NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9883, 27 July 1895, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Iff commenting In the agricultural out look in England la London Times points out that it cannd look for such a rise in prices as will restle to the English farmer the prosperity wick he has long lost Prices are low, andand has to bear hear y burdens from whfc other classes of property are exempt* These are the complaints from every [uarter, various as are the remedies suggeed by which the evils complained of are Ibe cured- Of suggestions, indeed, the) has been no lack. Voices have been njaed in favour of a land Court and against , in praise and in dispraise of landlords and pretty generally in dispraise of railw&s as giving preferential rates to foreign ovf home produce. Bun low prices and th burdens of land are heard of from all ales, That taken altogether they are res grievances, there can be no doubt at all. On the. old level of prices it was posjble for land to bear charges for rates an taxes and tithes which are heavy and oppasaive now. That old prices will come bak or will be brought back by protection is the hop* indulged by some, It is mos. unlikely that it will be fulfilled. Bat if thfc is not to be, the cure, if any, mest be poked for in another direction. The burfens on land must be reduced. Towards this, however, there ha* been no tendency 0 late. The charges oa land have been riher increased. New rates have from t\vajl to time been imposed, while the efoet of recent legislation has, been that those wio pay the rates are not those who haw a piineipal voice in electing the bodies which are to have the spending of them. So agriculture remains depressed, Mr. RichardOloey, who succeeds the late Mr. Gresham at United States Secretary of State, was but little known in American politics up to the time of his appointment as Attorney-General in Mr. Cleveland's Cabinet on March 4, 1893. He belongs to an old New England Baptist family, and was born at Oxford, Worcester County, Massachusetts, on September 15, 1835. He went to school at Leices.ier Academy, Worcester County, and graduated from Brown University in 1856. He studied at the Harvard Law School from 1856 to 185?. In the latter year he was admitted to the Bar, and entered the office of the Hod. B. F. Thomas, in Boston. He was for many years counsel for the Eastern Railway, and later the Boston and Maine, together with ether corporations ; and it said to have enjoyed the largest income o{ any lawyer in th«> New England States, His only experience in politics w»6 a term in the Lower House of the Massachusetts State Legislature in 1874. He was once a candidate for the Attorney-Generalship of the State, but was defeated ; and he twice refused a seat in the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. The United States Secretary of War has approved the plan of the proposed bridge across the Hudson River between New York and Jersey City, and has authorised the work to be begun. It is estimated that it will cost 25,000,000 dollars, and require ten years for its construction. The bridge, which will be suspended from 12 cables will span the river without support, Be« tween the pierhead lines on either shore there will be a clear opening of 3110 feet, and the bridge at the centre will be 150 feet above high-water mark. The bridge will carry six railway tracks. The main towers will rise to a height of 587 feet. The bridge, which will be built by the Union Bridge Company, is intended to give the railways which now have their termini in Jersey City access to New "Kork. It has been frequently said that there is scope for the extension of the Australasian wool trade to China, but from the following, which is taken from the report of Mr. Kopsch, the statistical secretary of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, they may be reason to look at that country as a rival rather as a customer:—" Wool has assumed a conspicuous position, and promises to become an important staple production, increasing within the period 1884-94 from 34,000 picula to 226,000 piculs. Chinese wool, though now of low grade, may, when improvod in quality, become a formidable rival to the Australian product, for as a wool-growing country the resources ol China are still undeveloped, and the area of production north of the Yangtze River, and in Mongolia, is as vast as that of the colonies." The opening up of China means a considerable factor in the industrial and commercial future of the world. Its trade is increasing very rapidly, the exports having risen from 87,000,000 taels in 1890 to 128,000,000. An increase of 46 per cent. in five years could not be paralleled in any of the European or Western nations. In a personal and political monograph of Lord Randolph Churchill, Mr. T. H. S. Escott, a well-known English journalist, says that when Churchill was preparing to go#o South Africa for the benefit of hi« health, he received an offer of £100 par column from the Daily Telegraph for an account of his travels, bub eventually accepted an offer of the Daily Graphic of 2000 guineas for 20 letters of 4000 word! each. The reason for these figures, we art informed, is that Churchill was at this time a singular favourite with she public. No man except Mr. Gladstone pos. sessed the quality of personal interest and uttraotivenesa (a (ha same extent a* the. member for Haddington. He had attained that measure of affectionate popularity which calls its possessors by diminutives of their Christian names, and the " Randolph" of the middle classes was the " Randy," OR sometimes the "Randy Fandy" of pro* vincial assembly-rooms, or of metropolitan cabmen, "As he never apoke withouß hitting his audience , whatever and wherever is was, by satire, rldicul^; j metaphors jjuab fitted to their intelligence*

<between wind, and water,' " nays Mr. Eacotfc, "so newspaper conductors might feel sure that whatever the writing he might produce id would send up the sale of their broadsheets."

The Conservatives and Unionists have now a majority of 164. The Government will meet the House of Commons with a larger number of followers than any Government has possessed for many years. The state of affairs in Bulgaria is causing some uneasiness. At Sofia feeling appears to be very hostile to Prince Ferdinand, and the Government are said to be powerless in the matter. This probahly means that the army is on the side of the malcontents. lb is stated that Japan has requested that the Chinese indemnity should be paid in England. This is in consequence of the intention of the Japanese to have a number of ironclads constructed in England at a coat of eight millions. lb is also anticipated that they will place in the hands of British manufacturers large orders for war material. At the instance of the Marquis of Qusensberry Oscar Wilde has been made a bankrupt. The religious orders in France have decided to submit to the taxation imposed upon them, rather than provoke a conflict with the State. Dr. Thorold, Bishop of Winchester, whoso death is announced, was the son of a Lincolnshire rector, and was born in 1825. He was rector of St. Giles inthe Fields London, from 1857 to 1868, and wis elected •n the first School Board for London in 1870. In 1874 » became Canon Residentiary of York, and in 1877, was appoint id Bishop of Rochjs&r, where he remained until 1891, whan he was made Bishop of Winchester, it succession to the Right Rev. E. Harold Browne, who resigned. Dr. Thorold ivas the author of several devotional works, of which one, "The Presence of Christ," has g>ne through ; twenty editions.