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Lyttelton Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1261, 9 July 1864, Page 3

Giving Emplovment—lndihect Taxation. — Mr. Babbage relates the following illustrative anecdote: An Irish proprietor, whose country residence was much frequented by beggars, resolved to establish a test for discriminating between the idle and the industrious, and also to obtain some small return for the alms he wis in the habit of bestowing. He iccordingly added to the pump by which the upper parf of his house "was supplied with -water a piece of Mechanism so contrived that at the end of a certain lumber of strokes of the pump-handle, a penny fell Hit from an aperture to repay the labourer for his tvork. This was so arranged that labourers who jontinued at the wort obtained very neirly the usual laily wages of labour in that part of the country. Hie idlest of the vagabonds of course refused this lew labour-test; but the greater part of the beggars, ,vhoso constant tale was that " (he;/ could not earn a <air day's waijes for a fair day's work" after earning i few pence, usually went away cursing the hardness >f their taskmaster. —Timbs' Knowledge for the Tune. Fatueii Mathew and Loud Bkoigiiam.—Durng his stay in London, Father Mathew met the nost distinguished men of the day, who hud been in- i rited to meet the great moral reformer. He created i u> small amusement to a large party at the hospi- i able mansion of an Irish Nobleman by his attempts, ; lartly playful, but also partly serious, to make a ! ;onvcrt of Lord Brougham, who resisted good hu- i iiouredly, but resolutely, the efforts of his danger- i ins neighbour. "1 drink very little wine," said Lord ] llrougham, " only half a glass at luncheon, and two ( mlf-glasses at dinner, and though my medical ad- 1 ,'iaer told me I should increase the quantity, I re- 1 'used to do so." " They are wrong, my lord, for ] idvising you to increase the quantity, and you are ! vrong in'taking the small quantity you do ; but I t lave my hopes of you." And so, after a pleasant ] ■esistance on the part of the learned" Lord, Father i tfnthow invested his Lordship with the silver medal 1 md ribbon, the insignia and collar of the new Order s if the Bath. " Then I will keep it," said Lord 1 irougham, " and take it to the House, where I shall t ie sure to meet old Lord , the worse for liquor, ) ind I will put it on him." The announcement of this l ntention was received with much laughter, for the t loble Lord referred to was notorious as a persistent - worshipper of Bacchus. Lord Brougham was as 8 food as his word, for, on meeting the veteran peer, li vho was so celebrated for his potations, he said, t 1 ( I have a present from Father Mathew 1 'or you," and passed the ribbon rapidly over his n teek. " Then 1 tell you what it is Brougham ; by a f ' I will keep sober for this night," said his Lord- C hip, who kept his vow to the great amazement of I lis friends. —Afayuire's Life of Mctthetc. I

" Smith, Knight, and Company (Limited)." — The following, which we take from the Money Market Review of March 26th, refers to a firm which is known in Canterbury as having taken up conditionally the contract for constructing the Lyttelton and Christcluirch Railway. Messrs. Smith and Knight were represented litre by Messrs. Baynes & M'Candlisii:—" it would involve some very elaborate and curious calculations to ascertain the amount of themillions of money that have been expended in the making and maintaining of roads, canals, and railways in Great Britain alone during the last five hundred years. The total would be Astounding. Thousands of miles of railways have been constructed at the cost of hundreds of millions, of money during the last thirty years, and yet thousands ot' miles are still required, and still remain to be made. And all these niillioiis of money, which in fact represent the labor of so many millions of human hands,havebe«n expended in order to economise time and human labour. They are only so much of the productive capital of the country invested by its possessor* with a view to immediate and prospective profit. And all these great works, in so far as they really subserve the purposes for which they were originally designed, are not only profitable to the individuals who have expended their money in their construction, but are the means and sources of profit to the community at large. They economise the time and the labour of the community, and thereby they increase the capacity for producing and the facilities for exchanging those commodities by the production and exchange of which the wealth of the community is continually renewed and increased. There can be no question, therefore, about the advantage of these great public works. The more we have of them where they are required and the sooner we can obtain them the greater will be our means and facilities for increasing the trade and manufactures of the country, and extending its commerce over the world. We have already derived innumerable and enormous benefits in our competition with the traders and manufacturers of other countries from our vast network of railways, and the nation seems to be instinctively alive to this, as is evidenced by the numerous applications to Parliament, in every succeeding Session, for powers to construct additional lines and branch railways in all parts of the country. At present we are in advance of all the other countries of Europe (except Belgium, perhaps) in regard to railway communications; but France, Italy, Austria, Spain, and our various colonies, and indeed all the States in the Old World and in the New are following in our wake as fast as their means and resources will permit. This, we take it, is abundantly manifest by the numerous concessions and contracts which are being continually made or offered to engineers and contractors. And these facts will sufficiently explain the formation of the " Contract Corporation," and its off-shoot the joint-stock firm of "Smith, Knight and Company (Limited)." The business of the Contract Corporation mainly consists of the negociations of concessions and contracts, and of the financial measures connected therewith, and the business of this company will be to undertake the actual construction of the works. The two companies, though independent of each other, are to work harmoniously together, and, in fact, will be feeders to each other. Messrs. Smith and Knight have been well known for nearly a Quarter of a century, as members of the numerically small but infiuentially great and wealthy fraternity of railway contractors. They have been the' actual constructors of several of our principal, and many of our minor lines of railway—amongst which may be mentioned the Great Northern and Western of Ireland, the Longford and Boyle, the Mid Kent, the Crystal Palace and Bromley, the Dartmouth and Torbay, the Hungerford and Devizes, and last, but not least, the underground Metropolitan Railway. The railways they have already constructed amount to several hundreds of miles, and those they have now in actual progress amount to upwards of 300 miles, amongst which are the Hull and Grimsby in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and the Royal Sardinian Railway. They are the constructors also of the fortifications at Sheerness, and in addition to these works in progress they have negociations pending for the construction of upwards of 500 miles of railway. All these contracts in progress and in prospect, and the valuable plant collected together for the execution of them, are ceded to the company, who are also to have the benefit of Mr. Smith's knowledge and practical experience, while Mr. Knight is to be the managing director. The other directors are mostly men of known capacity and aptitude for the business of such a company. Besides several directors of the Contract Corporation, there tire Mr. A. G. Chapman (from Overend, Gurney, and Co.). Mr. Charles Capper, of Mincing-lane, Mr. Coles, of the Royal Insurance Company, and Mr. Leonino, one of the directors of the Royal Sardinian Railway. The nominal capital is to be £4,000,000, in 80,000 shares of £50each, but the first issue will be 40,000 shares only, and of these 20,000 were subscribed prior to the issue of the prospectus, so that only 20,000 shares remain to be allotted to the general public. The deposit on application is £1 per share, and on allotment £4, and the calls are not to exceed £5 per share, at intervals of three months. Only £10 per share will be called, and, should more capital be required, it will be raised by the issue of new shares, and in that case a preference will, of course, be given to the holders of existing shares. This, also, is only another " new firm taking the place of an old one," and, looking to the actual business they have in hand, and to the number of concessions ond contracts for great public works which are continually presenting themselves in every quarter, we see no reason to apprehend that their enormous capital will remain unemployed, and we think at the same time that such a board of directors will take care that it shall be employed for the profit and advantage of the shareholders. There is evidently abundant work to be done, and these are the right sort of men, with ample means to do it and make it pay. The undertaking is so well thought of that the applications are already largely in excess of the company's capital. The shares were quoted to-day 2£ to 2f prem. The list will be closed on Monday for London, and on Tuesday for the country." A Highland Mode of Reckoning.—A Highlander, who had become "unfortunate," came to Glasgow to meet his " friends," that is, his creditors. Of course he was long-headed enough to wait upon a " man of business." The lawyer thought he saw as much from Donald's mumphing, as that if he had been honest to the back-bone the creditors might have looked for full payment, and, truth to tell, they not only thought so, but plainly told this to their Celtic debtor. Donald at first hinted at 5s in the pound. This was indignantly rejected, and the whole terrors of the law threatened against him, which shook his nerves wonderfully, as he told his legal adviser that he did not like •' thae tirty shirra oflishers to be troubling a shentleman." He rose to 10s. in the pound, but beyond that he would not budge ; indeed it was a pretty good fetch. As he lived in a very remote part of the West Highlands, his creditors considered it prudent to accept of this otler, although satisfied that they were deliberately swindled. He granted bills with security for his composition, payable at three and six months aft.;r date. About the end of six months, the lawyer wrote his Highland client, reminding him that the last instalment was about due. In due course he received from Donald a very rough looking epistle, to the following effect " Dear Sir,—l am shust your letter received by Dugald M'Pherson, her next door neeborand cousin. She'll brought it from the Post- offish, as she was coming anyway. Surely ye must pe not rieht about the statement to pay —it pe not due for three months vet. You'll knew it was to pay at three and six month. Now you'll knew that three and six months pe nine months all the world over, and in Glasgow to be surely. I called on Mr. M'Tavish the schoolmaster—clever man Mr. M'Tavish,yes, as in the whole world and Glasgow too; and lie is a cousin of my jtvn—and he said to me, 4 Donald, sure three and lix month be nine month all the world over.' She said that out of her own mouth, and he wondered revy much where you had learned your counting. [ told him that lawyers were fery pad counters; hat poor ignorant podies, they only knowed what ;wo times three and four pence (whauryou'll get the fourpenee ? cot, I'll don't know) shust pe sax and .•ightpence, a thing they are very fond of charging for doing very little. So you'll see I stood your friend with the maister, and you got ofl'pravely. He )itied your poor ignorant podies surely, that did not enow boo many months male nine. But as to the itatement you see that it is no due for three months >ast and to come: i;nd as I am to be in Glasgow in ;wo or three months after that, the bits o' Bills can ie over till I come. them do they, thocht a ihentlcman will not pay dirty bitso' Glasgow weaver jodics. their impudence, if I'll had hem here they would not craw so crouse as they did vhen the'll had he nainsel' in Glasgow. I would nuke them petter pairns wi' my stick o'er their I'.ioutliers. My very plood was poiling when the uncivil pensts turned up their noses at the five hillings, and would have her in jail. Did you'll ever ;new such impudence, to jail a shentleman, a ninejentli cousin of Jura's to. them, if she 11 new then what she'll knew now, : a bawbee less 'or mair they would have got than her five shillings, nd plenty, and too much too. I will saw you soon. root day to you, and mind me to Rory, my cousin •ory. Praw lad, Rory, and very like lus mother. es."