Hawkes Bay Herald. MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1879.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5332, 17 March 1879, Page 2

Hawkes Bay Herald. MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1879.

Among the cablegrams we publish this morning there is one item of news which we are sure will be read with pain by every true Briton. A Manchester firm has been despatching ammunition to Mozambique, presumedly for disposal to the Zulus. At all events, the British Government have so regarded the probable destination of the ammunition, and have taken steps to prevent its reaching the Zulus. It is not, of course, at all likely that the transaction is directly between the Zulus and the Manchester firm. Mozambique is a Portuguese settlement, and though it was no doubt intended tha,t eventually the ammunition should find its way to Zululand, the Manchester firm may plead that they have not been openly attempting to supply our enemies with the means of bringing destruction upon the British troops. But they could not have been ignorant of the 1 purpose for which the ammunition was required, and yet with the full knowledge of the numbers of British soldiers — officers and men — who have been killed by the Zulus, and of the imminent peril of the colonists in South Africa, these British traders, for the sake of the profit hanging to the transaction, will help the savages with the means of bringing death upon our fellow-countrymen. It seems .scarcely credible that the love of gain should so deaden the conscience, and so utterly quench all feeling of patriotism as to induce British merchants to play into the hands of the enemy, and that enemy a savage.

There is another item of the cable news that is highly suggestive. It comes from Russia. At St. Petersburg, we are told, two secret printing presses have been discovered, and — as a sequence to the discovery — several arrests have been made. Secret printing presses ! How strange is the sound to English ears ! What must be the condition of the people in St. Petersburg when to- disseminate their sentiments in print, the work must 'be done in secret! And yet it would seem to be a necessity imposed upon the State that there should be restraint put upon the circulation of printed matter in Russia, when it is the means of spreading opinions that lead to the murder of officials, and to the subversion of law and order. The fact, we suppose, is that the Russian pcoplo have not yet reached a stage of civilisation when a free Press is not a danger. Here the publication of the views of the Nihilist or the Socialist would do no harm even if it would pay to publish them. But in Russia, where the people are for the most part semibarborous, and are still suffering under grinding oppression, the thing is different. There the minds of the populaco are readily inflamed to deeds of violence, tending to a state of anarchy, against which it is the duty of the Government to guard before it is too late. If the Russian Government is wise, it will tako measures to remove the causes the people have for discontent, and gradully educate them to a condition when the Press shall become a safety valve for the harmless out-pouring of public opinion, in stead of a danger to the State. THE credit of the Colony of Victoria evidently stands well in the London money market, notwithstanding the vagaries of the men who just now administer the affairs of that colony,, For a loan of four millions the amount subscribed was eight and a half millions, and while the minimum was £98, the full amount of the loan was applied for at close upon £99, and one-third at £98 18s Gd. It may well be said, in the language of the cablegram, that the loan was a great success. How is this to be accounted for in the face of Victorian legislation which is anything but encouraging to capitalists? The moment, we suppose, was opportune; and then Victoria is not a frequont borrower, a circumstance that has a very great effect on London Stock Exchange.

We need scarcely remind our readers that the first meeting of the Hawke's Bay Eacing Club takes J>labe to-day at the Pakowhai coufee." The day being a,; general holiday, srajuld, apart from the; attraction of the rfice|s|Biiei?ise.lves, enßyire> a large attendance. Ift«'our advertising columns the railway time-table for the day will be found. The first race, the Handicap Hurdles, will start at 12.30 p.m. ..,*. A special train \i rom Kopua last night brought down to Napier nine horses for the race mee 1 ting to-day, and about forty passengers from the West Coast and from the several stations on the railway line. An alai'ni' <& fire, which fortunately turned out to be a false one, was given on Saturday night about 11 o'clock. It appears that some festivities were going on at Mr M. R. Miller's residence in Gameron-road, and that some crackers and red lights were being let off, which reflected a glare of light distinctly visible from Tennyson-street. To ring the firebell and get the manual engine out seemed but the work of an instant, and we hear that every member of the Brigade turned out, with the exception of one. The engine was rushed off to Mr Miller's, followed by a large crowd, which had assembled on the first peals of the bell being heard. It was then ascertained that the alarm was a groundless one, and the Brigade at once returned to the station. At the Theatre Royal on Saturday night; the Stewart family repeated the " Rainbow Revels" to a very fair house. The audience, we need scarce say, were kept thoroughly amused from first to last, but there were some of the bits in especial that took with the audience amazingly. Among these the most prominent were Mr Stewart's representation of the Frenchman, his imitations of celebrated actors, and his very clever bit of acting as Coelebs Buskin drunk. ] Miss Docey Stewart's Sally Moppet, was quite irresistible. Miss Maggie Stewart was excellent as Jessie MacTavish, and Miss Nellie Stewart had the house with her in' all she did, more particularly in the. guitar solo. To-night the performance will be repeated, and no doubt to a bumper house. A correspondent writes to us as follows from Hampden : — Being on a visit to Hainpden last week, I was pleased, as well as surprised, to find the people of Hampden had come to the front on the subject of establishing a public library, for the benefit of its inhabitants and others who may wish to become subscribers. I find the success of this movement is mainly due to the untiring energy of Mr Burcham, and to the assistance of others. The library possesses some five or six handsome volumes, comprising most of the standard works, also the production of some of the best authoresses and authors of the day. This is a step in the light direction, arid such an undertaking ought to meet with its reward — with a full list of subscribers. ' The half-yearly legal examinations commence to-day, under the supervision of Mr Robert Stuart, R.M. There are four candidates going up for examination. The Town and Country Jockey Club, under whose auspices the races at Kaikora have been held during the past few years, is now defunct. At a meeting of members held at Mr Baker's Empire Hotel a few day sago, it was resolved to dissolve the Club. We understand, however, says the Waipawa Mail, that Kaikora will not be deprived of its usual race meetings, as Mr Henry Hickey intends taking the matter in hand. When the next races are held the course will be in a better condition than on any previous occasion, as within the past few weeks Mr Hickey has gone to considerable trouble and expense in improving the running ground. > We are requested to draw attention to Messrs Routledge, Kennedy and Co.'s sale of racehorses to-morrow at Hastings. The sale will commence at 2 p.m. The Press News (the trade organ at Dunedin), thus refers to the printers' strike recently threatened in Wellington : — " Of the merits of the case we cannot with any certainty speak, not having been posted up in the facts. .Still, knowing that some at least of the papers in Wellington are not paying at the present rate of wages, and that to be compelled to pay a higher rate would, of necessity, close such offices, we think the demand made by the Society for an increase was, to say the least of it, suicidal; as not ouly — even if successful — would it tend to throw numbers of themselves out of work, but also, as a natural sequence, materially injure the whole of the Trade in New Zealand. Another thing printers should bear in mind : and that is, that their true interests are identical with those of their employers; because, if a printing, or any other business, does not pay, the proprietors must either ' shut up shop,' or get cheaper labor." The distress (says the Spectator) caused by decaying trade has been exasperated by the weather, which, throughout Europe, has been unusually severe. From Hamburg to Moscow the plain of Central and Eastern Europe was, in the early part of a week in January, one sea of snow. The snowfall in Switzerland was so severe that it arrested all traffic, as it did also in the north of Scotland, where eighteen trains were snowed up at one time, and where communication was kept open with Aberdeen by steamers. Peterhead, it is said, was out of sight for a week, and throughout the country ordinary traffic almost ceased. In London, though the snowfall was not heavy, the register marked usual cold:, the thermometer having fallen on Tuesday night at Greenwich Observatory to lodeg. of frost. The Thames was nearly frozen over at Windsor, and the ice in the Parks bore thousands of skaters, who escaped with fewer than the usual immersions. It is noteworthy that the last I year of great commercial distress — 1866, when Overend Gurneys fell, and it seemed on Friday, the 11th of May, that we j should be reduced to a state of barterwas also marked in the following winter by the usual severity of the cold, which, however, in these days rarely passed an endurable limit. Deep salt-water has not, we beliove, been frozen in England in this century. A remarkable instance of the dogged obstinacy with which spme woolstaplers cling to a preconceived notion has (says the Leeds Mercury) come to our knowledge. In the month of* January, 1872, a woolstapler in Bradford bought a quantity of Irish hogs and wethers, for which he gave 2s 4d a lb. Recollecting the good times he had recently passed through, and having faith in the recuperative energy of the Bradford trade, this stapler, in the face of a declining market and a diminishing trade, kept his Irish hogs and wethers, in the firm belief that some day he would get his own again, and a little more when he disposed of his venture. Time rolled on, the Bradford trade went from bad to worse, but these Irish hogs and wethers were kept in the warehouse, eating themselves up in loss of interest and the cost of the warehouse-room arid attention, so that they might not spoil. They were well kept, every care was taken of the precious commodity, the stapler never varying in his opinion that he would some day Tdo able to dispose of the hogs and wethers to advantage. Time rolled on, one year followed another, until the stapler was gathered to his fathers, and his executors thought that tho time had arrived when the wool was not worth, keeping any longer. A calculation was made, and it was found that by only adding the simple interest — not compound interest — this cherished lot had cost the infatuated holder 3s Id per lb., without taking into account warehouse rent and other charges. The executors decided to sell the wool by auction, It was not in.

bad condition, and tHe sse took place in November, 1878,. when ifche hog wool was sold for 13jd. per lb.,tand the wether for 12£ d. per lb. Keeping wool for six years was, in this instance, evidently not a^paying game. j' The Era gives the following paragraph about a new lady gymnast: — Leona Dare, the lady gymnast, who is to make a sensation at the Oxford on the 30th instant,. has given to the world a few particulars of her history. Prom these we learn that she was born in San Franoisco in 1854 ; that her ambition to excel in gymnastic exercises was inspired by a visit to a circus; and that among the most daring of her feats is to be numbered a trapeze performance on a balloon, which has been thus described : " The balloon was duly inflated, and at a quarter to 8 was cut loose, and the fineformed Leona, in oircus clothes, dangling her head downwards from the trapeze bar, holding in her teeth a strap which encircled the waist of Tommy Hall, her companion for her first voyage in the air, left terra firma. Everything was still as death, and it was observed that Hall weakened a little, but the plucky Queen of the Antilles, Leona, was perfectly cool. Just as soon as they left the earth Leona commenced spinning Hall around until it made us giddy. After this performance, and about three hundred feet in the air, they commenced their hifalutin performances, and known in show language as the double trapeze. They performed all the difficult and hazardous feats at an altitude of half-a-mile with the same reckless daring. Up, up they went, until they were scarcely larger than our hands, and when we looked at them through a glass we breathed free, and felt relief to see that they had climbed upon their trapeze i bar, and were enjoying a tete-a-tete while resting from their perilous labors. The balloon descended rapidly, and landed about half-a-mile from, the starting point, in an open field, and our party rode up in time to witness their alighting. Hall was silent, while Leona laughingly said to Warner, ' Howwas that for high ?' " " Prisoner at the bar," said the Judge, "is there anything you wish to say before sentence is passed upon you?" The prisoner looked wistfully toward the door, [and remarked that he would like to say " good evening," if it would be agreeable to the company. But they wouldn't let him.