Daily Circulation, 1474. The Oamaru Mail FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1885.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IX, Issue 2838, 27 February 1885, Page 2

Daily Circulation, 1474. The Oamaru Mail FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1885.

The Otago Daily Times yesterday made a suggestion of so extraordinary a nature that we have been somewhat puzzled as to whether it was intended by the way of joke or whether the Editor's intellect has been unhinged by some terrible disaster. After writing eulogistically of the New Zealand Shipping Company for their proposal to offer return excursion tickets to England at about half the current fares on the occasion of the Colonial Exhibition in London next year, and of the value of travel as tending to enlargen men's minds, our contemporary says:—"And in this connection we would suggest that it would be of real advantage to the Colony to arrange with one of the direct steamers to send home the members of both Houses of Parliament en massa. Their attendance on an occasion of so much importance to the Colonies as this Exhibition could not fail to add enormously to the attention which will be drawn to it and to the Colonies generally. They would be afforded exceptional opportunities for seeing everything which could open their minds and enlargen their ideas. We imagine that they could be contracted for at something under LSO a head for the trip; and saying that 80 members were able to spare the necessary time, the cost would only be L 4000." Is this a ponderous joke, or is the suggestion made in sober earnestness ? We shall be glad of enlightenment upon the point. If it is a joke, perhaps the author of it will be sood enough to say so and indicate exactly where his readers are expected to laugh ; if the suggestion is made seriously, we would suggest that the friends of the editor of our contempora-y should take care of him and place such a restraint upon him as may have the effect of preventing him doing himself and others a serious injury. Members of Parliament are only too ready we know to seize upon any wild suggestion which may tend to their own pleasure and profit, and it may be that some of them will adopt the absurd suggestion of our contemporary and endeavor to secure a nice little pleasure trip to the Old Country at the expense of the taxpayers of the colony. Newspapers should therefore be careful not to put silly and extravagant ideas into their heads. The silly and extravagant ideas will gst there'all too soon without journalistic aid. We grant that" it would be of advantage to s ;nd a number of our New Zealand politicians packing. To those we might profitably offer some inducements to take a trip to the Mother Country or anywhere else. But when do so we must prayerfully hope that something will happen to prevent them from ever returning. We can ill afford to pay their passages we know, but to get rid of them a supreme effort might be made. That effort should not, however, go to the length of providing for them return tickets. Such a proceeding would be the height of folly and a lavish waste of energy and money.

One of the first results of the visit of the Hauroto, en route for Sydney, is the opening up of the prospect of the establishment between this port and Sydney of a profitable trade in Oamaru stone. As we are already aware, the stone has been tried in the metropolia of New South Wales for ornamental purposes, and has been universally admired for its beauty and has met with strong approval by reason of the facility with which it can be carved. But one difficulty that has always interposed to prevent it being more generally adopted has been that, owing to the irregular and uncertain means of transport, the supply could not he depended up. To be of any value for building purposes, the supply must be regular, and contractors most be able to depend updn its regular delivery. Anything like an intermittent supply would be of no possible value. Sydney has an available supply of building stone from the quarries of .New South Wales, but that stone 13 of a sandy character, and if we can show the parent colony that a constant supply of Oamaru stone can be thoroughly relied upon at a rea-onable figure, there is a strong probability that it will be largely adopted for ornamental frontages of important buildings. With the prospect of Oamaru being made a port of call for the Union Company's Sydney traders, there is a very strong probability of a good trade in the stone being established, and if this should be realised we may look forward with hope to some improvement in the affairs of the town and district.

The s.s. Hauroto will not leave until 10 o'clock to-night, and the postal authorities desire us to mention that a mail for the north and Australian ports will close at 8 o'clock this evening, -fl s it is extremely doubtful if ts-morrow's train will reach Lyttelton in time to connect with the Hauroto at that port, those who have correspondence for the north and Australia should make sure of it going direct from Oamaru by the steamer. The Hon. the Premier, with Mrs Stout and family, arrived by the s.s. Hauroto t:-day. Mr has not, for a wonder, been troubled by deputations, and has spent the day in looking round the town. From all parts of the coun l ry, not alone in this district, but the whole of the graingrowing districts of the colony, we have news that the harvest is being favored with good weather, that the grain is being garnered in good condition, and that the yields will geneially be better than they have been for the past few years. Thus, though there h3S been a great decrease of area under crop with cereals, consequent upon greater attention having been given to stock feeding, the available supply will probably fui:y reach that of last season. In this district we are glad to hear that a large number of

grain-growers, pro Sting by past unfortunate experience, are getting theii grain into stack with the greatest possible expedition, so that we shall probably not have this season a repetition of last year's dismal record of the vast bulk of the grain damaged by exposure to unfavorable elements. It is also pleating to learn that few are likely to renew last season's experiment of threshing direct from the stook—a proceeding which resulted in a large quantity of grain being unfit for export. The only thing now required to mike grain-growers thoroughly happy is the obtainment of a good payable market for their grain, but unfortunately, at present there is no indication of that desire being realised in the early future. The polling to-day for the election of Licensing Committees for the four Uamaru districts occaEioned a very large amount of interest, both the licensed victuallers and the temperance party working hard to bring ratepayers to the poll. The voting will not be concluded until 6 o'clock, and it will be some little time after that before the results are made known. It is of course impossible to say what the results will be, but the general Impression is that the licensed victuaUers wjll score victories in Jetty and Thamea districts, while of the result in Severn district there in some doubt, and in Hull district it is believed the temperance pirty will obtain a victory. A sharp Bhock of earthquake was felt in town this morning- at about S minutes past 2 o'clock. Those who noticed it say that it was like the report of a distant cannon and that it lasted about 3i seconds. The vibration appeared to be from the N.E. to S.W.

The New Zealand Shipping Company's Tongariro arrive'd at Plymouth on the 24th instant, after a very smart passage of 3S days, stoppages included. Ihe Rimutaka arrived at Hobart yesterday, and is due at Wellington on Tuesday. Her protracted voyage is due to the fact that her coals proved of indifferent quality. A correspondent at Totara writes: —"A pretty smart shock of earthquake was felt here at 2.5 a.m. to-day. A man named John Slines, in the employ of Mr H. Connell, met with rather a nasty accident to-d&y by a bag of grain falling from the shoot and striking him whilst he was engaged loading a truck. The blow caused a displacement of the knee cap. Dr Cox,, of the steamer Hauroto, and Dr Thomas, who happened to be passing at the time, attended to the sufferer, and ordered his removal to the Hospital. We are glad to learn that the accident, although a painful one, i 3 not likely to prove more serious than to necessitate Mr Slines being laid up for a couple of days. .' • A correspondent writes that the points allowed under different heads in the late reaper and binder trial were not in proper proportion to the value of the different points. "Time" our correspondent does not placs much value upon, and suggests that instead of 20 points beins the maximum unr'er this heading five should be the highest number allowed. ' The writer considers " draught" the most important point in connection with a reaper and binder, and , urges that the maximum number of poiuts under this head should be increased to 25, the present number being 10. Our correspondent submits the following as the scale of points which he considers the most correct : Strength and durability, 20 ; draught, 25 ; sheaf (size, make, &c), 20; cleanness of cutting, 20 ; simplicity of construction, 10; machinery, &c, 10 ; time, 5. We offer no opinion upon the subject, but simply say that the points as adopted at the lati trial were fixed by the Committee of the Association aftT consideration, and not by the the judges, as our correspondent implies.

An entertainment, under the auspices of the Oamaru Rifles, is announced to be given in the Volunteer Hall on the 9th inst. The Daily Times says that the attendance at the race meeting yesterday at Forhury Park was generally considered the largest ever known upon that course. Speculation upon the . totalisators was proportionately large, and the sum of L 13.091 passed through in three maehinea in the course of the day. In the Cup Eace alone L 4205 was invested, against L2SSO last year. This is the largest sum ever invested on the totalisator on any single race .in the colony. The same paper says that no fewer than 237 telegraphic messages were despatched from the racecourse immediately after the running of the Cup, and that in such an emergency the telegraphic accommodation on the course is fouud very insufficient. " The dear, dear neighbours," to quete Mr Max O'Reli's little witticism, is a piece of irony applic Me not only to the relations of Kngland and Prance. Frenchmen and Germans are filled with the same kind of cordiality for one aaother in a yet more striking degree. We all know how close and demonstrative is the friendship between France and Germany just at the present, yet no sooner is the firmer definitely engaged in war with China than there is a perfect rush of Germans into the service of the latter Power. "Many Germans," says a telegram from Hong Kong, " are arriving for military and naval service by each mail. The total number who have already joined the Chinese service is 126." No doubt allowance must be made for the superabundant energies of a nation which has so many more professional fighters than it can at ordinary times find work for. Yet, for all that, we may well doubt whether the Germans would be so keen to volunteer in this quarrel if one of the belligerant parties were not their " dear, dear neighbour." A correspondent of the Daily News, evidently -wellinforraed, declares that the single object of Prince Bismarch in resisting British policy in Fgypt, and producing small embarrassmedts for the British Government, in to bring about the fall of Mr Gladstone. - The German Chancellor regards that statesman as the great obstacle to certain designs which he thinks essential to the completion of Germany, and" which, if England would be stand aside, he could carry out. H« is, therefore, straining every nerve to place the Liberal Government in such a position that Liberals will desert it, and coisent to the substitution of a Tory Ministry of affairs. That is quite a possible explanation of Prince Bismarch's action. It has long been known that he wished to effect some grand stroke for which the British annexation of Egypt would give the signal, and he may feel that his term is running out without an opportunity offering for his scheme. The mistake he makes is in showing so much of his hand. If the English people once suspect that an ambitiou3 Continental Power desires to see Mr Gladstone removed, his hold over the people will become stronger than ever. Ambassadors are always working to help or hurt Ministries in the capitals to which they are accredited ; but they usua'ly keep their influence carefully concealed.—Spectator.

The special correspondent of the Standard with the Nile expedition telegraphs a woeful account of the frightfully dilapidated state of tho trousers of the soldiers of the line regiments and especially of the Black Watch, who have heen engaged in rowing the service boats up the Nile. The correspondent records his opinion that the material of which their trousers were made ia unsuitable for rowiDg exercise ; and in all proba- , bility the military authorities will come ere ■ long to a similar conclusion. We arrived at : it some months ago, when, in our " Hints to Nile Oarsman," published early in October, ; we pointed out the importance of having tho i soldiers "inexpressibles" seated and strengthened with washleather, after the fashion of British amateur and professional . oarsmen. We at the time warned the authorities that ordinary military trousers would be highly unsuitable for rowing exer- \ cise, especially if such labour were to last [ for many days and even weeks. We are sorry for the sake of the soldiers that our . warnings have proved too true ;it is rather ' hard upon them, for not only will they have lost skin and cloth through this neglect in their outfit, but also the expense of repairs : to their kit will, in the ordinary coursa of things, be stopped from their pay. We ' really think that the country should stand the men a pair of trou c ers apiece. The oldest newspaper in the world is said i to be the Journal of Peking, established in . A. e. 911, but issued regularly only since 1351. The I hinese journal in question has receutly , undergone a thorough change, and is now . published in three editions. The first which ! is called the Sing Paou (Journal of the In- . habitants), and printed oa yellow paper, ia i the official organ of the Chinese Empire. The • second edition, Chsina Paou (Commercial • Journal), also printed on yellow paper, publishes commercial news. The third issue, ■ the Pilan Paou (Provincial Paper), which ; appears on red paper, prints extracts from : the two first-named newspapers.