OUR ILLUSTRATED LONDON LETTER.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 38, 20 September 1890, Page 9

OUR ILLUSTRATED LONDON LETTER.

Make moneyif you can, but make money. The process of coinage at the Mint has not always yielded a profit commensurate with the probable loss to be afterwards sustained in the withdrawal of light coins, but it is gratifying to know this year the net profit realised, after all charges have been met, is no less a sum than £780,691,0r more than £50,000 in excess of the combined net profits of the seventeen years before. This abnormal result was due not so much to an increase in the coinage issued, although that has been considerable, but to an unprecedented fall in the price of silver that has enabled the Mint authorities to purchase silver bullion at 3s 7d per ounce, which when issued in stamped form was of the value of 5s 6d per ounce. From this transaction alone, apart from labour, they realised over £BOO,OOO. The total amount of money issued in the yeai was £9,746,538, of which £7,500,700 was in gold, £2,178,888 in silver, and £66,950 in bronze. Hut more interesting to a general reader who is not a student of finance is the strange fluctuations which the various coins undergo in regard to their relative popularity. Lord Randolph Churchill will be delighted to notice the continued absence of demand for his wicked little half sovereign, which he believed found its way so often into the publican’s till from the necessity of workmen getting change before going home with the weekly wage. This is due in a great measure to the arrangements made for paying Government wages at the dockyards and elsewhere in silver instead of in half sovereigns. There have been no half sovereigns coined for the last two years, and everything is being done to discourage them in consequence of the loss which they involve to the exchequer in depreciation. A half sovereign becomes light in about 9 years, and a sovereign in about 19 years. There has been no demand for the fancy five pound and two pound pieces which originated in the Jubilee year. STANLEY. With all his honours thick upon him Mr Stanley makes his triumphal progress, and the above little caricature is an artist’s conception of the necessity which will arise for some means of disposing of the lavish honours bestowed on him. Were his breast as broad as a bold man-o’-war’s-man it could never display a tithe of the tinsel he now possesses, while as to the letters which have been tacked on to his patronymic they would provide a never ending source of amusement to those foolish people who have been deprived by the Government of their staple recreation in the form of prize competitions. When Stanley has exhausted the enthusiasm of the British public he goes over to the States, his tour in the land of stars ami stripes having now been definitely arranged, and it is going to be productive of a very fair profit to the explorer. His fees will be exactly double the amount they were on the occasion of his last tour before he undertook the relief of Emin. He will receive £5,000 for his first lecture, which is to be delivered in New York City on November 11, and for the remaining forty-nine lectures he will be

paid at the rate of £2OO each. His tour, therefore, will realise nearly £15,000. The subject of the lectures will be ‘ African Exploration as I have found it,' and they will be delivered in eighteen of the principal cities in the States. Mr Stanley has signed the agreement with Major Pond, ami will sail for America from Liverpool on October 29, by the White Star steamer Teutonic. Mrs Stanley will accompany her husband. Another distinguished lecturer who is going to the States in the autumn, is Sir Morell Mackenzie, who has contracted to deliver a course of twenty lectures beginning in October at Toronto. The doctor, although he will be substantially remunerated, is undertaking the tour chiefly as a relaxation from his professional duties, and he will be accompanied by his daughter Elda. Mr Louis Fagan and Mr Frederick Villiers will be in the States at the same time—the former lecturing on the Art Treasures of the British Museum, and the latter on his thrilling experiences as war correspondent for the Graphic.

MILITARY TOURS A M ENT. The clang of arms is heard this week within the iteaceful and bucolic precincts of the Agricultural Hall. The occasion is the eleventh Hoyal Military Tournament which is held yearly under distinguished patronage on behalf of the funds for old ami disabled soldiers. It was appropriately opened on the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, by H. R.H. the Duchess of Albany. The Tournament, which continues for ten days, is a magnified assault-at-arms, and there are all the usual competitions of fencing and foiling, lemon cutting, tilting at the ring, tent pegging, sword versus bayonet, bayonet versus lance, and so forth. Artillery drill is also introduced, and there are competitions in loading, in mounting ami dismounting guns, and in bayonet exercise. The most attractive feature of the show to the general visitor is perhaps the riding and jumping competitions by teams of cavalry. There is a brave reproduction of the famous cavalry melee at Balaclava, and a pretty-

tableaux is formed by the musical ride of Ist Life Guards ami the Lothians and Berwickshire Yeomanry Cavalry. There are several excellent bands of music in attendance each day.

The newspapers are ringing with praises for Miss Philippa Fawcett, who has beat the record of the Senior Wrangler at Cambridge University. It has always been thought that in mathematics at least woman would never have a chance, but now the last bridge has been taken from the male undergraduate, and the ‘ sweet girl graduate ’ passes over to make the complete conquest over educational exclusiveness. The British public will not forget Miss Fawcett's triumph ; they cannot, indeed, forget that she is so worthily perpetuating the honoured name of her father, and not less of her distinguished mother. The name of Fawcett is well placed in contemporary annals.