Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1895. THE COST OF LIVING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XVII, Issue 3594, 22 May 1895, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1895. THE COST OF LIVING.

In the last number of the Review of Reviews, the Australian editor points i out a striking but almost unnoticed feature in the social life of the colonies —the great fall in the cost of living. Wages, no doubt, have shrunk ; capital earns less ; the price of every product has tumbled down in tragical fashion ; but by way of partial compensation, at least, the general coat of living has never been so cheap since the discovery of gold. A writer in one of the Sydney journals publishes a comparative table of prices of the chief necessaries of life in 1889 and 1895 respectively. The following are the figures he gives ; — April 6, 1889. April 6, 1895. Meat—sd per lb. Meat—lJd per Ib, Butter—ls lOd per lb Butter— 6d per lb. K.gfrg—ls 7d per doz. Kgjgs—la per doz. Milk—6d per quart Milk—Sil per quart Bread—3d per loaf Bread—2£d per loaf Flour—£l2 10s per Flour—£Q lQa per ton too ■'■ Tea—ls 6d per lb. Tea—ls per lb. Sugar—2^l per lb. Sugar-^2d per lb. Potatoes—£6 per ton Potatoes- £3 5s per ton It is added by Dr Fitchett that the rates are Syduey rates, and the table uncertain, for the reason that there is no guarantee that the price represents the same quality of goods in c teh case; but the general fall in price is remarkable, and extends over the whole area ot what may be called domestic expenditure, from rents to tram fares, And it may be added to this that what is true of Sydney is equally true of Melbourne and all the Australian cities. So also is it true of New Zealand from one endof it to the other. A slight exception may, perhaps, be made in the case of some of $he gojldfields, in those districts which #pc far removed from thjo centres of population, and for other reasons are difficult of apcesjS.tp thje garrpr of produce. Bu|b all rgund, there can b,e no doubt that the purchasing power of Is to-day is certainly equal, as Dr J?itchett claims, to U §d four of five years ago. And were similar tables tQ that of t\}e Sydney compiler prepared for Ashr burton to-day they would show a decrease quite equal to the 'Sydney fill. Could a table showing the fall in wages be similarly prepared a decrease of fully twenty-five per cent, would be manifest, so that if the earnings of the jlabo^er jhaj/j© been reduced the spending power o£ what lie doef j?e,ceive has been increased. At any"ral;e LQn# has <m)y to look at the prices quoted in prdvision and clothing dealers' advertisements to see that we do not require to Hfty fo-day anything: like what was rewMirf.fiS.in 1880. MA if we make comparison d *fea W lcm Paid b? the worker at ffome for' hi? <fyppt£g requirements with those p#id in jthjis colony, it will be sepn that th,e Npw Zealand working man has largely tbe advantage. Fr<tsraftt and Gomfattm^New Vjnm ,

Theodore Voorhees puDiisnes in tne Engineering Magazine for February a review of coming improvements in railroads. They chiefly the RAILROAD OF have to do with the THK future. United States, but some of his suggestions may be of interest to Knghsh and colonial readers He say* th-ifc in the permanent iray before m*ny jears thi woudtn lie and shore «pik« will disappear from our tracks. It goes without) saying that, in the construction of the railway of the future, woodtn structure?, such as • culverts, trestles, and bridges, will nofc be \ permitted: Openings of any sort in the surface of the roadbed ought nob to exist. When the permanent w»y is improved, losomotives will be built and put together so as to offer the leas'" resistance to the wind. When this iB done he anticipates a ppeed of one hundred mites an hour will not be unusual. An engine is running to-Jay that has mo^pd a train a mile in thirty-six seconds—a rate of one hundred miles an hour. With improved track, ho obstructions, no possibility of collision, and an alignment free from sharp curves, one hundred miles an hour ought to be as ta<ty of accomplishment as sixty is to-day. The chief revolution to which he looks forward to will be the utilisation of the sun's rays, Possibly the future m»y develop some plan of drawing power directly from the rays of the sun. If, then, this power can be transferred into electricity and Btored, theie will ensue a revolution as great as when Watt discovered the power of steam. Then power will be limited, not by the cost and production of coal, but by the number of days of sunshiny each year, and transportation will be brought within the means of all. He also thinks that disputes between employer and employed will gradually cease. Oif March 21, the annual dinner was held of the British Association of Municipal Corporations. " The the imperial ■ Army and Navy " was, uavy. of course, one of the toasts honored. It was acknowledged by Admiral Field and Lord Roberts, The Admiral said the corporations represented the law on shore, and he represented the law on the high seas and though their law might not be so accurate, their arguments were far more conclusive, and from their decision there was no appeal (laughter). Naval men were thankful that the Government had realised the situation, and had made demands on the country to maintain the sea power of England. They were proud of their Municipal Corporations, but they and the Lord Mayor and- Corporation of London and the London County Conncil would never have had an existence had it not been for our sea power (cheers). It was Trafalgar that saved those institutions (cheers), and in the presence of the distinguised General near him (Lord Roberts) he said that it was Trafalgar, and not Waterloo that saved the Empire (cheers). Governments came and went like penny ' rolls (laughter), but the people of England who made and unmade them, were determined that, whatever Government was in power, the Naval supremacy of England should be maintained (cheers).

Lord Roberts followed for the Army. He said he had been associated with the Army

for more than two score the British years, and, though it was army. '... a very Bmall one, they

might believe him when he told them that he doubted if there was better material to be found in any Aimy in the world. Thejofficers, with scarcely an exception, were keen and zm'ous * the non-commif sioned offiers were, as a rule, steady and trustworthy, and the men were obedient and brave. With such material our AnujF ought never to be found wanting, and he was satisfied that it never would be if only it was properly trained. They, who had been so successful in civil life, and were so largely responsible for th 6 administration pf our great towns, knew well that those who worked for them and for whom they worked could not do so well in their several paths of life if they, had not^been made masters of their trades and' professions, and thoroughly conversant with their various duties. It was precisely the pame with tha Army. Officers could not be expected to handle troops successfully in time of war unless they had learned in time of peace how the sever*! arm* coald be most advantageously worked singly and in combination. Non-commiisioned officers could not be looked to to control their sections on the field of battle with that coolnese and precision whish were essential to success unless they had been properly trained and taught what was expected tf them ; and the soldiers could not be depended upon to be expert wi h their weapons unless they could practice with them, and to carry out their orders intelligently amid turmoil and excitement unless they had in more peaceful momenta been taught to comprehend movements and obey commands. The preliminaries of military education could be learned in the barrack squire, and as soon as soldiers had ceased to be apprentices they must gee into the open country, and put their learning to the test. Campa of exercise cost money, and available ground in the United Kingdom was limited; but practice was so essential for the efficiency of our army, that he trusted that they, the experts of our great Municipal Corporations, would do the best in their power to encourage local equips (cheers), and that >those who where in Parliament would support) the Ministers in their endeavors to get funds for rcanpe'ivres on an extended scale (cheers^. Efe also urged on | them the glaims of discharged soldiers for preferential employment in their Municipal and mercantile undertakings, saying that it w*s hardly creditable to a great country like England that the men who fought her battles and guarded her possessions should, on leaving the Army, be left to a life of poverty, and, in many cases, have to seek the refuge of the workhouse. The Stmidards report from which we take the speech Bays nothing about any cheers following the last sentence.

On MaTh 21 Paris celeb.rafcecj the midliQntfete in extremely mild feather. The boulevards and principal A Parisian streets were the scene of FETE. really extraordinory ani-

maticm, and the procession was constantly brought to a standstill, notwithstanding the detachment; of mounted gendarmes that preceded it- to clear the iyay. The decorated chariots and cars, ornamonted with tinse} and flowers, were certajnly more numerous, and yet more tasteful than ijsual. The disguises of fche, inasqueracfers were also less commonplace 'than on former occaeiona. Many of them either represented well known persons, or were skits on subjects of the day. A man dressed as M. Thivrier, the workman's Deputy, noted for his clean blouss, had a great success, which was, however, surpassed by another representing the Due d'Orleans giving his arm to a priest. A man, representing M.Clenaenceau, promenaded fche bou'evards for several hours, while t&e Budge/?, represented by a masquarader dressed in an immense sgei, pushed his way through the crowd of taxpayers. On the Place de l'Op&ra an extremely tall man, dressed as an admiral, waved his long arms above the heads of the throng. !t was to uhow the row of miserable little ships attached to them, which represented the Frencfji Kayy, recently described as b'elng 'in sucfi a deplorable fsot)dit|on. Then came a Bishop seeking vainly to reach a 'Cardinal's hat, followed by a spjfrjojjs Jf. Floquet, who shook hand's with everybody got a good deal of mvhm, The studtutt* di^tinguiehed

themselves by t»king part In the proces-' sion. On one of their cars, representing the Ecole de T>roi% was the balance of justice. In one so»le was the code of laws, and in the other a charming etudiante who, it ia needless to say, outweighed justice. The Artillery of the Latin Quarter was represented by enormous pip«s on wheels, the ammunition waggons being packets^ of tobacco. The public seemed, by their applause, highly to appreciate the car of the medical students representing the dissecting room, buc it. WAt rather lugubrious. The bath of the Queen of Madagascar, filled with confetti ( instead of water, was far prettier. The Estudfcnta from Salamanca, that had arrivecf in Paris only that morning, accompanied the procession, preceding the c-vr ot the journal L'Ekidiant, represented by an immense canard with outspread wings. A group of utudeutfl dressed as Spanish bull fighters gave some curious performances on the Place de I'OpSra and other places, to the great delight of the people. The two students who together formed the bull allowed themselves to be * put to death' in public notwithstanding the recent Ministerial decree* After the dinner hour che Boulevards soon became densely crowded once more, and the battle ot confetti was engaged in again with as much zest as ever. The trees bore a thick foilage of 'serpentine, 1 and under foot there was a very thick carpet of confetti, covering the foot pavement and the road way from the Madeleine to the Plaoe de ia Rdpubttque. As the night advanced, the fun became more boisterous