BEER-DRINKING AND TOBACCO-SMOKING. (From Land and Water, April 12.)

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 183, 10 July 1873, Page 2

BEER-DRINKING AND TOBACCO-SMOKING. (From Land and Water, April 12.)

In the last century, the year 1722 was that in which the proportion between the quantity of beer consumed and thenumber of drinkers was greatest. At that period our population'nmounted to 6,000,000, and the number of barrels of beer they drank was about tho same — viz., 6,000,000, or oneto each person. More than a century later, in 1833, our inhabitants numbered 14,000,0C0 soul», and the average annual consumption of beer for the three years preceding the repeat of the beer duty amounted to 8,200,030 barrels, a remark* able diminution. The average consumption per head at the present date is difficult to ascertain. In 1722 only 370,000 pounds of tea, or about an ounce to each person, were consumed in this country; in 1833 the annual average had risen to 2^lbs per head. 31,337,0001bs of tea ha^e been, biought into England during the past three months, and wemay now reckon that every one of us consume <llbs in thecourse of a year. Tea lias in fact been gradually superseding beer among all classes of the community. As to coffee, we have no returns previous to 1760. The quantity consumed at that date was only 2G5,0001bs or to each person ; m 1833 this rate had increased to lilbs a man, and it now apparently has sunk again to lib per head. In 1722 again we find that each individual drank about half-a-galloa of spirits in tho same course of a 3 ear. In 1833 this rate had risen to G 7ths of a gallon, and it stood at nearly 4-sths of a gallon in the year IS7I. The taste for spirituous liquors, therefore, appears to be slightly on the inciease. This i will be the nioie apparent when we remember how much the reduction of wine duties, and the consequent influx of cheap light wines, must in itself have tended to reduce the consumption of spirits, at least among the more educated classes. We may go on to argue on the same inferences, with regard to the present average consumption of beer, that though we ha\ c but scanty statistics to. guide us, yet we may conclude that there has been a diminution in the amount, for as tea, coflfee, and spirits — not to speak of light Continental wines — are now much moreused than in former days, we cannot expect a population which consumes such much greater quantities of other beverages to dunk also at the same time a larger amount of beer. When from these articles we turn to tobacco, we find that smoking is a practice which is growing in popularity. 1841, the consumption averaged 13joz per head of the population j in 1871, it has iisen to lib sJoz. Let us in conclusion warn our readers that the active demand for tobacco has enormously stimulated adulteration. Out of 404 samples sent by the excise officers, last year tor examination, 174 turned out to be adulterated either with rice-starch, liquorice gum, logwood, caramel, sugar or salt of iron iv proportions ranging; from 4 per cent of rice-starch, to 44 per cent, ot liquorice.

The Massacrk of St BumtoLOUEW. — The signal was given by the murder of the wounded admiral ; the bonds of the Court took each a district of Paris, so as to make a harvest of death in which tlieie should be no need for gleaning ; they were joined by crowds of good Catholics, whosesouls had been stirred to frenzy hy tße piou3 message of the priests that the heretics were hated by Heaven, and were to be destroyed, with an utter destruction. So the work of blood went on for three days and three nights. Nobles,, gentlemen, and plebeian people, philosophers, scholars, and preachers, grey-headed men, women, children, and the baby at the breast lay dead in the streets and the houses,, or were swept down by the flooded Seine. The Court, it is eaid X would have stopped the massacre if it couM ; but fanaticism, is too fiery a steed, to be pulled up by the toy bridle of a kingly message, and the people had too w ell learned the lesson of the priests to forget how to practice it when the preachersof heresy lay within their grasp. And so the maasacee spread to Meux, Orleans, and Ljons, gathering such strength of fury that in some places the gutters ran with blood, and until forty, fif-y, sixty, or seventy thousand Frenchmen and Frenchwomen had been sent before the throne of that God who is tho best judge of theological propositions. Never had so tremendous a blow been given to hei esy. And* the Holy Father was full of becoming thankfulness. When, before the Pope and assembled cardinals, the Cardinal Secretary of •Stato read tho despatch of tho Nuncio Salviatn, Gregory said that the tidings were more welcome to him than iifty battles of Lepanto, and the holy band walked straight to church to sing a "TeDeum" unto the God of Mercies. That night the gun? of St Angelo founded forth their jubilation, and for three nights tho illuminated streets of theEternal City carried to far-off peasants the glad tidings that tho enemies of (leaven had been slain. When the fulness ami precise character of the vengeance had bean further borne to h»s ears, tho Holy Father went to the Church of San Luigo, with 33 of his cardinals, to bear mass in token of gratitude. And ho proclaimed a jubilee to tho Christian world. And in a solemn bull he announced that, since God) had enabled tho King of France to pour cut vengeance on the heretics who had defaced religion, and to punish the chiefs of the rebellion which had laid waate the country, all Catholics should pray that he might have grace to iinish what had been so well begun. Tlie skill of a medallist was called in to stamp the symbol of tho great victory in everlasting bras 3; and the skill of the painter was invoked to give, it the glory of fitting line and hue. The rose of g01d.,, was the high and holy gift which denoted the deptk of th©^ Papal gratitude to Charles. — Prater's Magazine. jt A Codple op Bhtttes — There is no mistake about fc. when the uncultivated Britain or Hibernian has brutal tendencies, he is "all out" a brute, and he usually practices in tho wife beating line. On lacking a legal subject, he singles out some unfortunate wretch of the weaker sex on whom his savage nature maj hare full play. The Pall Mall Gazetiegives a couple of instances in its own forcible language :: — ■ "If ever household affections and loves are graceful;rlnngs, says Dukens, they are graceful to the poor. Tho ties that bind the wealthy and tlie proud to home may bo forged on earth, but those which link tho poor- man to his humble hearth are of the fine metal and bear the stamp of beaten. The poor, however, should remember that Dickens in speaking of domestic ties made of pure metal did not allude to fryingpans, which when applied bv the working man on his humble hearth for tho purpose of breaking his wife's head aro diverted from the*V proper use. Mr Patrick Hogan, who was charged at Westmuibter Police Court with feloniously wountlin • Ins wifo with ml cut to do her some grievous bodily harm, «vnn to labor under some misapprehension, on. thia point, anil to have altogether hazy notions on the subject of domestic links. The proceedings at the Court opened with tho exhibition of a broken frying-pan 'very much bent,' its. grotesquo appearance having been caused by tho extreme iolence with which it htul descended on the head of Mrs Ho^an, who stated that w hen employed in getting her husband's supper, he camo homo drunk, and beat her about tho head with the fry ing-pun till she became insensible. Indeed > so terrible woro tho blows inflicted that, according to tho evidence of the house surgeon of St George's Hospital, they put the woman's life in great jeopardy. Mr Wogan was committed for triil, making room at tho bar for Patrick Gearing, wh) was also sent for tihl for c instising his child, Margaret, aged 10 with undue seventy — namely, by breaking her head against the wall, kicking her and dragging her by the hair of her head until she was so injured that the house surgeon at Westminster Hospital despaiiud of her life." Which ?— Kate Stanton, in her. lecture on "The Loves of Great Men," asserts that the planets retolve nround tbo { s uu by the influence of love, like a child revolves about his. parent. When tho writer was a boy, be used to re\olvo nround his piiront a good deal, and may ha\e been incited thereto by love, but to an unprejudiced observer it looked powerfully like n strap. — American paper. Making up fou Lost Time.— lt is hinted that a woman in Connecticut, whose speech, was lately restored alter 13 yea.'s' silence, is making up for lost time.

A Chinese Flvvvin the Indictment. — The Hongkong Daily Press publishes an account from Soochow of a murder so horrible thar, were it not for our lato experience 1 of what civilised nations are capable of in moments of excitement, it would be scarcely credible. The crime was the result of a breach of trade custom. It appears, according to the correspondent, that the goldbeaters of Soochow Imro it, among other old customs, that a master goldbeater can only engage one apprentice at a time, and that is limited to largo shops only. The apprentice is bound for three years, and the master cannot employ another until the expiration of (hat term. A master goldbeater, however, head of the guild, tried to break through tlu> custom bj employing a new apprentre before the tune of the old one had expired. This the members of the craft resisted. The magistrate before whom the case was brought decided that the master was legally right, but recommended, for the sake of peace and quietness, that he would not employ more than one apprentice. This advice he foolishly declined to follow, and, being threatened by the workmen, as Led assistance from the Yamen to protect him. The workmen at last invited bun to the guild-hall to talk matters orer. He went, guarded by some Yamen runners. When ho arrived at theguild-hnll ho was dragged in, the doors closed, and the runners were excluded, in spite of all tliuir efforts to gain an entrance. Shortly they heard cries of murder from the goldbeater, and rushed off for the magistrate. When this oflleer arrived he readily gained admittance, and a hornb'e sight met his view. A man, naked jjad already dead, was bound to a pillar, covered fro.n heal to foot with noun Is caused by the teeth of 120 human beings. The magistrate closed tlio doors to prevent tho culprits from escaping, and asked a Jit tie girl, the daughter of the porter, to point out the ringleaders and relate what she saw. They first stripped their \ictun, and bound him to a pillar. He was then told that he was to be bitten to death for having broken the customs of the craft. Ho was then set upon and bitten to death by theso savages. Moreover, the Chinese do not ■think that tlic .ringleaders will be convicted of murder, as the laws do not provide any death punishment for biting a person to death ! Soochow and Sheffield may now •compete for pre-eminence m Trades' Union atrocities. Sales of Shorthokn Cattle. — Yestemay the Booth portion of the herd belonging to Mr 11. A. Brassey, M.P., at Preston-hall, Kent, was submitted to unreserved auction by Mr Thornton, of London. The sale comprised 31 cows and heifers Cud seven bull calves, bred from Mr Torr's herd in Lincolnshire, and the celebrity of tho stock attracted a lar«'e atttnt*i*t 3e of breeders from all ports of England, Ireland, and tho colonies. Among those present were: — Mr T. C. JBooth, Mr Torr, Mr Pole-Gell, Mr Waldo, Mr Ajlmer, Mr Gamble, Mr Atkinson, Rev J. Storer, Mr Jacob Wilson, Mr Holy, Mr Sheldon, Mr Leney, &.c. Mr W.ikeham Martin, MP , presided at the lunch, where about 200 sat down. The 'following are the more important prices — Con s, Bright Halo and calf, 5 year 3 old, 318 guineas (T H Smith, Australia) ; Bright Diadem, 3 years, 300 guineas (W. Bolton, Ireland) ; Warrior's Crest, 4 jears, 150 guineas (R Blncknnll, Derby) ; Wave Itise, 4 years, 1*23 guineas (J. P. Tlaslani, Lancashire) ; Bright Kinglet, 4 years, a very beautiful cow, 410 guineas i(T. 11. Miller, Lancashire) ; Water Crocus, 4 years, 160 guineas (T. Rose, Norfolk) ; Wave Queen, 2 years, 185 guineas (E. S. Hardinge, Kent) ; Brunette, a yenrling, 135 guineas (T. Rose) ; Wreath, a calf, 315 guineas (W. Shavklady, Norfolk). The femr.le portion averaged £116, and the young bulls £10 ; only 13 lots, including all the bulls, remain soutl) of the Thames. The late Lord Southampton's herd, sold last month, averaged £13 ; and a drauglit from Mr Faulkner's herd, at Rothersthorpe, £15. The bull calves bred last 3 car in the Storrs herd, the property of the Rev T Staniforth, were sold last week at Wmdermere at an average of £(51 Tl c general scarcity of all farm stock, the high rpnee of meat, and the abundance of fodder are still keeping aip tlu high prices of last season ; and the demand among ordinary farmers for bulls tends fo indicate Bhat more cattle ■are likely to be bred in tho country. — Times, April 4. KiDXAi'Pixo a Solicitor.— lt is to be hoped that the solicitor of Newport, in the Isle of Wight, who.jit is stated, has just returned home after being kidnapped in London, and confined in "a loathsome den " near the river, from ■which place he was ransomed for £20 by his friends, wftl kindly consent to give such further particulars of his adventures to the police as will enable them to bring to justice the perpetrators of this outrage. It is a disgrace to civilisation that tho bandits in Greece should have so long been permitted to puisue their nefarious occupations with impunity, but that a gang of bandits should exist in London, and having captured a solicitor should detain him until he is ransomed is almost incredible even in these days of incomprehensible police administration. Assuming the story to be tine, there can be little doubt that, looking to the success which has attended this capture, kidnapping will soon become quite fashionable among the criminal classes, and " loathsome dens " will be established in all directions. Solicitor stealing will become as common as dog stealing, and we shall hear of fire or si\ solicitors being found chained together in a cellnr until their friends offered a sufficient number of six-and-eightpenccs to tempt their gaolers to relent thorn It is surely quite as wrong to steal a solicitor ns to steal a dog, and if a poodle or a pug had been subjected rto the same treatment as thia gentleman of Newport, the police would surely not have allowed the offenders to escape punishment. — Pall Mall Gazette. The Bn3r Oath for Chinamen.— Chinese witnesses, as most of our readers know (says a Queensland journal), are sworn in our courts of justice by blowing out a candle or a match. It appear* from a case recently tried at the Towers that the Chme»o do not consider such an oath binding, and that the evidenco given on it is no moro reliable than if the ceremony were not gone through at all. Ono Ah Queo summoned Ah Pack in the Petty Debts Court, and being sworn in the above manner gave conclusive evidenco to provo his case, and got a verdict. But Ah Pack moved for a new trial on the giound that the lucifer oath was not considered binding, and his application was granted. On the case being recalled, Ah Pack came provided witli several young cocks, the plaintiff and witnesses to "be sworn by decapitating the said cocks. Ah Quee was not "game" for this oath, and would not repeat his evidence ; so that Ah Pack got a verdict in his favour this time, and Ah Quee retired discomfited and presumedly a perjurer. It appears the Chinese think that if they giro* false evidence on this oath, they will bo condemned to remain headless in the other world. We would recommend the abovo to tho notice of police magistrates, policemen, and all who may have lawsuits with Chinese. A case was recently brought before the Resident Magistrate's Court, Blenheim, of considerable interest to Odd Fellows aud Friendly Societies genei ally. It was one in 'which a medical practitioner sued an Odd Fellow for the recovery of £4 4s for medicine and attendance to his family during the month of December last. The claim was disputed on tho ground that defendant was entitled to such services as a member of the Odd Fellows' Lodge. The case was gone into at considerable length, and it appealed, from evidence as published in the Marlhorontjh Express, that the defendant owed money to the lodge, -which he should have paid on the 28th December, °o\\ lodge night, and in lo.lge hours. This he neglected to do, having arrived at the lodge when it was closing. Defendant paid the money to the secretary at the door, and was credited with the .aim mat. His Worship having examined the by-laws of the Society, said the time and place of meeting was therein defined, and it was also laid down that all business should be done and money 3 paid durin" the hours named in the rules. It was also provided that all moneys due be paid on the last lodge night in June and December ; he must hold, therefore, that all money be paid in lodge hours, and it was shown that in this case the defendant had not done s» -, he must give judgment /or the plaintiff, £4 4s, with £2 13s costs. At the close of a criticism on the Rev. H. N. Wollas■ton's sermon on " The Immortality of Man, and His l?Jf,ure Punishment," the Bishop of Melbourne, in the latt number of the Church of England Messenger, thus states hi 3 views regarding the future condition of the wicked:—" That the wicked as well ac the righteous shall rise again at the last day, and that the wicked shall be east into the everlasting fire of hell, appears to be so plainly declared in the Scriptures, so distinctly affirmed by our church, that I cannot understand how any clergyman can assume a right to teach or hold the contrary ; but whether they shall continue to exist for ever 'in torments,' or be finally consumed by that fire, is a question concerning which I have been for many years, and ilia content still to remain, undecided. It seems to me, like many other 3, one of doubtful disputation, upon which l/hmtiaua in general, and clergyman of our own church in paiticular, may be allowed to differ, and in respeot to ■which none should condemn or quart el with a brother for not agreeing with him." When some di amatie professionals were leaving Westport somewhat suddenly last week, they omitted" to pay the bellman for crying their performances during the nights they were playing. The bellman was indignant, and during the time of the starting of the Kennedy, and for a good half hour before., he stood on the wharf, bell in huid, which was freely handled at frequent intervals, exclaiming. "Here's a lot of wagabonds by Act of Parliament has been and done me out of ten days of my lungs; they are gnng away and lobbing me out of my rights! One of them's the gentleman with a. white hat standing near the wheel, and the other is a gentleman with a blue wail over his face which don't hide it a bit, and there's another gentleman with no soles to his boots, &c . &c." And so the bellman continued identifying the regenade professionals, and announcing that he had been done out of two pound ten's worth of lung power. A brave little boy in Ohio found a broken rail on the railway line, and, percemng the peril in which the tram would be placed if it should come dashing past without warning, sat out on the fence for five long hours in the winter cold m order that he might carry the first jiewsof the accident to l, w f.uho,. mI, is 1.,1,1 c litor of a paper published in the neighboring village.

A bit of a fashionable gossip, in which it appears that Isew Zealand is specially 'interested, is thus retailed by an Wish paper:-" There has been a meiaM,ntcemhi«h hie > which is causing no little tills. Tlie bndegroom^s said to be the third S( ,n of a IVer of the United' Kingdom—a mere stripling who ] v{t coUc on , lasfc BUinmcr °. anil ho has recently mimed one of his father's housemaids In spite ot the most rigid sumtiny by lawyers and others no g.oun 1 can be discovered for annulling the contract. The thin- is being kept ve.y quiet, and the young folks are to be sent off to i\e» Zealand to on-.ve in sheep farming The gul, though a housemaid, is well educated, and was at one time a pupil m one of the Edinburgh Normal Schools." The immense amount of ink included in the stationery account of the Pennsylvania Legislature was an inexplicable mjsrery until seme one discovered that a shrewd whiskey rtcaler in the neighborhood was a largo dealer in empty ink JJolUes, which were refilled and vended under the label of Jixtra Writing Fluid, warranted not to corrode the pen." An American was asked what he thought of the famous statue, the Venus do Medici, and he replid, " Waal, stranger, 1 guess I don't care much for those gals." Mr Howolls, in Ins A enetian Life," snys he saw an English family stop before litmn's " John the Baptist," and heard the father emu up his impressions in one sentence, " Quito my idea of the party's character ! " Gallant CAPrux.— A lady with an unmusical voice irsisted upon singing at a party. ' What does she call that,' inquired a guest. 'The Tempest,' I think, 1 answered •nother. 'Dont ba ala-med,' said an old sea-captain present, Ihat sno tempest ; it's only a squall, and will soon be over. Happy.— Scolding Female (to husband No. 2) : ' Oh, if you only knew the difference between you, wretch, and mv first husbaud ! ' Husband :'I do know the difference. He is nappy now that he has left you, and I was happy before I got you.' lJ A Good Disguise.— A well-known and easily-to-be-recog-nised Communist having escaped from France, " How on I earth, asked one Parisian detective of a colleague, " did he mamu^ to reach the frontier? What disguise did he adopt ? " " Oh," replied the latter, "he put on gloves ! " Two Evemful Periods.— There are two eventful periods m the life of a woman — one, when sho wonders whom she will marry; the other when sho wonders who will marry her. ' If a menaeerle went to Camel, and a leopard was born there why would it be a giraffe ?— Because it would be a Cameleopard. If you drop a can into the river Can, do they tinkle ? An American speculator has commenced business on the great coming event for 1871— namely, the transit of Venus. He advertises front seats at one hundred dollars. Melancholy Suicide.— A little boy, on being threatened with a whipping, hung his head. Ladies travelling across the American plains carry their hair in their pockets to avoid being scalped.