ENGLISH ITEMS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2050, 27 August 1885, Page 4

ENGLISH ITEMS.

Fraudulent billing of goods has cost our i ail way a many dollars. Shippers who are loud in denouncing alleged evils of disu limitations, rebates, extoitions, etc , should if collect the crookedness that is so common among their own numbers A short time ago a Western shipper wai detected in a paltiy weighing steal which had been going on for some tune. Apd now the Burlington I'm la that lomfi eigtu humlivd of its shippers have neen rte fnndutg it through tnhCf classifications Th" words of the consignors were t ike i a 9 to the goods inclosed in boxes, hut 111M«iti!{ition showed that the goods w u really of higher classifications than they were billed at. This soit nf fi.m lis not new or uqoointnou But it shows what little rii»ht s'nppi'is hi\e, as a ulas*. to rid« a hiyli moial hoise. —Railway Re \ ie\v ThMi'hKWi'K on ti nues to make fearful strides. It his even extended to the JJntish N.ivy. A few days ago a sea«nan asked for leave to go ashore The First Lieutenant took tne oppoitunity to lead him ,i little lecture on the way of spend ing the lei\e, and in some soit to make it a condition that sobnety should be ob served. "I don't mind giving you leave, Mai tin, "he said, "but keep sober and come back on board sober. You are <i t;ood man, and what's the use of getting urnnk ?" Martin stood hesitating, on which the First Lieutenant repeated his question. "Quite true, sir," said Martin, " but then what's the use of me going ashore if I don't get drunk ?"— Vanity Fair. Thr surplus of unemployed money in the associated banks of New York is still on the increase, and the reserve above that required now amounts to §6 .',000,000. Money is superabundant ; and yet in almost every industry the profit diffeience between cost and selling price of ai tides is so small, or so often a minus quantity, the capitilists cannot be induced to invest ; nor indeed is it desuable that they should seek to inctease the productive capacity of industries that aie suffering fiom over pioduction On the 3ime day tint Victor Hugo entered the Klysian Held", Joseph Big, r ai obtained his niche in the National V.il halla. He has joined the company of the Immortals at Madam Tussaud's, wheie -.isitors had the pleasuie to pjieeive him, in a handsome silk waistcoat and fair broadcloth frock coat, apparently invit ing, with levelled and ironical forefinger, Mr Michael Day ltt's mobt serious attention to the absurdly exaggerated dress improver worn by Is ibulla, ex-f^ieen of Spain. — Court Journal. According to a recent return, th:ue are in the Empiic of Japan 147*2 police stations, 2936 iuspcctoia, and "Ji.oO? constables "Vvscty FAiK"saj'3: English Primp Ministers have been an the whole a long lived class Since 1800 theie have been eighteen. Of these but one was a; bachelor, and he died — a watniiig for all time to unmarried statesmen —at fortysix, the youngest on the list. Then, in point of early age at death, followed Spencer Pitch al, assassinated at fifty ; Canning, who died at fifty seven ; Lord Liveipool — whoso adiniiiistiatiou was by far the longest, fifteen yeais— at fifty eight ; Peel, through an accident, at sixty two ; Loid Ripon, who resigned in 1828, at sixty so\cn. As to the rest, Lord Sidmouth resignc 1 in 1801, and died at eighty seven ; Lird G envillu resigned in 1807, and died in 1834, at seventy-five ; the Duke of Portland died at seventy one ; Lord Grey at eighty-OHe ; Lord Melbourne at sixtynine ; Lord Russell at eighty-five ; Lord Derby at seventy; Loid Aberdeen at seventy-six ; Lord Palmciston at eighty-one Pitt, Canning, Palmerston and Spencer Percival died in ofliee. Seven of these Ministers have no in lie descendants of their name Canning s widow received a viseounty, with lemainder to her son, but he died without issue, and his sister's only son is over fifty and unmarried

WHO O\\ V> Tllh HOMFS Ot THE FALLhX ? London is not the only city in the wOlw 01 Id in which pretentious men fatten upon the wages ot sin. We hold up 01 r holy hands with horroi at the re\ elation of the l.ill Mall Gazette, and thank God that we are not as other men aic, and that we live not in the Sodom and Gomorrah of England's capital. We praise the coinage of a journal published ne veil thousand miles away, hut if a newspaper nearer homo were to undertake a similar task, with equally good reason, we should go into hysterics, howl about "pf rsonal journalism," cry " blackmail," whine o\ei the degeneracy of the press, and say a ho-<t of othei disagreeable things. Such exposures, made at a safe distance, aie admirable, because we are not inteiusted, except to the extent of rather liking to sec otliei people shown up. Bung them right home to our own city and the case is altogether changed. Yet, theie is room in our very midst for just aiich revelations as we are landing a distant news paper for engaging in. Who owns Morton stieet? What capitalist-" faim out the property situated on Belden Place '' Whose mines appeal on the t,i\ payers roll for the housis on D.ipont .stieet, between California and Slitter ? Who are the men who diaw double rents for tenements let for immoral pin poses in Chinatown ? If these questions were probed to the bottom and iniwerod with truth, without fear, there would be some strange facts and names to riveal And why should not such reflations be nude from good motives, and for the fuither ance of justifiable ends? Why howl at immorality in low pines, whilst winking at it in high ones ? Why send a weak, tempted and fallen sist< r to obsciuit\, deatli and peidition, whilst her rich landloni is accounted icspuetable by reason of his possissiou of the \ery shtki Is which aie the* wage of hei iniquity ' \\ Inch of the two is the greatest en< my of society ? For which should society icseive its .sternest frown? Without nch, or comparatively rich, propei ty owners, there could be no houses of ill repute. Inquiry would bliow that exceptionally hii»h rents are exacted in such cases. Yet we anathematize one class whils we smile on the other. Verily, this is astiange world. — News Letter.

RKCIPROCITT TREATIK*. Reciprocity is a good word. It means an equal, mutual, gning and tnking, as when we speak of reciprocal love ; that is a fair exchange of affection for affection. Applied to commercial treaties between one nation and another, it means any equal exchange of advantages w ith mutual benefits to both. Treaties •vhieh are not merely reciprocal in name, but aie bo in fact, are most excellent arrangements, of which we cannot have too many. It ii the duty of statesmanship to see that they aie truly what their- name indicate*, and, that point duly attended to, there tan not only be no objection to reciprocal treaties, but the more of them the better A trpaty of thit kind is, we think, the best sort of annexation It is the method by which we should seek to attach to us all our surrounding neighbour;*. If it be found upon due investigation, as we think it will be, that the United States cm advantageously enter into reciprocal Arrangement-* for the mutual exchange of pioducts with every country, great and sm.ill, .on the American Continent, then it would seem the pa.it of wisdom to make such agree mints. This is unely the safest, easiest and bis>t way to give the fnllest scope to the pi maples rmbiaced In the Monroe Doctrine. Under commercial tie.ities great intereits giow up which unite people together m the strongest of bonds. Where strong mutual interests exist, little misunderstandings are not likely to make much headway. The tieaty negotiated by Cobden and Napoleon 111. ha 3 done more to preserve the peace bet : eon England and Franco than all othrr influences combined. Unite tliii entire Continent together by the tiea of mutually beneficial trade and Lommeice, and then we s'lall bo practi cally one Union that no outside influences

nny lend asunder. In this direction fie re is 100 m for the display of a good deal of \msc fin ethonglit and statesman ship. Fiom Cinadi on the nbrth to ('lull on the south thi-ic is not a $overuincnt tint would'not be glad ta negotiate a rcuipiouty tufcty J with the United States The fiamv is tnu 1 of most <<f the o nuitriM located around the Pacific Oci'nn. We nctd new inaiKi-ts. C.mrot rcciptooity trcvtic-. bo so nrgotntul as fo procure them foi us?-S F News Letter