AUCKLAND.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 39, 29 March 1873, Page 3

AUCKLAND.

Telegrams in Southern paper* to hand per Comeraag contain the following It is stated that Mr. Sewell will stand for Lyttelton. Mr. Vogel consents to accept the Premiership, and will reconstruct the Cabinet, with Mr. Whittaker, if possible, in the Legislative Council. The farewell ball to the Governor last night was a great success, about 250 people being present. The Chief Justice presided. The Governor spoke of the warm affection entertained by the people of Auckland for himself and his family. In the South it was respect for his office, but in Auckland the feeling was a personal one. The farewell demonstration was very successful. The procession included the Volunteer corps, Fire Brigade, and the Friendly Societies. About 10,000 or 12,000 people took part in the demonstration. The Mayor presented a farewell' address at the wharf. A quantity of petroleum from the East Coast has been relined, and is described as superior oih f , ■ Saturday, March 22. Mb. Buckland reports : —Store cattle well represented. Fat, in full supply ; 194 were sold, at prices slightly lower. Store sheep were in request; fat sheep were short of supply. Dairy cows fetched from £6 to £9 ; calves, 20s to 335; steers, 18 months old, £3 10s; 3 year olds, £5 5s to £6 2s 6d. Fat cattle brought from 22s to 25s per lOOlbs.; fat sheep sold at 33s 3d per lOOlbs.; long-woolled wethers realised 14s 9d each; and aged long-woolled ewes, Ils each.

Pabis. — 'The Paris letter of 9th January in the Weekly News says:— “ The most remarkable woman is she who has most children,” retorted Napoleon to Madame de Stael. France is now of the same opinion in seeing a diminution of one-third of a million on the total of the population, during the last five years, and that neither the cession or Alsace, the losses by war, nor sickness, can explain as anything else than,a sign of degeneracy. In round numbers the present population of the country is 36 millions. Of course the deaths are greater than the births. In the census returns there is the strange disparity between **the numbers of husbands and wives—the latter exceeding the former by 32,000. It is the masculine sex that exhibits the highest diminution; the late war does not account for the fact, as the evil existed before 1870, neither does the tendency on the part of the “ rurals ” to emigrate to the large centres of industry’ explain the present falling off in the increase of the people since in these centres even the increase is but very slight. In the case of Paris however the population! is now 1,855,000, being over 10,000 more than before the siege. Putting aside causes which can only -be alluded to behind closed doors, the French, journals accept the diminution in the population, or even its resting stationary, as a fatal sign of degeneracy, and. draw attention to the fruitfulness aid, consequent power of the Teutonic The decadency of Rome might be traced to two prominent sources—a decline in the number of marriages, and a falling off in the number of births. There is a growing feeling among young men in France to regard 'married life as a “ bore,” a .state aito rounded by too many perils, and demanding too many sacrifices, despite the efforts of fathers to pinch themselves , to provide a dowry ‘ for their daughters. Ane Frenchmen approaching the times of Sylla, when people ceased to many? It is said the recognition of divorce Would correct miaebief among divorce was less difficult to effect than marriage. Pompey ’had five wives; r*g>aar and Augustus three .each.

Pompep divorced Mutia; Cicero, wife Tereritia, after thirty years of married life; and Cato the younger divorced also his spouse Marcia, to! enable his odd “ fnend Hortensius ” to marry her. Augustus paid every marked honor to the married men, gave them “ the highest seats in the synagogues,” relieved them from many public burdens, and bestowed upon them rewards. Yet the persecuted bachelors did not become Benedicts, did not see the necessity of the world being peopled. Concubinage, rather than marriage, is unhappily on the increase in France, and hence the corrective must be found in altered manners. The Spartan plan of “ taking proceedings ” against those who married too late, or did not marry at .all, is ,not to be thought of. In ancient tihies a father compelled his son to marry to check his extravagance; in modern times, it is but too true, a wife promotes it in many cases. The wife of the period should have for model the Roman matron, who presided over her house, educated her children, guarded the honor of her home, and shared in her husband's success. In France, when a man marries, he is said to Retire from the world, and his ' wife to enter it. Both take different roads- -subsequently ; hence arises the question, “ Why don’t the men propose, mamma?”