OUR PARIS LETTER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2805, 5 July 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Pakis, April 2, The Eiffel Tower has opened for the season. Sunday, tho 30th March, was phenomonally lovely, in point of weather ; it was a Juno day, that " came before the swallow dares, and took the winds of March with boauty." Some 10,000 asceusionists pilgrimaged up to the platforms of tho Tower, to have a look over Paris and tho environs, on the only faultlessly clear day that we havo had, since tho close of October. M. Eiffel was "at homo" on tho summit, whore ho breakfasted with his family, and representatives from tho Tower officials. M. Eiffel is very confident of reaping a golden harvest this year. Much of his luck will depend on the possession of the Champ do Mars, and its buildings, by tho Municipal Council, in exchango with tho State, for another military parade ground at Issy, that suburban fort about whioh Kaiser William I. at the close of January 1871, telegraphed the " pleasing intelligence, that he had seen the Prussian colours in Fort Issy from his seige batteries. "Opinion is not at all agreed about the conversion of the Champ do Mara into a play-ground, and tho retention of the buildings for shop-shows. The Municipal Council wants primarily to obtain possession of the sito ; but as soon as the architects demand credits to keep the exhibition buildings iu repair the Council will meet the demand by decreeing the demolition of the structure. However, ruins survive a long time in France ; it took eighteen years before the calcined stones of the Tuileries were carted away ; at the present moment the debris of the National Debt Office, on the Quai d' Orsay, and the Palace of St. Cloud, are the happy hunting grounds for botanists.

A series of petit bazaars, a harlequin collection of museums, a succession of special annua or biennial shows, would destroy—as it has done at London—the very principle of decennial International exhibitions. In order that the latter should preserve their authority, power, and khd, they ought not to be discounted in advance by minor displays of a kindred type. A decenni.il World's Fair should always present to the universe a fresh contingent of attractions aud interests. You cannoi serve up twice the the Machinery Hall and the Central Dome. An exhibition hash would be a dish only palatable to the few. M. Alphand cries over the prospect of the demolition of the buildings, as did the Ephesian spouse over her defunct husband. M. Berger would have the relics buried in the deep bosom of the ocean. Poor Castor and Pollux—as assundcr as the Poles !

The abattoir men, or slaughterers, gained nothing by their strike. They object to sheep being slaughtered outride France, and their carcases delivered in Paris. They want tho animals to be im ported alive, and make money by killing them. The Paris deputies coaxed the deputation of tho strikers to wait for tho good time coming —very near it appears, but date unfixed, like the millennium — when sheep from Algeria would arrivo weekly, by thousands.

Prince Bismarck's "adieu to Foutainebleati," did not provoke on the part of the French cither tears or joy. They never denied he was an able man, aad would havo been only too happy, had he been French. They know, that the departure of any great statesman must affect tho policy of his country. Will Emperor William be ablo to be his own MinisterPresident, will ho bo equal to rule the rising waves of democratic socialism ? Germany could not kept indefinitely on Bismarck's drill Bergoant lines, while progress seethed around ; she could not romain uninfluenced, silent, and inert. Bismarck wanted his owu way, his once "favourito pupil " wanted his. Both are pure absolutism. The nation sorrows, after her great statesman, but it has full confidence, in her young Sovereign. Time must decide between the old and the new despotisms.