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Timaru Herald, Volume IV, Issue 94, 2 March 1866, Page 3

Taxation m New South Wales. — The Sydney Morning Herald has the following: — " The provision to sustain the public credit of the country is, we hope, by this time secured, but at how great a sacrifice ? What will be the thought of the people when, they look back to the tariff, of Mr. Samuel and consider the operation of ad valorem duties upon the ultimate interests of this country ? It was necessary to meet the crisis, and to risk the future rather than surrender our reputation. But let it be well understood what is the nature of this alternative, aud the consequences it inevitably entails. We have submitted to a grand misfortune to escape a greater peril. It is necessary that we should retain a profound impression of the nature of the danger, that we may uot appeal against the price required for our deliverance. There has been no time for close deliberation, and so recently has the subject of ad valorem duties been discussed, that no public man can have forgotten the objections against them. We have a great intercolonial trade largely sustaining the inhabitants of this city, and that is placed m jeopardy to raise a revenue which might have been obtained without the sacrifice of anything but an immediate payment. Already the mercantile class have submitted to a packages duty ; already they have to bear the large burden imposed by the Stamp Act There are houses — and they not the first — whose contributions to thnse portions of revenue amount to two thousand pounds a year. And now comes iv a five per cent ad valorem duty, which may go far to arrest our intercolonial trade. We hope, indeed, that our merchants may be able to ward off the effects of this new imposition, and consent to bear its weight for a time if possible. The injury done, so long as it is merely local and personal, may be repaired m future years of prosperity." Mr. Dickens in* Australia.— The Melbourne correspondent of the Gijipslond Times says: — " Mr. Alfred Dickens, son of Charles Dickens, the celebrated writer, arrived m the colony some months ago. It was then rumored that he was to have the appointment of associate to Mr. Justice Barry. This turned out to be unfounded, and Mr. Dickens accepted a temporary appointment m the Argus office. Mr. Dickens has now (from choice) accepted an engagement on a station m New South Wales. The contrast between the early lives of the father is striking. Mr. Dickens, senior, reporting the midnight councils of the greatest nation on earth, and the son living m the enormous wilds of the Antipodes, m a new climate and surrounded by animals and vegetation, which are only read of at home ; and possibly m riding costume, which would be considered, to say the least of it, rather singular m Rotten JRow."

Demand for Long Wook. — From the length and strength of the staple, Cotawold, m common with the wool from other long-wolled breeds of sheep, is used for what are known as "worsted goods," a term used to distinguish the goods it makes from the woollen cloth trade ; the former being combed, and not a milled or felted fabric, whilst the latter signifies a fabric which is not combed, but "milled" or felted. Strictlyspeaking, there is no "felted" material made except such as hats, caps, &c, which are made without spinning or weaving. The woollen cloth is made from the short wool, which is span and woven, and afterwards "milled." The power possessed by the long wools to form a fell is much less than that of the short wool, because there are fewer serrations m it. The "combers wealthy flakes" consists entirely of wool from the long-woolled variety of sheep, and is made into worsted goods, consisting of "damasks, coburgs, camlets, lenos, mottles, anfl a variety of fancy stuffs of all shades of color for ladies' dresses for home consumption and for export to France, Germany, North and South America, and the West Indies. It is used largely for making camlets, if which the Chinese and Japanese take a very large quantity. In fact, the worsted goods go to all parts of the globe the inferior part being made- into carpeted rugs, and blankets."' — HallewcU.