A ROUND TRIP FROM DUNEDIN.

Evening Star, Issue 10399, 21 August 1897, Page 4 (Supplement)

A ROUND TRIP FROM DUNEDIN.

[Written* Specially for the Evening Star by J, De C. Hathaway.]

Victoria, B.C , Jute 19. The steamer Aorangi, the latest addition to the Canadian-Australian line, arrived here on her first trip on June 7, several days late. Her delay was caused by some mishap to her engines. This was not a fortuitous beginning, but it ia not likely to occur again, and when she has settled down to the service this fine vessel will doubtless be found to perform her mail contracts with regularity, and make a reputation which will render her the most popular boat in the estimation of passengers crossing the Pacific. It is said that on the next voyage of thaship from Sydney she will make Wellington a port of call Canada contributes a subsidy of £25,000 to this line, and her trade with Australia has increased fourfold within the last four years. Australia benefits largely also, as this route—all through British territory—is the best for a mail service to Great Britain. Now, since there are three boats running, and a fast Atlantic service contracted for between the firm of Peterson, Tait, and Co. and the Canadian Government, New Zealand might find it to her advantage to contribute a subsidy to encourage Messrs Huddart and Co. to make Auckland or Wellington a port of call.

THE QUEEN S JUBILEE. In these days of constitutional government the character of their sovereign means much less to the British people than in limes not very long gone by, yet as each year is added to good Queen Victoria’s ago there is a warmer appreciation' of the benefits which her qualities of mind and heart have conferred upon the nation. =• As her term of rule hois been the longest, so the progress of the Empire has been the greatest. To-day, throughout the whole of the Canadian Dominion, the people are preparing to do her homage. This City of Victoria has never worn such brilliant attire as at the present time. The decorations are on the most lavish scale. Thousands.of people are flocking in from adjoining districts, and many oven coming over from the United States for a week of carnival. Four ships of Her Majesty’s Navy are now in port, and two vessels of the American Navy have come to join in the celebration.

NEW ZEALAND SALMON, • The ‘Grocery World,’ a paper having a large circulation in the trade throughout Canada and the United States, has the following, which will be, no doubt, interesting to New Zealanders :

It is said that there will he an attempt duritiK the present season to introduce New Zealand barrelled salmon into the eastern markets. The catch of Nova Scotia salmon, all of which is barrelled for smoking, is much lighter than usual this year, and this fact will make more or less of a field for the New Zealand barrelled goods. The latter, however, could not expect to compete with the Alaska goods, which are of indifferent quality and sell at a low price. Previous efforts to introduce salmon from far distant points into American markets have not been entirely successful, owing to the expensiveness of transporting the goods to this country. Not long ago a considerable quantity of salmon in tierces from Siberia was shipped to Philadelphia, but it cost so much to bring it here that the price was thereby too high. Some of the authorities on the subject believe that the same difficulty will surround the marketing of the Now Zealand goods. It is also said that not only will New Zealand attempt to compete with American salmon in the barrel form, but that it will also bring considerable quantities of canned salmon into this country. It is said that immense salmon canneries have been established in the New Zealand sea coast cities and towns, and that the product of these is now competing with that of the American salmon canneries along the Pacific coast. According to a despatch consumers can buy a can of New Zealand salmon in San Francisco for less money than is asked for the Oregon picked fish.

I need not make any comment upon the above so far as the export of tinned salmon from New Zealand is concerned, but I may say that this part of America can supply the world with as much salmon as it wants." In one county aloue upwards of 1,500 men are employed in the fishing industry this summer. In another district one cannery alone turns out 50,000 tins of salmon per day. Big packs are expected in British Columbia, Alaska, and Oregon, while the news comes fiom Ban Francisco that,the run of salmon in the Sacramento River this year is greater than it has been since 1890. Already the catch has been 50 per cent, more than for all of last year. Then it was 13.387 cases, while the spring catch alone this year has amounted to 20,000 cases, and the autumn catch is expected to double these figures. It would be sending coals to Newcastle were New Zealand to send salmon here supposing she had more than enough for. home consumption. There are other things, however, she could send, such as frozen meat, wool, fruit, etc., and foster trade with Canada. WAR ON “soft” DR'NKS.

Frances E. Willard and the Chicago W.C.T.U. have declared war on the soda fountains. Some o? tho refreshment rooms patronised almost exclusively by women havo on their walls lists of drinks which, the W.C.T.U. say, are strong enough ami varied enough to servo as mixed drinks in any bar room. _ They further ssy that there is a good deal in a name in thu matter of drinks ; that a girl will drink an egg punch who would avoid wine as a thing to be dreaded. And they also say that theso cooling, palatable, disguised beverages are educating in young girls a taste for strong drink which will be the ruin of their maturer years. A committee appointed by the W.C.T.U. to investigate the composition of these seductive drinks sent one of their members to a rather swell establishment to sample the drinks, and this is her story : What do you think I heard in one such place? A nice-looking man, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, came in with a pretty young girl. “ And now Miss Marjorie, what can I get you ?’’ —“ Just a lemonade, please." “ All right; just a lemonade let it be V

Then, jokingly; “Will you have a stick in it ?’’ —" Why, of course; they always put one in, don’t they ?"

I was horrified until the girl’s subsequent conversation revealed that she, in the innocence of her heart, supposed that a “stick” was a straw, “She couldn’t imagine what made her lemonade taste so queer. Oh, no, it wasn’t bad; but it was queer; queer, but very refreshing.”

CONDITIONS IN THE UNITED STATES. Those who have been watching the trend of events in the United States are agreed that the outlook -for the future of the great Republic is the reverse of a cheering one. It has been said that “the onlooker sees most of the game,” and it might be expected that the greatest amount of criticism of the causes which are responsible for the deplorable situation in the United States would have been found emanating from those resident outside the confines of that country ; yet the reverse is the case. Many in the United States are thoroughly aware of the existence in their country of- evils which threaten the gravest consequences, and are not slow in pointing'put the dangers which confront them. No more scathing arraignment of those responsible for the deplorable condition which prevails in the American Republic was ever made than that contained in the speech delivered by General Butterworth at the Memorial Day 'ceremonies at Laurel Hill Cemetery,' Philadelphia. Thus the General: The course of all republics has been towards the rocks. Our own is the same, and for the same reason. The theory of our Government is that ,men will preserve that which they prize most high; but they do not. It is said that the people love liberty and home above all else, and that it would be absurd to say that they would destroy that which makes life worth living. Theoretically that is so. Practically it is not. . . . What relation does the citizen sustain to the Government? Let this relation be freely understood. Remember, the law that governs the moral world is as certain and as inevitable as the law of gravitation. Those who offend mu‘t pay the penalty not more certainly in the physical than in the moral world. The Republic is in more danger to-day than when Fort Sumter was fired upon. We have plenty of education ; but education, unless leavened with morality, simply fits the man to be an expert scoundrel. Our country is in danger because corruption in our politics is as common as elections, and corruption in municipal and State Legislatures is as common as luncheon at noon. In almost every municipal and State Legislature there is an organised banditti that demands tribute and sells legislation. We know this to be so. We do not guess it. Weallknowit. You know it in Philadelphia, and you know it in Pennsylvania. And it must stop, or it will stop the wheels of this Republic. There are too many men who would scorn dishonesty in private affairs who encourage it in politics. Half of the world is going to the devil because, no one will shout out loud. The time has come, if the Republic is to be preserved, when we will have to rebuke men out loud. Men sneer at morality in politics, but God knows there is hardly enough left of it in the politics of this country to sneer at. Many sigh and pray for prosperity, and many work themselves up into a belief that prosperity is speedily coming to bless all our homes. But, my countrypien, do not be misled, but think and reason and

judge for yourselves... And so thinking and judging, don’t you see that‘before we can bring pros-. perity hack to remain we must remove the cause, that drove and keeps it in exile. Do not forget that the humblest man whose fingers ■ drop a ballot helps to guide the pen that writes the law that makes the right or promotes the wrong. If liberty fails, if the wrong prevails, we, the people, are to blame, for we write the law. . . . What hope have I for the future? Much hope, hut no confident expectation, because I find so many men "who for party advantage trample principle under foot. There are so many who have grown discouraged and have-quit trying to make our politics purer and better. I find 'so many who are willing to buy legislation as they buy-corn or wheat. I prefer tyranny to anarchy. There can be no true liberty without law any more than there can be order in chaos or health saturated with disease, I have confidence in my countrymen-. ■ I have less confidence in some who appreciate the opportunity our free institutions secure, but fail utterly to appreciate the responsibility that freedom imposes.

POLITICS IN PRAYER. . The following item also indicates the necessity of a few, reforms which the Chaplain of the Illinois Assembly suggests in a prayer ho offered up on June 8 at the opening of the proceedings of that august body on that day

Almighty God, we seek Thy presence and blessing at the beginning of "another day’s diligent labor. Help us, we pray Thee, in the discharge of this day’s duties. Help these men to remember the poor, tax-burdened people of this great State. Contract, we pray Thee, the capacious maw of the penal reformatory, charitable and educational institutions of Illinois. May they learn to be content with less money, and iuay we who refuse to worship a golden calf refuse also to worship goW. in any form. Tort id that any foreigner visiting our shores shall everagain have occasion to write:

Money, money’ is all their cry ; Money’s the total sum. ‘ Give us money, or else we die; Oh, let the money come.’ ” And we will give Thee endless praise. Amen,

The prayer, it may be added, was greeted with enthusiastic applause.

( To be continued.)