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New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 188, 3 November 1876, Page 13

In its issue of the 6th July, the 'New York World' (says the 'Manchester Guardian 5 ) attempts to estimate "the cost" of the storm of pyrotechnics with which the Fourth has this year been celebrated. The attempt was manifestly premature, as the New York journalist at the time he wrote could have had. before him only a most imperfect record of the two days' casualties to life and property. He admits this, and contents himself with an estimate for the -whole Union, which is based upon the loss suffered over a very limited area. At Philadelphia one fire, caused by an incautious use of gunpowder, involved a loss of 200,000 dollars ; while a single explosion killed four men. But it is with New York itself that the ' World' specially concerns itself- During the two days covered by the celebration the casualties directly traceable to that patriotic demonstration were four killed or fatally injured., and forty-oue seriously, and twenty-nine slightiy, wounded. This for a city is a sufficiently formidable list, but there can be little doubt that if all the cases of injury were reported the catalogue of disasters would be found still heavier. As the figures stand, however the calculation of our contemporary is that if these celebrations were a thing of every-day occurrence, affecting the rate of mortality like dysentery, or typhoid, or measles, then in the course of a year one New Yorker in every 1,609 would lay his life on the altar of his country, and one in every 154 would be severely injured. Or to take the whole Union, if the glow of patriotism throughout the States is but half as vivid as it is in New York, the Centennial cannot have been done at a cost of less than 80 killed and 1 400 wounded. New York.seems to have been more fortunate than* the Quaker city in the matter of fires. During the two days eighty buildings were fired through the careless use of explosive and inflammable materials ; but the aggregate loss does not exceed the trifle of some JE4,000. Of course, if the Americans are satisfied with this sort of thing, it is not for foreign critics to intervene with narrow-minded remarks about the lunacy of a good deal of tha Centennial merry-making.