MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1210, 20 December 1882, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

A private of the Ist Life Guards came in, after the charge of Kassassin, with a nasty sabre out across his left arm. Respecting this wound the following conversation was heard to ensue :— " Why, Bill, how did you get that r " Well, you see, I got off my 'orse to take one o' these Harabs prisoner, and blessed if the begger didn't up with his cheese knife and give me this 'ere slice f "Well, what did you doT "Well, I drew my gword, and I halved the beggar 1 In a paper read at the Sanitary Congress at Newcastle lately on the " Sanitary Aspect of Dress," Dr A, Carpenter said that the Sanitary Institute should have a word to say in trying to influence public opinion, society, and fashion against some of the barbarous costumes which still continued to flourish and to bear fruit in a thousand different ways, which produced an immense amount of disease and misery amongst those who were scarcely aware of the mischief which they had brought upon themselves, or caused other people to suffer. Not one half of the people, for instance, had really natural feet The good sense of the English nation was abolishing stays from the list of articles which young girls wore, but they were sadly to much worn even now, and health was sacrificed to "figure," because it was thought by some that a slim waist was a thing of beauty. The way also in which children were clothed and ligatured, often to their fatal injury, formed a very importantsubjtctfor inquiry and improvement, as did the use of arsenic, antimony, and lead to color clothing stuffs, and to render them heavy in the weighing scales, and the "dressing" of lines for the market with foreign and earthy matters. These and other matters he denounced as evincing a neglect of the laws of morality, in I of the lines of tiue beauty and of correct sanitary principles in matters of dress. Madagascar is in the Indian Ocean, and separated from the Continent of Africa by the Mozambique Channel, the breadth of which is about 240 miles. The island is nearly 1,000 miles in length; the greatest breadth is 335 miles, and the average breadth ?4O miles. It is about 2£ times the size of Great Britain. It is overspread with marshes, interspersed with lakes } although there is elevated land in the interior, where there are mountains rising to 8,000 and 9,000 ft above the sea-level. The climate varies much. On the coast the heat is intense ; but on the highland of Ankova the thermometer rarely rises above 85deg, and in winter sinks as low as 40deg. On the coasts the rains are constant, and the malignant fevers, dangerous alike to Natives and Europeans, have their sources in the miasma generated in the marshes. The celebrated Marco Polo knew of Madagascar at the close of the thirteenth century ; and the arabs are known to have visited the island several centuries ago. The government appears tobeamonarchical despotism. The monarchy is said to be hereditary ; but the order of succession can hardly be considered defined, as the monarch claims to appoint a successor. Justice is administered by a body of Judges, who sit occasionally to hear complaints ; but the laws are unwritten. Jay Gould is worth to-day £20,000, 000. He has a summer residence at Hudson River, upon which he expended .£200,000, and another on Fifth avenue, New York, said to be worth an equal amount. £20,000,000 sterling is an immense sum — more than one mind can handle usefully— more than one mind can accumulate honestly —more than any one man has any right to have. The community have the right, and ought to force hiui to distribute it Every dollar owned by this remarkable man exists by virtue of the existence and efforts of the community. His £20,000,000, are railroad, telegraph, and Government stocks. They are a species of wealth that is purely commercial. The community may do what

it pleases with its own, and against it the individual has no primary, but only a secondary right. All law and government proceed upon this idea. Is not this Communism 1 No. (Sir blackstone's " Commentaries, ' 4th book chapter xil). I have not time nor space to discuss this question, but will simply state that Jay Gould made his money by unlawful methods — by conniving stocks, exacting usurious interest, squeezing small dealers, creating monopolies of traffic and rates. If the laws of Great Britain prohibit its kings and queens from buying and -selling stocks or disposing of nonopolies, the American community can prohibit the kings of YfaU street in the same way. A and B cannot compel 0 to divide his surplus with them without an equivalent, but A and B can prevent C from using his surplus capital to their injury. There are laws against usury everywhere. I may agree with a Mend to pay a certain per cent, for a loan, but the law limits the amount If the law can interfere with me, it can and ought to interfere with Jay Gould. He has no right W own £20,000,000. The very existence of such a fund in the hands of of sdoh a man is a standing menace to (he community. A few days ago the whole nation was moved by a rumor that Jay Gould was negotiating for the control of the Associated Press Despatch Company. Had he persisted an issue would have been made and met. Jay Gould versus the American people.