TOPICS OF THE DAY

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8929, 20 October 1894, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Members of Parliament are A always considered " good Costly marks" by those in charge of Luxury, subscription lists, and our legislators, no doubt, have quite aa many calls upon their pockets as the majority of them feel disposed or are able to accede to. But though the appeals made to their charitable feelings amount in the aggregate to a considerable tax, they are in a much better position than members of the British House of Commons, who are " bled " to a most extraordinary extent. Attention has recently been directed in England to this matter by the retirement of Mr AggGardner from the reptesentation of Cheltenham and the consequent publication, by Baron de Ferrieres, a former member for the same constituency, of some remarkable figures. Mr Agg>Gardner represented Cheltenham from 1874 to 1880, and from 1885 to the present time, but he fought the seat in 1867, and the Baron reckons that since that time the pleasure of being M.P. for Cheltenham has cost the late member not less than £50,000. He sat for fourteen years, and those who are " in tlie know" reckon that he did not get off for les9 than £1500 a year, " for though about £1000 a year is all that the wire-pullers may have required of him, there are numerous applications to M.P. , s from private persons for financial help, which so generous and openhanded a man as Mr Agg-Gardner would find it almost impossible to refuse." HU six contested elections cost him £1000 each, and on two occasions he endeavoured to uuseat successful opponeuts, a luxury which cost him altogether £4000. In addition to these items Mr Agg-Gardner made several handsome benefactions, including a recreation ground and other trifles, which bring the Bum well up to £50,000. This, in the Baron's opinion, is a good deal too much. He himself had only to pay £5000 during, a six years' occupancy of the seat, andheargueß that *'£500 a year is ail a member ought to be called upon to pay." Iv this sum he includes " £200 for subscriptions to local charities, a contribution of £25 to the registration fuud, £75 towards the hunt expenses, £100 for exceptional appeals, such as.restoration* of churcuoa aud chapela, £100 for ' extra extras. , " Under the circumstances one is hardly surprised that Mr Agg-Gardner has, "for private reasons," resigned hie seat, the s*id private reasons being not entirely unconnected, we shouid tHink, with his Bank balance.

A New- York paper, in John Bull dealing with John Bull's in characteristic*, quotes some American rather interesting figures, Eyes. showing the huge extent of England's transactions iv monetary Rod other matters. " 1 hie inhabitant of a moist miaty island" spends £140,000,000 a year for drink, bat contributes more than £7,200,000 a year towards the support of a State Church, worth in its own right over a hundred millions sterling, a condition of thiugs which the writer regarda aa the climax of inconsistency, ,:In:a few lines , , he gives a vivid comparison of England's diminutive size, and her wide-reaching power. ** Here," be cays, "is a little kingdom of 121,115 square miles, with a population of thirty-eight and a half millions, controlling possessions aggregating 9,145.328 square miles aud 3-16,025,500 iv populaliou ; " aud he points out that in - addition to this.. burden of foreign responsibility, England alone, with a population, of 28,000,000, hae almost 1,000,000 peraoqs enrolled as paqpors, is taxed io the amount of £15,000,000 a year for their support; and spends £3,000,481 a year, under the general bead of Law and Justice, to keep her population in order. " When in addition to these trifles, it ie recalled tnat '■ John Bull' has had Ssnntio transactious iv the past I|o the amount of £671,042,842, which he dubs the National Debt, and upon which he pays anuual interest at from 2 to 3 per' cent., the wonder of less sturdy aud less .phlegmatic people grows apace.. There must needs be coloeqal strength and pluck, marvellous financial elasticity, tremendous yarning power, and . a reservoir of national virtue somewhere, to explain these hugo incongruities. With it all 'John ' is not greatly disturbed by these significant figures. Ou the contrary, KugJaadia the mo&t hopeful of all the uatious. Tbere is leas political pessimism than ,iv America, in, France, in , Germauy, or in Italy. Having made, himsulf personally comfortable at a cost of £536,000,000. he puts £75,85X079 on one side for a rainy day; and. he takes, little hojiday journeys every year a&.iui expeoae of £28,000,000, aud is'nabobiqbly r eittravaganti in hia expouditure upon horse racing atid huutiug "

The writer of the article is rather astray in some of hie statements—it is tlie exception rather, than the usual custom for an Englishman to shoot himself because he cauriot pay his gambling debts on the ralnuieyand the tailor who presses for payment of a three years' bill oa,b do *o, we btflieve, without having to fear. being kicked downstairs. Apart from sneti details, in which the writer is lea up to date th»*n he is in other respects, ihe article is in marked contrast to the sad stuff which appears in so many American papers oonceruiug the Mother Country.

"TUBkK is no great The poetry in the aspect of a "Evolution * case of, tinned salmon ; of < yet to the Oregou Inan Tinned Salmon, or Brjtieh Columbian who lias seen the successive processes by which the contents of the round tin are evolved from a salmon leaping in the waters of the Fraser or tbe Columbia riven, its associations are nob without some pioturesqoeneat and interest.*' With this introductory remark a contributor of ihe Fall Mall Gazette proceeds to detoribe the evolution Of one of the most popular articles of food;.and a very interesting process it is. There .is .nofc, as might be expected, mncb sport about the catching of tlie salmon* it hao to be done 00 too wholesale a scale* bat the first act in the transmogrin , cation ;of live salmon into tbe tinned article is highly ingenious. li is accompUehcd principally by the aid of a. great paddle wheel, set up elftse is to the bank pi the river. '• To certain of tbe spokes of the wheel are attached, in lieu of piddles. Big scoops of .netting,,so aa to pick up.and lift 6ut.of the water, with tbe revolution of the . wheel, .any, salmon or fioatina thing that may come- within its scope." The scoop is set at such an inclination that as it rises in the air the salmon is shot off it into a task on the river bank, where it is joined from time to time by other, salmon captured by tbe same, means. " Anon there comes along a man. He looks into the tank, and bite ihe imprisoned salmon on the head. Then he takes.them oat* rnna a rope through their gills, attaches the rope ta an empty barrel stopped up with a bnog, iMßche* barrel and salmon attached to it into the river; and that is the end of the business so far as the imme? diateneighbourhood Ol thepaddle-wheelis concerned. , ' But* further down the river, below the, rapids, is the caoniog station, where "beside a small wharf lie a pair J?f tteam launches io pantisg readiness," pvrpetaaliy on the alert to catch the, barrel* aa they bob " past. ' The salmon are thrown into * weilia tbe launch until it reftchee the shore,- when tbey are hoisted into aa elevated abed, where sundry Obiaaawn ace awaitioc them, wbe *.* fall

upon them, chop off heads and tails T»t out insidea ; and these extremities anil « trails are shovelled out over the edg(. o f m* floor ioto the river below, whore sw*rm» 08 fishes, ohiefly salmon, are gathered- in to feed on them. Thus even the off.j j! converted inio edible, sultnon." j h salmon is then sliced by machinery, B ' u ! into tin*, boiled awhile, and the tins L dered down. After a fortnight those tin which have bulged, and thus show thj owing to faulty soldering fermentation h&s set up, are thrown away, and. the r«»fc after another boiling, are decorated with the well-known gandy labels, and are thea ready for their journey into every no»k and corner of the world.