MISCELLANEOUS MAIL ITEMS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 265, 15 September 1879, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS MAIL ITEMS.

Lord Beaconsfield has been presented with the freedom of the Grocers' Company, in accordance with a resolution passed some four years ago. In acknowledging the compliment, the .Premier expressed his regret that it was not in his power, owing to the pressure of public affairs and the state of his health, to receive the distinction in a more public manner. Upon one thing they might rely, that he would pursue the same course in public life he had always adhered to, and that his efforts wouM be directed towards improving the condition of the country and maintaining the Empire. The "People's Tribute" to Lord Beaconsfield, about which heroic efforts have been made to excite some public enthusiasm, has been repudiated by the person to whom it was to have been presented. The individual who was chiefly instrumental in starting the subscription for procuring the " Tribute" wrote a letter to the Prime Minister some days ago, the wording and significance of which were such as would have quite robbed the proffered gift of its ostensible character, and might have made it appear in the light of a bribe given to the Prime Minis- V >, ter, for value to be received. Lord Beaconsfield declined to have anything to do with a " tribute" offered under these conditions, and he bases his refusal upon the fact that it was both originated and proffered " in a manner which he cannot deem satisfactory." Some statitics just issued by Mr Richard Seyd, F.S.S., show that the number failures announced in the first half year of 1879 was 8990, of which 1553 were in the financial wholesale, and manufacturing branches or trude, and 743 in retail trade, professional pursuits, builders, publicans, among the working classes, etc, The suspensions in the wholesale trades were distributed as follows, viz. ;—ln London, 315: Liverpool, 55'; Manchester, 107; Lancashire, 110; Yorkshire (including Middlesborough and Hull), 5)63; Birminham and Midland iron district, 120; Newcastle, Middlesworth, Hull, and district, 59; Bristol, Cardiff, Newport, and Swansea, if ; provinces, 332 ; Scotland, 133; and Ireland 15. For the year 1878 the failures in wholesale trades were 2643, against 2172 in 1877. No slight sensation has been again caused in St. Petersburgh by the secret murder of a nobleman named Wlasoff. At first the crime, was of course, attributed to the Nihilists, but a certain Ensgin Landsburg, suspected by the police, has confessed that he stabbed his victim in order to get possession of docu; \itary evidence against him of a debt o f roubles. The murderer found otKrW curities on the person of Wlassoff, whichi he likewise appropriated. "': l'\