ANCHOVIES AND TOAST.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1373, 4 July 1874, Page 2

ANCHOVIES AND TOAST.

(Prom our Ijondou Correspondent.

LostjO-T, May 5. TEH _______aUß_r" "DT3T:EESCT_I&S. Bilbao is relieved. The Carlists have sustained a crushing defeat, and Republicanism looks better than ever in Spain. This is the talk in everybody's mouth. Since the date of my last leSter the fortunes of the two parties have been very delicately balanced, and the beam has been oscillating in a moat aggravatingly tantalising manner. One day It was certain that Bilbao must fall. The next it seemed impossible, but that Serrano must fail back and leave the Carlists to work their will The friends of Alfonso were on the tip-toe of expectancy. They had prepared their manifesto, and any retrograde movement <vn the part of the Republican generals must have resulted in a emp d'etat in Madrid. But then the funof it all was that it was even betting oabotha:de3, cr indeed on nil t __ T f_e —nay, shall we say four sides, for we must not lose sight of the Intransigeate3 orCon - ma mats, Internationalists, or whate-ver they may be pleased to call themselves, who held out so wstl in Cartagena, and who only want a chance to wire in again, and burn 3ome more

powder. Then the despatches and telegrams published by both aides lied so abominably that it wa3 impossible to believe a single statement. However, for the present, the Car_i_." hopes seem crashed, and once having been forced from their powerful positions it is not unlikely that terrible havoc may be wrought amongst the forces of the Don before they can regain a position of safety. Truly what selfish wretches are these great ones, these kings and queens. Here is a specimen in Don tJarlos. He is content to sacrifice thousands of live 3, and millions of money, to lay waste hundreds of miles of pleasant country, to render homeless hundreds of happy and unoffending families, to consign men to the I__..h, women to the ravisher, and children to the bayonet, in order that he, Charles, may be king of Spain. In other words that he may enjoy unlimited win?, women, and power, and be a great man for a few short yeara. And the best of the yike fa that he thinks himself a great hero with it all, and better still, lots of people ' here, and of coarse in Spain, think him a hero too. For my part I think bim worse than any Bn ke or Hare that ever lived, and twice as deserving of a gallows, if sin be > measured by its amount. This feeling is i | spreading too in these latter days ; in some i | decree the International .Society h_^a sown ; j the seeds which are beginning to produce ; ■ opiuions fatal to Governmental wars. i I THB AGRICC[.TUBAL LOCK-OCT.—THE >"EW I j ZEA______Snfun_-ieBAT_OS AGEVTSAT WOKS. You have been having practical experience of the old adage, "it is an ill wind which blows ; nobody any good," in the results of the agri- , cultural lock-out on the stream of emigra- ! tion. The dispute between the farmera and , labourers so far from showing any kind of abatement or settlement is rapidly spreading, and the popular feeling is all with the j labourers. Sympathetic meetings have been . i held in all pirts of the country and in London calling attention to the wretched condHion of the labouring population in the Ea_.torn counties. This has been contradicted by the fanners and by some large land-owners, notably by Lady Stradbrooke, who has been waging a paper war with the Bishop of Manchester on the question. I have seen Lady Stradbrooke's village. It is a charming little hamlet, a collection of . delightful little cottages overgrown with honey-suckle and roses, the people all looking happy, chubby, and contented. Of course Lady Stradbrooke speaks that ; she knows and testifies what she has seen, but we receive not her virtues. Since writing my last letter I have been in i Suffolk and at the town of Bury St. Edmunds, in the neighbourhood of which the strikes have been going on. I went i there to report progress for a North of England newspaper, and having relations in the town itself and in the neighbourhood I had every advantage of seeing how the matter really stood. My friends were all on the side of the farmers; but I visited a number of villages, entered a number of houses, and saw enough wretchedness to last me a lifetime. I could not have believed that such squalid poverty could have been found except in the East-end of London, or some other large city. The worm will turn when trod on, and I could not be surprised that these poor wretches should have, in sheer desparation, turned to bay in their hungry corner. The formation of a Labourers' Union set the farmers against them in a body, and now the farmers have formed "themselves into a league, and locked out these poor creatures, who are maintained by their labourers* league. To the funds of this league the great and unknown throughout the land are subscribing. The wages of a labourer about Bury St. Edmunds average about twelve shillings a week. Fancy th_3 with meat at a shilling a pound, rent of cottage to pay, clothing dear, coals thirty-five shillings a ton (a3 they buy it, retail, it comes to fifty shillings). They are on the verge of starvation all the year round except harvest time, when they get a little more. The consequence of all this is that the best and most enterprising of the labourers are leaving the country for the States, Canada, the Cape, Australia, and New Zealand! Whilst I was there I spoke to some of the poor fellows 'about your colony, and told them of the excellence of tho wages, and the climate, and the cheapness of provisions. Very few belie, ed me. The ideas were far too grand to be realised. They said if these things were so no one would stop here. We don't think you are exactly telling ns what is untrue, but we think you must be holding back something otherwise why don't all poor folks go to New Zealand. Canterbury province was very well represented in the district, but Auckland not all as far as 1 could hear of. The Agent-General ha 3 taken a strong fit of advertising, and I see his free passages offered in all the papers in the country, which is an improvement; but it is Canterbury which is getting all the best men. They have a Mr Duncan, who was rushing about amongst the locked-out people telling them all aboutthegloriesof his province, spouting at meetings at Newmarket, distributing circulars, giving advice to applicants, visiting them at their houses, in fact working for the end to which he was sent. That's the way to get people, and therein is to be found the reason why the Agent-General, good worthy soul, don't get people. The people got quite excited at one meeting at which Mr Duncan spoke, and crowded up as volunteers for Canterbury. He offered them a free passage, and only asked them to provide ft pound, each for their outfit, He also said

if fee wa* *^V^Xil*S^ r,*rr WTf fhe outfft himself. I anouL-T «^- Sr rf AicHand being weU *nP^f£ extend, and you ought to have a smart or two ready for anything Ilh_S «_gs

CSbotsshrkke.