Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Quarter of a Century.] SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1903. A PEEP AT THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7404, 7 March 1903, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Quarter of a Century.] SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1903. A PEEP AT THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

Wis aro indebted to Mr J. Groves, of Burkgrove, for the loan of a copy of the London Times, of October 3rd, 1798, which takes us back into a world of one hundred and live years ago—to the days when our great grandfathers used to make a trip to London to see good King George; and, perhaps, to attend a perform an cc of that marvellous actress, Mrs Siddon. A reference to this immortal (Jueen of the Stage, appears in the copy of the paper beforo us, which records that, " Among tho wonders of the present day, Mrs Siddon's late achievements at Brighton, Hath and London, should not be forgotten. She possibly performed at each of these places within tho incredibly short spaco of ninety-six hours." Brighton is but sixty miles from London, anil Bath only a little over a hundred. The travelling then accomplished in four days could now be comfortably managed in four hours. Another item of news is a lit-tlo suggestive which states that Croydon Fair commenced on Monday last, " where many things besides walnuts wore cracked." Broken heads were common in tho eighteenth century, indeed they were a marked feature of a day's amusement. The lives of people in thoso days were simple enough. We read that the King, Queen, aud all tho Princesses went to Dorchester to see " tho sports of the country. The programme was a simple one. A round of beef was to be played for at cricket, and a cheese to bo rolled down hill with a prize to whoever stopped it. A pound of tobacco was to be grinned for (how the King and Queen must havo enjoyed themselves), a Michaelmasclay goose was to be dived for, and a good hat to be cudgelled for- (more broken heads). The next item, "'Half a guinea for the best ass," did not refer to Royalty, but to a donkey race. Catching a rat dipped in treacle, a sack-race, and wrestling made up the fun, with a lini.il event, "Catching a pig by the tail," worthy of the tftato occasion.

Iv another part of tho paper we read of gentlemen being robbed of their watches aud money. Tho saddest column of tho journal was devoted to the heading of " Rebellion in Ireland ;" a description of tho British soldiery hunting rebels in the town of Kollala. The officers m command reports as a P.S. "In our different actions with the rebels, they lost between 500 and 000 lyen. Wo lost but ono man and a few wounded." This sounds very much like butchery and recalls tho well known line, "Who fears to speak of ")8 I" On the wholo we should not caro to havo lived in tho eighteenth century, and fear that somo of our ancestors must havo been sad ruffians.

The staff of tho London Times, tho old Thunderer, in tho eighteenth century must havo been less considerable .'than that of tho Waiiuuai'a Daily ■Trams' in the present day. £!io tax on newspapers then was very heavy, and a production which would now-a-days only be worth a bal_po_._y, then cost sixpence. The subscription to a daily papOt' thon amounted to about oifjht pounds per annum, and this, with the cheapening of money, is equivalent to about iifteon pounds per annum at the present time. How many people to-day could afford to .payilffceon pounds per annum as a newspaper subscription ? But, in tho eighteenth century, there v/ac a tax of fourponco upon oach papor published,

besides a paper duty. It was not till 18..0 that tho stamp duty was reduced to ono penny, at which rate it remained until 18,., when it was abolished altogether. Tho paper duty went by the board in 1801, and since then newspapers have continued growing in size and circulation, and diminishing in price.

Wi-; havo to thank our local contemporary for drawing our attention to an | accidental transposition of terms in our article of yesterday on the liorough finance. Tho context made our meaning perfectly (dear — vi::., that the Borough last year over-estimated its rceecipts by ,£„B.'l, and under-estimated its expenditure by .U7'H>, making a deficit of over one thousand pounds. Our 0011-

temporary docs not dispute our figures. During tho present year, tho task of the Borough Council has been to stop the "runaway;" and it has had the pluck to do this. If our contemporary approves of last year's deficit of over a thousand pounds, we differ in opinion. The oight hundred pounds of extra taxation this year is clearly inadequate to wipe it out—but it has gone a long way towards liquidating it.

In his great speech, at Johannesburg, the Right Honourable J. Chamberlain emphasised the expediency of imbuing in the minds of tho natives of that country —the aboriginal people -" the dignity and necessity of labour which exists in the minds of every civilised nation on the face of the earth." We havo frequently called attention to the great wrong our New Zealand rulers do to the Maori race, by polling and coddling it, instead of teaching it the dignify of labour. Mr Chamberlain is a great statesman, but we have always contended that thoso who consider them selves to be New Zealand statesmen and who secure Maori votes by different phases of the old wretched " sugar and blanket policy," are the enemies of a noble native race, which can only be saved from extinction by cultivating industrial pursuits.

Tmo Premier has put forth a tlieory that the more money New Zealand borrows the liss interest it has to pay. All the IhiiUicitil pundits in New Zealand arc now engaged in arguing out this position ; and, perhaps, the Premier is laughing al them. Wo should he as sorry to take part in a discussion of this kind, as wo should be to maintain that if we added three to seven, six would be the result. A Colonial Treasurer, who advances arguments of this kind, is either a little " dotty"—or clover enough to fool sonic people anyhow, to the Premier's case, we lean to the latter

hypothesis,