Local and General.

Western Star, Issue 347, 1 May 1880, Page 6

Local and General.

The labor question incidentally cropped up at the lioad Board meeting on Wednesday on a query by the Engineer as to the wages to be paid surfaceman. The rates paid recently hare been 8s and 9s per day, bub this was considered far too high, and some members were of opinion that 6s was quite sufficient. In connection witu this matter, the old difficulty was adverted to, that while one man night be worth 9s per day another was well paid perhaps at 6s or 7s. it was ultimately decided that the rate he fixed at 7s per day. A correspondent (says the “Bruce Herald”) sends the following curious anomalies, which at one time would have been thought paradoxical, but which, owing to the present exigencies of fortunes, farmers are daily becoming acsustomed to : —Bushel of wheat costs 4s, and the millers will give you 421bs. of flour for it, or charge you 19s for 1001 b. of flour, or not quite 2£ bushels of wheat, widcb, at 4s per bushel, are worth 10s. Moral —Grrind your own wheat. Anomaly No. 2 —A laborer obtains 6s per day for binding; oats are sold tor 8d per bushel; ergo, a binder this last season was paid 9 bushels of oats for his day’s wages. Moral—Sell your farm and go to sea.

Mr Vere Foster publishes an appeal to the “Northern Whig” addressed to Mr Parnell, inviting that gentleman to devote his energy, youth, and talents to the promotion of an enterprise which, in Mr Poster’s opinion, is a more likely one to be realised than the present proprietary scheme. The enterprise is the getting up of an emigration scheme. Mr Foster offers to pay out of iiis own pocket £2 per head for every ablebodied young man or woman helped to the United States, and expresses his willingness to •give £15,000 towards this object. The “ Freeman’s Journal ” suggests that Mr Foster should give his £2 a head to the suffering poor, which they think will be doing greater service than depopulating the country. Captain Le Roy, of the Auckland Naval Brigade, retired from the Presidency of the Volunteer banquet on Monday evening (says the “ N.Z Herald”), because his teetotal principles would not permit of his giving a toast. The gallant captain errs in good company —that is to say if he errs at all. A grand banquet was given the othev day to Lord Chelmsford by the Merchant Tailors’ Company, and to their horror he drank nothing but water. The fact got publicity in a rather curious fashion. The Master of the Company, in presenting his accounts, had an item respecting a filter. The Court was surprised, and wished an explanation. The Master explained that at their last banquet so many of the euests, among them Lord Chelmsford, Lord Thesiger, and the Bishop of Bedford, drank water, that he feL justified in ordering the filter in question Truly this is a sign of the times. The Ballarat “ Courier,” noticing the state--ment made by Mr Sargeant to the Hamilton farmers that 98 out of every 100 Melbourne cabmen feed their horses upon New Zealand outs or New South Wales maize, &c., divert its readers with the following explanation of the circumstance :—What is at the bottom of the cold shoulder which such a tremendous percentage of the Melbourne cabmen give to the local product ?- We confess we do not know ; but we can hazard a conjecture, aud it is this —that the root jof the whole case lies in that prejudice which the freetraders of Melbourne have to the protective system, which our farmers enjoy ; and. having, so. to speak,, their thumb on a number of cabmen,, or

those retailers who supply the cabmen, by reason of their transactions not being always for cash, they force them to take the outside article, and so push the local product into the background, to thgre eat injury of our own producers.’ The Sydney “Daily Telegraph” of 19th March, commenting on the International Exhibition, says ; —“ Some decrease in the attendance at the G-arden Palace might have been expected, but it was not so great yesterday as to cause any particular remark, The Art Gallery had again its fair share of visitors, whilst the machinery and agricultural halls attracted some attention. The following were the numbers passing through the several turnstiles: —• Season ticket-holders, 352; general public, 2229; children, 275; exhibitors and attendants, 567 ; Kopff’s band, 10; Bismarck band and sailors, 24 ; total, 3455. Upon visiting the New Zealand Court, our acquatic men cannot help examining and admiring a bandsome-iooking outrigger boat, built by Mr Henry T. Green, now of Dunedin, but whom we must claim as a native of New Sonth Wales, The name of Green is identified with boat-building and rowing upon the waters of Port Jacksou; and everyone must feel gratified that a son of our soil has been able to send us such a magnificent piece of workmanship as that on view. The dimensions ot the boat in question are as follow : —Length, 31ft. 6in. ; beam, 12in. ; spread of outriggers, 4ft. 9in.; extent of slide, 20iu. ; and she is fitted with swivel rowlocks. With respect to this swivel rowlock, about which so much has been said recently, w© may mention that it is not the new invention it is claimed to be, for the builder of the present boat states that ho invented, and has now in his possession, swivel rowlocks he had made in Sydney twenty years ago. Many of our leading oarsmen have had the pleasure, in years gone by, of inspecting Mr Green’s works in boatbuilding, and they will be pleased to notice in the specimen he has sent us, that he has not forgotten the cunning of his hand.”

The Mormons are quietly, but in a number of casss successfully, makingconverts. One of our City Council officials has cast in his lot with them, and as he is a man of enumerable mental ability, his services have been utilised in advocating their principles at the usual gath rings. An Auckland trader lias also joined the ranks out of “ pure love and affection,” and his munificent contributions to the Mormon treasury forms a startling contrast to those which marked his more orthodox career. Meetings are held almost nightly, in cottages, among the common people, and if energy and persistency can accomplish success, then the Mormon mission will be succesful. What is needed now is to give an extra fillip to the Mormon cause is persecution, and some shortsighted persons, forgetful of the lesson which history teaches, seem inclined to accommodate its leaders in that respect. Of the last batch which was seized with ’’ the spirit of gathering,” and left by the mail steamer for San Erancisco, en route for the Salt Lake, there are one or two men of considerable powers of observation and force of character; and they assured m© that the New Zealand Press should receive at their hands a full, true, and particular account of the state of affairs in Utah, and their impressions thereof.— Auckland correspondent of “ Otago Daily Times.”

The ‘ Tablet ’ has struck a veritable patch in spotting the manifest of the missionary ship John William?, which vessel has recently cleared out at Sydney for the South Sea Islands, The following purports to be a copy of this interesting document ; —“ 1 case wine, I case port, 2 cases ale and stout, 1 case schnapps, 5 cases wine,'6s cases stout, 25 cases claret, 23 casks whisky, Co cases, beer.” Are all these good liquors for the sustenance in their arduous labors of the missionaries and their families, or intended to promote the cause of evangelical truth by tickling the palates of the misguided heathen? Can it be that grog-selling aud catechising are carried on as cognate and congenial pursuits A" An explanation of what we may call (he manifest fact of the character of the missionary ships last cargo would be desirable at the next “ tea meeting.” “ Pshaw !” said Czardine, as he seated himself' in his sanctum, “ the snake stories that are going about are all too thin. Why just look hero.. Last spring I went out into the woods. I took along an umbreller, which I laid down onto some rocks. Well, sir, about' an hour afterwards I went to get my umbreller as it had begun to rain a little. I took hold of the handle, and as I give it a slnve something begun to tear, and as the umbreder flew open a live black snake fell to the ground split in two from its head to its tail* The confounded critter had actually swallowed my umbreller, and. I never noticed it until I j shoved up the thing and split the cuss open from, stem to stern.” i Lord Palmerston once said, speaking of the. Turks, “ What energy can be expected of a people with no. heels to their shoes ?■” Miss Joy was present at a party,, and in thecourse of the evening some one used the quotation, “ A thing, of beauty is a joy for ever,”' when she exclaimed, “ I’m glad I’m. not a beauty,. ! for I_sho,u,ld not like to bo a'Joy for ever,”