Trade is not particularly brisk this month; in fact, most of the offices are very slack, and in some cases several of the hands have had to lose one or two days in the week.

The Canterbury Typographical Association held its half-yearly meeting on 20th July-last, when the balance-sheet and report for the half-year was submitted, and, with a few slight amendments in the report, adopted. The balance-sheet showed the Association's funds to be in a healthy state, considering the short time it has been in existence. The following clause in the report was unanimously approved:— « No doubt your attention has been drawn by the recent formation of the Tailors' and Tailoresses' Union to the fact that 'sweating' exists to a very alarming extent in our city, and your Board are of opinion that one of the most effectual means of checking this and other similar evils will be the formation of a Trades and Labor Council. By a mutual interchange of information relative to their respective trades, the representatives forming the Council will be in a position to advise the members of their own Societies as to the firms employing cheap labor, and it will then be the duty of members, individually and collectively, to patronize only such employers as pay a fair day's wage for a fair day's work. If we desire to maintain our own standard wage we must assist other trades to do the same. It is therefore the intention of the Board, with your consent, to communicate with other Societies on the subject at an early date. »

With reference to the Trades and Labor Council suggested in the above clause, I may add that great interest is taken in the movement among the various trades and trades unions in this city, and with the object in view of forming such a trades league a deputation from the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, who appear to have taken the initiative, waited upon the board of management of the Typographical Association at its last meeting, and placed before the members of the latter for their consideration the proposals made by the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, which, briefly stated, were:—That the whole of the trades should amalgamate and form into a Trades League, with a subscription of not less than 1s per month, the object being to protect labor. A council would be formed, consisting of a delegate from each trades union, and also a Board of Arbitration. The secretary should be paid, and should be independent of outside labor. It was said that if the whole of the trades would federate, in less than two years labor here would be on a better footing than it ever had been. Should this League be established—as I hope it will be— « it will be a grand kick towards the goal of unionism, » as I heard it put the other day. It ought to commence operations with a membership of about two thousand—a body of men strong enough, I should think, to cope with any difficulty that might arise to interfere with the interests of tradesmen.

Mr R. A. Loughnan, who has filled the editorial chair of the Lyttel-ton Times for the past fourteen-and-a-half years, was, on the eve of his departure for Wellington, where he continues his journalistic work on the Catholic Times, presented by the proprietors and employés of the Lyttelton Times Company, with a purse of sovereigns, a handsomely-bound volume of « A Singular Legacy » (a novel from Mr Loughnan's pen), and a handsomely-framed illuminated address. One of the sovereigns bore the following inscription:— « This token was one of a number presented to R. A. Loughnan, Esq., on the occasion of his departure from the Lyttelton Times office, July, 1899, after fifteen years' connexion therewith as editor. » The address was very artistically illuminated, and was embedded, so to speak, in a front page of the Lyttelton Times, space for it being made by tearing away the centre portion of the page. Mr E. V. Hamilton, who made the presentation on behalf of the subscribers, in a neat speech, spoke in eulogistic terms of Mr Loughnan, and said:— « In losing R. A. Loughnan, we are losing a good friend, a good journalist, and if he has such things—a rare good enemy. » Mr Loughnan suitably replied. I hear that Mr W. P. Reeves is likely to be his successor as editor of the Times.

The libel case I mentioned in my last letter as pending between George and Meers, rival photographers, was heard before his Honor Mr Justice Denniston, on the 5th inst. The case resulted in his Honor making an order for the delivery of the negative complained of by the plaintiff, and the destroyal of the copies in the defendant's possession, without any damages, each party to pay their own costs.

Mr George Capper, late of J. T. Smith & Co.'s office, is now reader on the Weekly Press and Telegraph.

Great interest is taken here among the members of the craft in rifle-shooting with the Morris tube, and several matches have taken place between the employés of the different offices. Some of the knights of the stick and rule are fast developing into crack shots, but occasionally one hears a very amusing story of some new beginner, who has fired all round the target, but failed to strike it.