and others, half are out of wo k al together, and a quarter are only just kept at work for such days and hours as will enable them to earn a small pittance necessary for

WV* V* UAJdfU AO tl KJKJ u U \J y\J \J \J * are'operatives connected with the cotton I manufacture. Their wives and children ■ make up the best part of the difference I between that number and the whole po- I pulation. Of these 26,000 persons, hith- H erto supporting themselves and others, I half are out of wo k al together, and a fl quarter are only just kept at work for H such days and hours as will enable them H to earn a small pittance necessary for H The pressure on the rates and private charity is, of course, overwhelming. Last H week there were 13,309 “paupers” and I 22,690 persons receiving assistance from the Charitable Fund. Of course the rates are collected with difficulty, and the fund diminishes. But this isnot the worst fea- H ture of the crisis. AD the usual.evils of a vast system of relief are beginning to show themselves. It is found impossible to discriminate. There is plunder and waste H The pesons relieved sell their meal obtain drink, which, no doubt many of H them feel as necessary as food. They go straight to the ginshop, with the money of charity in their hands. Under the in- H fluence of agitators and the guidance of committees, the operatives are now begin* ing to refuse to do work, unless work can H be found that they are accustomed to. They cannot dig, they say, or use the pick they cannot walk miles \ they cannot stand rain and cold. Their pride will not allow them to take a broom and sweep the streets. Belying on their numbers and the evident necessity of their ion, they are standing out for terms. The ■Secretary of the Preston Operative ners and Selfacting Minders has issued circular protesting against the operati being compelled to work. He the guai'dians as cruol and hardhearted calls them wiseacres ; and finishes by ominending them to improve, the preset) occasion by opening schools, in order’ qualify the oporatives, who can do else, for the elective franchise,

65th REGIMENT.

We have much pleasure in recording another interesting assembly of the sergeants of our old friends the “ Tigers ,” in thei* mess-room, at camp Otahuhu. On Thursday evening, the 30th ultimo. t>ie sergeants of the regiment met for the purpose of presenting substantial testimonials of their regard and esteem to five of the brother sergeants, who were invalided at the recent inspection of the regiment by Lieut.-General Cameron, C. 8., ind about to be discharged. The serIMints sat down to supper at about 10 u : clock, and with the good Old English feeling that always accompanies a substantial repast. Color Sergeant Fogarty (the acting Sergeant Major) briefly and appropriately referred to the object for which they were assembled ;he said u Comrade sergeants 1 You are all aware of the object for which wfe are met together to night, to do honour to the five sergeants who are about to leave us. lam sure I stand in a. most enviable position in performing the pleasing duty of presenting the testimonials now before you, and 1 have but one regret, that is, that it has not fallen into abler hands to do so Being an ‘ old soldier' myself, I may be allowed to say that I have known these lergeants nearly, if not quite, as long as uny present, and lam at a loss on this occasion to express what I feel; but as words would at best do but feeble justice to it, I shall content myself by presenting you, Quartermaster Sergeant, Higginson, ■■with this gold watch and chain, you Color f-ergeant Haven, with this silver snuff b./X and gold ring, and each of you sergeants Crowder, Hickey, and Johnson with a gold ring ; —they are but small testimonials of the esteem in which, indi- \ idually and collectively, you- are held in the regiment, and you will not, I am sure, prize them for their worth, but for the good feleing which accompanies them. It remains for me only to wish you long life, health and prosperity as civilians, and may you never experience ‘ harder lines’ than you have met in the old ‘ htkety fif-'” The Quartermaster Seijeant briefly thanked his brother serjeants for the honor conferred upon him ; he was much s-.ffected, and said that he would prize the valuable token of their regard next to hi« good conduct medal. Color Serjeant Haven and Seijeants Crowder, Hickey, and Jobuson also returned their thanks for the kindness shown to them.

The usual healths were drunk, none of which were responded to more heartily than that ot the worthy Colonel (Colonel Wyatt, C. 8.), the excellent : Adjutant (Lieutenant A. H. Lewis), and the Officer? of the Regiment; and the party did not break up until a late hour. On the following day a deputation of the seijeants, consisting of Quartermaster Serjeant Higginson, Serjeant, Instructor of Musketry Pinkard, Color Servant Haven, Achesen, and Mathew, Drum Major Davis, Armourer-' Serjeant Westwood, and Serjeants (Crowder and Hickey, waited upon Quartermaster Purcell (the late Seijeant Major of the regiment), for the purpose of presenting him with a handsome silver tea service, as a token of their esteem and regard. — Southern Cross. Naval and Military Forces or France. —ln the papers which the Government has presented-to Parliament there are several reports from Captain Hore on the strength of the French navy. At the beginning of this year he reports that France had 319 steam-vessels afloat, and 119 sailing-vessels, and that there were 44 vessels building. , Ot the ships then afloat 43 were ships of the line and 71 frigates. There were afloat six iron-plated frigates and 12 iron-plated floating-batteries ; 10 more of such frigates were building, and two more of the batteries ; and in May, Captain Hore reported that seven iron-plated floatingbatteries had just been commenced at Bordeaux and Nantes. In the same month he states the number of men at •46,381. The normal budget for the navy was £'7,748,249, and the extraordinary <£680,000, but tliat was independent if the expense for colonial stations. The French have five aviso steamers that can be taken to pieces for easy transport. They have also a small vessel about 60 feet long and 12 wide, drawing only 2 feet 6 inches; the object is to obtain jreat power by the use of two screws and i light draught of water. From the ruddle of the ship aft she is divided into :wo portions, and there are three keels ; rom the middle of the vessel the centre ceel rises gradually nearly to the taffrail; he other two are continued. Thus the ifterpart of the vessel becomes divided, tnd has the appearance of two vessels oined at a shox'fdistance above the water ine. A model of a frigate on the same >lan has been made. The report on the tate of the army in France is by Colonel Jlaremont. He describes the available uilitary force »t the beginning of this car as consisting of 446,548 regulars unbodied, the reserve 170,000 men, the ‘Tational Guards 265,417, making 881, >65. and the contingent of this year he Likes at about 70,000 men. But, since hen, many men entitled to their disharge at the end of the year have been t once struck off, and the Moniieur of lie 25th ult. stated the active army as Insisting of 409,000 men, with a reserve If 203,000, and of course the National Buard. There are 20,000 supernumerary Hrmy horses lent to farmers, a valuable Baerve, the keep of which costs the counBy nothing. The army vote for 1863 is Bated at £14,714,569, besides an extra"estimate of £395,560 ; the exBlditure for the current year is about ■^859,380.

NOTES ON SHEEP FARMING. [From the‘Yeoman.’]

In the management of sheep in Australia, as everywhere else, there are two most important and busy seasons—-that of lambing and that of shearing. In reference to the latter operation I will now offer some remarks.

When, sheep come into the shed to be shorn, it may be easily understood whether the flocks have been well shepherded and managed throughout the year. It there has been any neglect in providing proper camping ground, the under and hind parts of the sheep will exhibit wool more or less stained, and consequently damaged : if the flocks have not been well shepherded, the fleece will be less in weight and inferior in quality ; and if, at any season of the year, r the flocks have been in low condition, there will be a “ break ” in the staple. On taking hold of a staple by both ends, and giving it a pull, it will break as evenly as if it had been cut with a pair of shears. This is a general characteristic, also, of the fleeces of ewes which have had lambs. An Australian wool-shed is an mense building on all the larger establishments, where there are from thirty to fifty or sixty thousand sheep to be shorn. It must be capable of sheltering from five hundred to a thousand sheep, in order that every slight shower may not stop the work, and that a sufficient number of sheep may be put under cover in the evening to protect those-to be shorn next morning from the heavy dews which fall dnring the night at that season £>f the year ; then there must be a large floor on which from twelve to twenty-five shearers may find room, with a separate catching pen for each man. There must also {be wool-bins for the reception of the different classes; room for a screw-press, and sufficient storage for several hundred bales of wool. An Australian shearer would laugh to see a British fellow-v orkman at his task. There is no tying of legs, and there are no benches here ; every man has only a floor to operate upon. He catches his sheep, sets it upright on its tail, commences at the brisket, shears all the under parts down to the crutch, trims all the inside of the legs, runs the shears from the brisket along the under-side of the throat to the mouth ; then, commencing at the nose, he shears all the near side down to the tail, always making the points of the shears cross the back bone ; he then stands on the shorn side, begins at the nose, and shears the right side down to the tail. A bad shearer often breaks the fleece by turning the sheep instead of shifting his position. An awkward shearer, by not holding his sheep properly, induces it to kick, and thus break the fleece ; but what is greatly to be condemned, many keep the points of their shear far from the skin, and cut the wool twice. The Australian sheep-shearer belongs to a peculiar race, and no class of laborers which the sheep-farmer employs demands more careful management. Modern improvements in the construction of sheds, and the necessary arrangement of having a separate catching-pen and separate yard into which each man turns his shorn sheep, have done much to mitigate the evils which were at one time triumphant; but no improvement or appliance can enable the owner or a shrewd manager to be absent for a minute. The sheep may be well shorn, but the fleece may be damaged, or the animals may be ill-treated. If a sheep is lestless, a ferocious man will sometimes let fall his whole weight, with his knee upon its flank, and the poor animal afterwards dies of its internal wounds. Others, even more brutish, will take the nose of the sheep into their mouth and bite it! .It is an everlasting disgrace to humanity that such things should happen ; but it is only too true that they actually occur. 'There is no excuse for such ferocity, and unfortunately there is for it no punishment easily attainable except expulsion frbm the shed. There are many who profess to be shearers, but who are not capable . of anything of the kind. First-class shearers can shear well from fifty to a hundred per day. I once saw a man shear one hundred and fifty-two. It is a great evil that slower men are always trying to shear more than they can do properly. The best man will occasionally cut off pieces of skin, but others will brand the sheep in this manner most unmercifully. The best plan I bave always found, is, to keep a strict watch over the men, and weed out those who will hot conform to the rules of the shed. A mongst shearers there are u sually a number of what are termed ‘ flash’ men —a slang word which has a purely Australian meaning, and which . might be fairly translated a swaggering bully, a man of highly sensitive and irascible temper, who cannot be spoken to without exploding. A few such men in a shop are a great nuisance, unless kept in check. As every sheep is shorn, the fleece is carefully lifted and placed before the wool-sorter, where one is employed. It generally happens, however, that, the fleeces are simply folded up with all the clean locks in the centre, and no proper classification of the different sorts is observed, an evil which purchasers and manufacturers often complain of, but for which they have themselves greatly to blame ; for if the locks are sold by themselves a mere nominal price is generally given ; whilst too often, if they are kept out, a higher price is not obtained for the wool. There is clearly in this matter a want of a proper understanding between the producer and the manufacturer. What seems to be required is, that the producer should, from year to yeai’, get up his wool in the same style, and that the purchaser or manufacturer should know this, and be able to rely upon it. It is a great point to have wools properly classified, according to the length and sound-

ness of the staple, and the labor of doing this is greatly simplified when the flocks have been, previous to shearing, properly culled and classified. ' When great pains are taken to improve -the breed of finewoolled sheep, the flocks are carefully gone over and classified ; before shearing, all the inferior ewes, both as to age and symmetry, and fleece, being culled out. When sheep are properly classified in this way, they ought to be kept so, as far as possible. It is a mistake to be constantly drafting lots of sheep from one flock and putting them into another, as is too often done, for sheep have their companions as well as animals of a higher older, and they not only fret for some time when separated, but in difficult rangy or forest country are often lost by lots separating from the flock, a thing which seldom occurs in a flock if the members of it have been long accustomed to run together, and thus become ‘mated ’ It is a point of considerable importance to have no bare dusty places near the shed where the sheep come into be shorn. This depends much on the character of the soil where sheds are built; but where a shed has been, built in a bad locality, or where dusty soil is unavoidable, I have seen, as at some of the stations on the Murrumbidgee, where of clean round gravel is to be obtained, a thick coat of it laid down to a good distance from the entrance to the yards. In other places watering is adopted. All the internal parts of the shed fitted for the reception of sheep are usually floored with grating of sawn battens. The latter should not be more; than an inch and a half wide, and they should not be fiveeighths of an inch apart. It is of great importance to have all sheep yards on such a principle that no difficulty in yarding the flock will be experienced. This is the more necessary at a where dogs should never be tolerated. Here I would remark, that all sheepyards, and cattle-yards too, should be made circular, and not angular as they usually are, and the small ones should run off at a tangent from the receiving one. The reason for this arrangement is, - that when a flock of sheep are stubborn, those in the centre of the mass become stationary, and the only movement is by those outside travelling in a circle. I? they are startled by dogs the circular movement is better defined, and the whole mass rotates, like a horizontal wheel. The same remarks apply to cattle. There should never be more sheep brought to a shed than can be shorn before they become empty, or the shearers will grumble, and say they are like ‘ Londoners,’ which is in their lingo a term expressive of a want of rotundity. Hungry sheep are, of course, more difficult to'shear. Let any sheep-farmer try the above plan in constructing sheepyards, and he will find that what I have experienced and practised for many years as an original design ‘ based on scientific principles ’ is a great improvement.

PIG-CURING IN THE WESTERN STATES OF AMERICA.

We are much interested to-day by the examination of one of those monster porkcuring establishments for which the Y/estern States are remarkable. We are first brought by our cicerone to the slaughter-houses, which are at a little distance from the town of Lacon, add where the live pigs brought by the firm carrying on the trade receive their quietus, and 4 are prepared for the hands of the curer This process is here the perfection of expedition and the division of labour. From some hundreds of hogs congregated in a wide pen, a dozen are driven at a time into a small enclosure where butcher No. .1 stands armed with his axe. He strikes them in the head, one after the other, as rapidly as he can raise his arm ; the halldead animal is then immediately drawn into a second enclosure ; and it is there, by another hand, stabbed and bled. Manure being in this country of scarcely any value, the blood is allowed to run to waste. Scalding the carcasses in large tanks of water heated by steam, scraping them, and hanging them up to cool in rows of fifty or a hundred, complete the operation, and the whole is accomplished—the work of felling, stabbing, scalding, scraping, gutting, washing, and hanging up—at a rate of a pig per minute ! After hanging for one night when the weather is cool, the carcasses are removed to the curing and packing house. The heads, with the entrails, are thrown into large kettles which are supplied with water by a boiler and steam-engine, for the purpose of extracting from them, by twenty-four hours’ boiling, all the stearine and oil which they contain The bristles and hair are preserved for brushes, mattresses, and plastering, and other purposes. The bones, with the blood are not of the value they would be with us, and are allowed to accumulate until they form a very formidable mound. In a similar way, and at the same time, about a thousand cattle are slaughtered, the killing season being usually the last two months of the year.

The packing-house , is a separate and still more extensive establishment. Here all the carcasses, with such as are bought from the farmers, are cured and packed for market. Brought in at a large doorway, they are first weighed and paid for at the rate of 2|d. or 3d. per pound. Such as are frozen are piled up, some hundreds together, between stoves, the heat of which' soon fits them with the rest for the cleaver. The subsequent process of cutting curing, and packing into barrels is marvellously expeditious. Beside a large block two men stand armed with cleavers. So powerful and expert are they that usually at a single stroke the head is severed from the trunk. The trunk is tnen split longitudinally by a simultaneous blow from each of the cuttevs, and with a few more strokes each half is cut into pie-

cea fitted for the barrel, with or without the shoulders according to the price of the article, the hams being kept apart ahd deposited, jfor the time, in a cool cellar. The whole work does not occupy more than a minute for each pig, and when the supply is regular they are disposed of at the rate of 60 an hour or 500 in a single day! An assorter then selects the pieces, according to their description, for'clean mess, and prime (or the lowest quality of) pork ; he passes them to a packer whose duty it is to salt them and place them in the bar rels ; and by coopers each barrel is headed, hooped, and, after the admission of the proper quantity of brine, finished for market. ; The barrels are of the same size and make as herring barrels ; the salt is from Turk’s Islahd, one of the West Indiesvery large and purple-coloured crystals ; and the brine is made by simply allowing water, which is forced up by horse-power, to percolate through large tanks of the salt, passing into the barrels by india-rub-ber tubes. There is no time expended in rubbing salt into the meat; it is put at once into the barrel, with about half a bushel to every barrel or two hundredweights of pork ; and the rest of the work is done “ right away ” For the disposal of the lard there is a large room furnished' ■with kettles and coolers, arid here evon the “cracklins” are made use of, being convertible, after being subjected to a great pressure so as to take the last particle of lard out of them, into prussiate of potash. The hams, having been rubbed with salt, are piled up for four or five days, when they {are put into a pirkle consisting of Liverpool salt, saltpetre 'and molasses, the molasses being in the proportion of one-eighth. In this they remain for six weeks, when they are smoked for seven days with elm wood and put into hogsheads the usual number of hogsheads being 240 to 300, holding forty-five hams each, or for the home market they are enclosed in brown paper or cotton bags manufactured for the purpose. The feet are shipped to Chicago to be converted into glue ; and of the trimmings of the hams and other parts sausages are made wholesale by machinery. Including the work at the slaughter-honse the whole is done (and we have also to add the curing of 2000 oxen) by from fifty to sixty men—the reduction to the lowest possible limit of the amount of manual labour employed being the the aim, as it is the peculiarity, of all American factories. Calculating the price of pork at 3d. per lb., and the average weight of pigs to be i;6O lb., there is thus every year disbursed to the farmers of the district, by this one establishment, and for this single commodity, about £40,000. In connection with the work there is also a cooperage employing about thirty men. The pork barrels are made of white oak imported from the Northern States, and of native hoops. A man may make more but the manufacture of three of these barrels constitutes a fair day’s work, and as for each barrel the workman receives half a dollar or 2s. of our money, his average wages are 365. per week. Flour barrels which are also made at the cooperage, are of thinner staves.of different descriptions of wood, shaved by machinery and hooped with ash. With the aid of a cutting machine which prepares the edge of the staves, a man can make twelve of such barrels in a day, realising about the same weekly wages. In heating the barrels they are taken to one wide fireplace, and fired inside, but not watered, and preparatory to trussing them, a rope, which is wrought b}” a windlass, brings the ends of the staves together. Otherwise the process is the same as in a herring-barrel-cooperage.—“ A. R." in John o'Groat Journal.

The French Emperor’s Son. —The little Prince is not only most carefully 'trained in his Studies, 1 deportment, horse;manship, exercise, and diet, but is being put through a course ot swimming, not at all, it is said, to his own satisfaction. The Emperor was a capital swimmer in his pre-rheumatic days, and is said to have saved more than one drowning individual by his skill in the art of plunging. The Empress is one of the best swimmers alive, being as much at home among the waves as on horseback. But the young scion of the Imperial house has a true Frenchman’s dislike of cold water-; and though his affectionate parents have built a beautiful marble swimming-bath for him, in the same wing of the Louvre in which is his riding-room, the daily plunge is just now the principal thorn in his youthful existence. The Emperor, justly disapproving of a solitary education, even in the case of so exceptionally exalted a sprig of humanity as “ the heir of the Napoleons,” allows the child a little companion of his own age, but* in order that he may not fall into favouritisms, these children’are constantly 'changed. The only one of these who has been allowed to become, for a time, a fixture at the Palace, is a fat, rosy, merry little fellow, the son of a corporal, who seems to have come into the world with strongly amphibious instincts. He is as fond of water as the little Prince is of dry land ; and regularly accompanies the latter, when, at eleven a. nr.,their unwilling charge is marched off to the marble tank aforesaid by his governess, an equerry, and a couple of valets. • The little soldier jumps out ■of bis uniform in “no time,” tumbles head over heels into the basin, where be swims about like a fish, and cuts as many gambols as a porpoise. But his example haS-'hitherto been but slightly efficacious,, for although the bath is slightly warmed, it is with the utmost reluctance that the Prince allows himself to be divested of his frilled trowsers, tunic <fce., and only enters the bath after a good deal of coaxing, and a little sboldingj from his. governess and the equerry.—Paris Correspondent of. the Nelson Examiner.

EXTRACTS From Mr. Peabody’s Diary. i ‘‘Schoolmasters, mtrainers of the rising i generation, should be highly esteemed'ana well paid." Being one of the School .Committee, I attended a Quarterly meeting this afternoon in the ; Schoolroom. For once in a while there: was a good attendance of members. After a deal of preliminary talk on politics, pigs, potatoes &c., the Chairman opened proceedings in forma. Accounts for the last; quarter were audited, which shewed that several of the parents had not paid for the last two quarters, which default on their part obliged the teacher to be minus so much of his salary (small enough in all conscience) for that time. One party indeedand he, one of the wealthiest in the’neighbourhood, had only (to his shame be it said), paid for one quarter out of several due, and was thus, behind for a period of something like two years, although the Committee had, once and again sent m his bill ! It is without donbt a disgraceful thing on the part of parents not to pay regularly the small amounts which in the aggregate make up one half of the schoolmaster’s salary—the other half being paid by Government. I think it would be a good plan to publish, quarterly, in the local newspaper, the names of those who pay and also of those who do not pay, that the public may discriminate between the honourable man and the dishonourable ; for such do I consider him, who, having ample means at his . command to pay his pittance, does yet defraud the poorly remunerated teacher of his right. If the labourer.is worthy of his hire, let him be justly treated. But this is not the only evil the poor schoolmaster has to contend with. The hind has but one master to serve, and him it is possible to please thoroughly ; but the schoolmaster has many masters and mistresses to please.’ Mr. Rad thinks that because things are not managed according to his idea of schoolkeeping, (he was educated at a village dame’s little school), things are not right. He complains, too, of the teacher’s want of watchfulness, because his (Mr. R’s) little girl had a button pulled oft’ her frock by the little girl next her,, whilst the teacher was hearing the -big’ class. Every. teacher should have as many eyes in his head as 'Argus had, at least as many as the house spider, which is said to have eight, a very convenient number. The same gentleman complains too, of the teacher’s giving an Occasional half holiday, because he is ill of a headache, and of his letting the school out an hour sooner sometimes, when the children, owing to the day being very wet, have had no interval.. ’ Then, Jocky’s mamma thinks that Jocky is not improving a bit, but on the contrary, is going backwards ; because said wee Jocky has been three months in learning to read easy words of one syllable, the truth being that the teacher has with much trouble and awful trials of his temper got Jocky so far on from his A, B, C, very much against said Jocky’s inclination, he haying no greater a relish for such work than a cat has for wet feet. The Resident Magistrate has an easy berth of it any day in comparison with the schoolmaster, who has often to act the part of Counsel and Judge together in half a dozen difficult cases in one day 5 e. g, Peter’s father sends word that Jack Straw hit Peter and made his nose bleed—this on their way home. Jack denies this, and in turn prefers a complaint against Peter, in effect, that said Peter struck him because he (Jack) accidentally pushed complainant over,, thereby causing his nose to bleed, said nose being in the habit of bleeding of its own free will, if the nasal organ can be said to possess any such faculty. There being no witnesses, after careful investigation, (sadly trenching on the teacher’s time), the case is dismissed with a caution to both parties. The decision gratifies J. S., but likely enough displeases Peter’s papa, who grumbles at the teacher’s leniency, except when Peter gets what theteacher calls a doze of medicines:

Frequently, when the teacher has been labouring for months to advance a class uniformly, it is broken up by one scholar being taken home for some weeks to herd the pigs or cattle, another to nurse the new baby, while a third is unwell. Labor omnia vincit, Labour conquers all, it is said ; but here perseverance and labour are well nigh totally in jrustra. N. B. I am no Latin scholar, and on that account am fond of displaying the little I have. Then, the teacher’s character is to some extent at the mercy of any thoughtless or malicious scholar, and inconsiderate or unprincipled father. His speech and actions in school are misrepresented ; his' motives for some particular action are misconstrued or misunderstood. The parents thoughtlessly speak their sentiments on the subject in presence of their children, upon whom it has a pernicious effect. Then—but time and space forbid my jotting down all or half the annoyances to which the man holding the arduous and ill-paid office ofiustiuctor of. the young has to submit. He requires to have what Dominie Sampson would call a pro-di-gi-ous amount of patience to bear up under it, and keep from flogging the children in very-spite at the parents —I speak of inconsiderate ones, for all of course are not alike. He is paid at the same rate as a labourer on the ; roadsj yet. is expected to dress in a manner, becoming his profession, and is., considered to be “ Passing rich with Eighty Pounds a year.” In respect to the schooling of children, parents have their duties as well as the teacher, with whom they should cooperate; but alas ! how seldom is-this done. The whole care,'trouble and respohsibility are thrown on the unfortunate Dominie, who, for the discharge of his duties and the daily example in walk and conversa-

tion which he sets his scholars, is responsible: not merely to - parent s, .but tcWwm who weighs our motives as well afc(our actions in the balance, and who will reward every man according to his desert.

Japanese Knowledge of Magnetism. —The Japanese have discovered that a few seconds previous to an earthquake the magnet temporarily loses its power, and they have ingeniously constructed a light frame supporting a horseshoe magnet, beneath which is a cup of bell metal. The armature is attached to a weight, so that upon the magnet becoming paralysed, the weight drops, and, striking the- cup, gives , the alarm. ■ Every one in the house then seeks air for safety. : A.German Gaming Saloon.-aAe.alley of; orange trees—each costing about forty pounds—leads across the park to the farfamed palace of play. Through a noble portico the victim enters the hall, where he is received by liveried footmen ready to take charge of his hat, stick, and overcoat. It is advisable to use their services, for a good hat or coat left anywhere in the saloons might prove too irresistible a temptation to one Of the numberless marquises, counts, and barons prowling hereabout. In front of us, as we enter, is a splendid ball-room; but we turn to the left, then to the right, straight on ; that is the way -to the devil’s sanctuary. "We find a splendid hall, longer than it is wide, and are almost dazzled by the glaring splendour of it. From the ceiling adorned with pictures hang dark bronze chandeliers bearing numberless lights, multiplied again and again by. the magnificent look-ing-glasses placed at each end of the gorgeous chamber. A long range, of high windows, separated from each other by splendid marble columns, open to a view on the park. All the curtains, draperies, and furniture are of dark-red velvet. And there is a little too much gilding, as one might expect. In the middle of this hall are placed two oblong tables, with a space of fifteen yards between them, both covered with green cloth ; one of them is the roulette, the other the:;trente et-Un table. Let nobody think of a gambling table as of ; a board surrounded by men in despair.” During thirty years’ acquaintance with the German gaming haunts, I. have not witnessed; one violent scene, nor heard even a shriek. What I have seen has, with a few trifling exceptions, been much more ludicrous than tragical.'There do occur shocking catastrophes ; but very rarely in the gambling-house itself.; . The agents of the Spielpachter keep a sharp eye on all desperate people likely to be inconsiderate enough to injure the reputation of the bank by publicly expressing their despair. —All the Year Round. The Yield of Gold.— According to, official documents analysed by the Journal des Dehats , the value of the gold exported from California from 1848, when the gold mines began to be worked, up to the end of 1859, was 2,660,000,000 f. ; and that from Australia from _ 1851-52, when the working of the mines -commenced, up to the end of the same year, was "2,332,000,OOOf.—total, 4,992,000,000 f. As, however, a considerable quantity of gold which is not officially registered, was sent from both countries, the probability is, says the Debats f that the value of the total export was about 6,500,000000 f. Tothat must be added about 1,500,000,000 f. for -the production during the same period of Siberia, Chili, British Columbia, and the Western coast of Africa: As previously to 1848 there was in circulation about 14,000,000,000 f. worth of gold, the. present amount is 21,000,000,000 f, and the weight is about 7333 tons.