THE CORSAIRS OF FRANCE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2447, 17 March 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE CORSAIRS OF FRANCE.

In this work Mr Norman presents a series of interestinLr sketches of six of the mo-t rotioivni'd cersnirs—or, as we should say, privateersmen— of France. Gallant men and splendid sailors they wore, and it is impossible for us to withhold our admiration for their daring deeds, even though they were rewarded so often at our own expense. Jean Bart, Duguay Trouin, and Francois Thurot belong 1 to tho first half of tho last century, or earlier; but Leveillu and Snrcouf preyed on English commerce during the wars which sprang out of tho French Revolution, in what is almost, our own time. The importance of tho author's work, he considers, lies in the waniinpr these, records fi'ivo us. If the French privateer inflicted such an amount of mischief durbar a-formor wencrnfion, ho will, in case of war, bo able to do the same again, and to an extent so much greater, as our commerce has expanded, unless very special precautious an; taken. During thu last war, tho number of KnL'lish vessels c:ipi invd by the French is shown iu the appendix to have been 10.871. Letters of marque during tho same period arc stated to have been issued to British vessels to the number of 10,005, but no record is }, r iven as to the prizes secured by these. In looking over tho list of the French privateers captured, nil but a dozen or so fell to vessels of the royal navy—the total number being lOliil vessels, with 9-100 guns and 09,1-17 men — a sullicienlly formidable total. It does not come within our province to discuss the questions raised by Mr Norman, but there can be no doubt that much of his work is well timed, and his warnings and suggestions deserving of attention,

THE BRITAIN OF THE SOUTH. ■ ♦— We quote the following passages from the account published by Dr. Cameron Loes, Edinburgh, of his recent visit to New Zealand :— The southern island, up which I travelled, seemed to me as fertile as a garden. There were great tracks of flat land divided into large fields by trim hedges of gorse, and cultivated in a style worthy of Mid-Lothian—green knolls on which cattlo and sheep pastured— while away in the back ground rose the great dividing range, a great part of it taken up by Highland sheep stations. It looked like an old settled country, and very like home, and lial about it nothing of that newness which marks Australian cultivation, even at its best, where girdled trees and projecting stumps are generally visible. There were farms near Inveroargill and at Oamarti and Timaru finer, I think, than anything of the kind I over saw. One farmer had last year three thousand acres under wheat, and thirty reapers and. binders at work. Machinery is universally used for all purposes where .it is applicable. But as the price of wheat is miserably low at present, farmers who depend upon graingrowing, like many of those, in the South Island, are suffering groatly. This depression has prevailed in Now Zealand for the last flvo or six years. The real causo is the price of the produce of the country, particularly wool, tallow and wheat. The taxation is indeed heavy, owing to the amount of money the country has borrowed ; but if the settlers could get back the old prices they would think little of the taxation. My friend of this bush station at one time got as high a price as Is Id per lb for wool in I Loudon, whereas now the price rauges from Sd to !)d for the same description of wool. Tallow ho can't send home at a profit. 'No doubt,' ho added, ' peopls in Europe lookiug at the debt of the colony, are frightened to come out ; but if the pi-ices of produce were anything like what they were that fear need not exist.' Much was expected from the trade of frozen meat; but as yet the expectations formed have not been realised. At the same time, it has taken surplus stock which in former years had to be boiled for tallow. The profit in frozen meat is very small It brings from /id to 5-Jd wholesale in London, and out of this has to come freight, insurance, commission and other charges, so that the margin is very little. The profit goes to the middleman, who sells for 8d what ho buys for Id. In the shops in New Zealand towns prime beef can bo bought from 2d to 4d a pound, and mutton from ald to 2d. All kinds of produce are correspondingly cheap. In the North Island they have almost given up growing wheat, and find it more profitable to rear sheep and cattle even at those prices.