ENGLISH & FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 726, 14 October 1869, Page 2

ENGLISH & FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

(Prom the London Letter of-the correspondent the WeUington,

v London, 13th August, TpE latest telegram from your coW came to hand three days ago, inform, ing us that a change of taken place, but leaving us at-present in the dark respecting the constitution of the new cabinet. It is presumed however, that Mr Fitsherbert and % Fox will be the foremost leaders. This change has not taken the initiated by surprise, and indeed some hints con. tained in the monthly summary of the, Independent of last 34ay, had prepared us for the event which, has just beea announced by telegraph. The only other information from the same, source is that the new Ministry has proclaimed a policy of *•' self-defence," by which we understand a, non-aggres, sive. policy. This looks somewhat; tame (if it be. true),in face of the war. like attitude which the colony has held for a considerable time past, and of the' bellicose sentiments by which the colo. nists at large have been inspired, ft may be, however, that both sides are growing somewhat tired of fighting and campaigning, and getting weary! of the " pomp and circumstance of. glorious war." It would seem almost as if some sort of a truce had been tacitly entered into, for we learn that some two hundred of the natives have come in, and have laid down their arms. This looks favorable :• perhaps it is the beginning of peace. Why should it not be ; for unless, the hos-. tile natives are demented they must perceive that the colonists will give in until their, enemies are either subdued or exterminated. It may take years to accomplish either of these ; results, but the bitter end" must come in the Jong run; the weaker party "is bound" (as the Yankees say) to go to, the wall. There is no instanpa. on. record of the dominant white race ever having been vanquished in the sequel by hordes of lawless, and uncivilised tribes. And certainly. ■New Zealand will not prove an excep. tion to the general rule, for pressure, will only serve to draw forth the latent, energies and the warlike vigor inherent in all men of British race—the. enterprise and the courage wbich have. subdued and colonised far-stretching settlements in every quarter of the globe. These are the grounds upon, which we base the hope.that our countrymen in New Zealand, fighting for their hearths and homes — pro am rf focis—will show themselves on a level with all emergencies—fully up to the task that lies before them. The British public are fully impressed, with this, belief. But I should not be quite can-.

did with your readers if I did not add tbat, up to the present time, there does,. not appear to have been manifested throughout the colony of New Zealand as a uphole. that amount of public spirit which the occasion, demands. Tlierfe. would appear to be an absence of solidarity ; that is to say, the absence of a feeling of joint responsibility, among the several provinces into which, the colony is divided. The community in the southern provinces, do not seem to make common cause with the north, and to send that material and succour which the crisis imperatively demands,, so that the north has to bear unduly the "brunt of battle"—the burden, and heat of the day. Granted .that the south, has to bear its full, share of the. public expenditure of the war. But surely that is not enough. How many fighting men has the southern section, of the colony raised and sent into the, field. \Ye are told over and. over, again that the population of New Zea?. land is close-upon 220,000, and nobody can or will believe in this country, that the entire available force hitherto, raised by the settlers amounts to littlemore than 1,500 men —many of whom can only be considered "trained and disciplined troops" by a stretch of courtesy. People here ask again and again, with some astonishment and incredulity: : —" Is thid your utmost?-: Have you no young men, or old me fl >, or lads—or, failing these—any valor*. ous old women to send to the front. Such questions as these may seem pertinent, but they are asked theless by numbers of plain commoaj sense people here. Nor will these questioners believe that the colony inputting forth all its available strength, and resources until they see two ot. three thousand men under arms tot purposes of sell-defence, Poubtless a

force of this numerical strength would jmply a considerable amount of selfjdenial and patriotic spirit, but these are just the qualities which we should expect to see predominant at a critical emergency'like the 1 present. You will probably urge that the men are not available to this extent —or' at least that there are no available funds to Ikeep such a body of men in the field. The answer is, that the men should be available at all hazards —even- though a conscription were rendered necessary for the purpose. And this probably is what the colony is drifting towards. No doubt such a step would be unpopular, if not hazardous, but there are certain cases which justify recourse to extreme measures of this kind when all else fails. I know "full well that if Great Britain were to be threatened loy any external danger, the Volunteers would take the field at twenty-four

Jiours notice, and if their co-operation were insufficient, the statesman of the day would not hesitate to recommend a conscription. This view of the Case does not appear, so far as I know, to have been taken up in your colony; on the contrary the Times correspondent, under date of June last, tells us that the salvation of the colony will depend upon the aid of regulars from home —without which it cannot " stagger " along much longer. This is very strong language, and, presuming that it expresses correctly the sentiments of your public men, and of the colonists generally, it produces here equal pain and surprise ; for the fact is notorious that when the "regulars'' were formerly engaged in your behalf they did you but little service (beyond per-

haps in some degree overawing the natives), and there was nothing but continual wrangling anil jangling going on between the colonial and the military authorities—while the latter were invariably supported by the War Department and the Colonial Secretary at home. Jn a word, the " regulars " rendered you no good service—they gave no satisfaction to anybody, and they left you in a worse position than they found you. It will be remembered at the same time that the withdrawal of the British troops was your own exclusive act: you demanded it as a right, and it was done. In taking this step your statesmen and rulers must have contemplated the possibility of future insurrectionary movements on the part of the natives, but what is most singular, they made no adequate provision for such an emergency. Now the question arises—if you were to introduce a large body of British forces Once more to fight your battles, what likelihood would there be that they would be more successful than they

were formerly. They could not be kept permanently in the colony, and on their future withdrawal you would have to fall back once more on your own resources, and you would be in just the same position in which you find yourselves at present. A,t the same time, my own opinion is, that it you could get about 1000 good men from England, at an expense of some .£50,000 a-year. for a few years to come, you would find it much cheaper than the system you have adopted — or rather, perhaps, a force of this kind would be sufficient to supplement your Own troops, and to keep the natives quiet until you could gain a little breathing time, and *■•' recuperate." But then the question is, could the British Government now consent to aid you to this extent ? I confess it is extremely doubtful, but still the request (ii deemed expedient) should be made with all the energy which the Colonial Government, backed by the Governor, could bring to bear upon the point. Unanimity might ensure succese—nothing else would. These reasons would apply with equal force to the question of obtaining a guarantee for your new loan \ for we are told that a flew loan has been decided upon, and that the British Government will be requested to *'endorse the bill" —a request which the Times correspondent thinks they can scarcely refuse under the circumstances. This, however, is by no means so certain as he seems to think : a good deal depends upon the amount of the proposed loan and upon the amount of pressure which may have been brought to bear upon the Colonial Secretary by the unanimous Voice of the colony. But if we were to judge from certain speeches which have lately been made in Parliament, th OoYornment will leave you to fight.

your own battles as well iu the colony as in the London money market. If they adopt this somewhat stern and ungracious course, it will be on the plea that they are consulting the best interests of the colony by holding aloof and declining any further interference or responsibility with or on account of colonial concerns. Should this be the case, the decision will doubtless be regarded in the colony as harsh, ungerous, aud unkind—but I feel bound to add at the same time that this is the view—namely, the harsh which has found most support in Parliament, and which has been taken by the press at large, with iew exceptions. It has been stated here that practical men have been engaged in Glasgow to go to Otago to assist in the formation of a meat preserving establishment in that enterprising province. Canterbury also is represented as being determined to share in the profits and

advantages of this article of export. Wool has gone down and preserved meats are coming up. As wool does not return a sufficient income, it will have to be supplemented with mutton and beef. This is the most effectual form of practical " self-reliance," and your readers may depend upon it, that if they can combine food and clothing —if they can send us meat as well as wool —it will be found to pay in every

sense of the term. Thirty millions of people in the United Kingdom are interested in the question; advertisements proclaim it, the press applaud it. All the supplies yet to hand have met with a ready and eager demand. At present we are wholly dependent upoti Australia, and the latest advices from that colony show that they cannot meet the present demands. As yet New Zealand has done nothing in this direction. Can it be (perchance) that all your people are so absorbed by the one eternal topic of war that they have no time to bestow upon ordinary commercial matters —mere money getting. I opine not, —otherwise the war would not be still "drag-

ging its slow length along." However, banter apart, I hope }our men of enterprise and capital are preparing soon to appear in the field as contributors to the flesh-devouring British public. Be it fully understood, however, that we want, "a genuine article," and "no bones" about it. If you can't supply this say so, and we must look elsewhere. You are to under*, stand that although there is a great outcry for preserved meat, it has not yet come into general consumption. Quantity, and to some extent quality, are still wanting. What is a few

ship loads among millions of hungry people ? If the article could be sent fresh to market here the demand would be general. The ll freezing process" was to have accomplished this result. "We are waiting for the fact. However, independently of this, there is one establishment in Norton Folgate, which is said to dispose of twelve tons per week amongst the working classes. These imported meats consist chiefly of legs of mutton, &c, with the bones extracted; and after they are salted, spiced, or smoked as the case may be they are rolled up and tied with string. The meat is then ready for use, and can be cut into slices like a huge German sausage. There is but little new in the way of curing it. It has been a good deal puffed and forced, and though when cut it looks fresh and inviting to the

eye, yet it is thought to have lost a good deal of its original flavor. Beef of this kind is sold retail at 6|d per lb, and the mutton at s|d, but while working people can buy inferior and coarse joints of fresh meat at 7d a lb, there is not sufficient inducement for them to give 4|d for salted meat. One would think 'that considering the cost price of meat in Australia, it could be supplied at a lower figure in uur markets-r-say 5d per lb. What really sells well and is likely to hold its place, is the beef and mutton preserved in tins by the old Aberdeen process, with this exception that the meat in Australia has to be subjected to a much greater heat before being soldered up. Australia and New Zealand if they persevere, will be able to drive out of the meat preserving trade those engaged in it in Great Britain. The principal demand for these meats has hitherto been for victualling the navy, merchant service, and passenger ships. As regards the general public, both in'London and in the provinces,

they have not yet been made acquainted with these preserved meats. What we require are large district depots in every part of London to feed the retail dealers. In short.the machinery or " plant" for working the business has not yet been set up, and until the meat is brought home to the working man's door, next door to the baker's and greengrocer's, he won't go into the city to look after it—half a day's journey there and back. The Australian Meat Company, with offices in Gracechurch-street, have an establishment on the Clarence River, New South Wales, where they slaughter on an average about 700 Q head of cattle every year. Nothing is wasted. The best are preserved and the odd pieces are converted into " Liebig's extract of meat," two ounces of which are said to be equal to 51bs of beef, and sell for Is 9d retail. The preserved beef sells for about 6Jd per lb. But in order to bring it into general consumption it should never exceed this figure, and should if possible be supplied to the consumer at 5d or s|d per lb. There is just now a great scarcity of these preserved (in tin) meats, on account, it is said, of

slaughtering operations having to be suspended for two or three months in Australia owing to the heat on one hand, and the scarcity of fat cattle on the other, The scarcity is the result of the dry weather during the summer months. New Zealand, I imagine, would kill and preserve all the year round, and cure hung beef and mutton nine months out of the twelve. Ii your graziers will sell supplies of stock at moderate prices, there is no reason why New Zealand should not take the lead in meat curing and preserving during the next three years, and at the same time create a new staple product—a permanent industry to endure for generations to coine. But in order to accomplish an undertaking of this kind effectually, there must be nearty co-operation amongst the three orders of the community —CapitalEnergy —Brains; for it rarely happens that the same individual is endowed with a monopoly of these several " properties"—all dwelling withiQ the one fleshy tabernacle. On the sth of August H. P. Hughes |and Sons issued their catalogue of colonial wools to hand for sale during

this and the next month. The quantities comprised were ; —From New South Wales and Queensland, 30,547 bales ; Victoria, 39,121; Tasmania, 8,310; South Australia, 13,429 ; West Australia, 482 ; and New Zealand, 55,335; total of Australian wools, 147,224, to which we must and 28,842 bales from the Cape of Good Hope, which makes the total quantity (less 5,000 bales forwarded to Yorkshire and the continent direct) to be offered for sale during August and September 176,066 bales. The immense number of bales of New Zealand wool in these sales may be accounted for by your shearing taking place later than in Australia.. Besides which, nearly the whole of the Electra's wool which arrived long ago, comes into this sale, while a not very small portion of the Wild Duck's wool, which arrived a few days ago, will find its way into the current sale, though all landed and warehoused. These delays in the sale of your wools increase the charges upon it, and cause a loss of interest on money, all of which is likely to come out of the pockets of the New Zealand sheepfarmers, who, from recent falls in the prices of wool must be suffering severely. I am told, I regret to say, that Wellington wool, as a rule, cannot be depended on to coarse, fine, and clean fleeces being too often found mixed together. I told you in my last that the depreciation in the price of wool had been so great that there w T as but little proba bility of any further fall. The first sale of the present series opened last evening (12th August) and I am happy to say although the lots offered contained " a poor assortment of Port Phillip fleece wool," yet as compared with the May and June sales a small advance was obtained on Cape wools, while long-stapled sorts were somewhat firmer. It may be that the pre sent rate in prices will not be fully maintained throughout the sales, but such a good beginning has been made as to warrant the opinion that no serious reduction of present rates will take glace. The attendance was large.

Allow me now to tender a word of advice to your colonial wool growers and to colonial mercantile men who have made advances to them. Let them cot depend on the prospect of a future large rise in the price of wool; rather let them seek to improve the breed of their sheep, and at the same time bestow much more care on the washing, sorting, and packing of their wool than they do at present. A reduction in the rate of interest should follow a great reduction in the price of wool, a reduction which may now be fairly considered as permanent. Some farmers, it would seem, go a little to the extreme in hot water washing of wool. The opinion of several competent wool judges here is that hot water tends to destroy the elasticity of the fibre, particularly if soda be used in the water. This opinion appears to receive confirmation from the very low prices ob-

tained for hot and water washed wools which are likely to leave a margin of loss instead of profit. Wool well waahed on the sheep's back with soft cold water, and dried and shorn quickly to prevent the yolk rising, will prove the most profitable, as it requires less colonial labor. It must be borne in mind that low classes of wool will pay better if sent home in grease than if forwarded half or badly washed. I have on several occasions drawn the attention of your readers to this subject, and I may have something to add another time. The importance of the matter must be my apology for having devoted so much space to it on the present occasion. The session of Parliament was brought to a close two days ago; and already the town is empty, and everybody is off to the seaside who is not detained by inevitable "business"—or by something still worse at the present season (when everybody is expected to have money iu his purse)—" impecuniosity." This latter disease is, I think, more prevalent than it used to be. I don't know what your experience is in the colony —whether you have yet adopted the motto " base is the slave who pays," but I do know that here we find it impossible to get what is due to us without the unpleasant process of bringing our friends who owe us money face to face with those matter-of-fact gentlemen the

lawyers. Perhaps you will be inclined to agree with me that the credit system is, on the whole, a failure, and that the sooner all parties can return to ready money transactions the better on the ground that " short credit makes long friends." Indeed I have heard it said (but I look upon it as a libel) that the credit system has reached such a pitch in the colonies in general, aud in your own colony in particular, that nobody will ever pay ready money from choice —but only from necessity —and that this system is very highly approved by the lawyers !. The international, boat race will come of? the last week in August, but the day has not been definitely fixed. The "strangers" and the Oxonians are out every day for practice on the Thames, near Putney. Everybody,, of course, believes that Oxford will win, but I venture to say that Americans will lay thousands and tens of thousands on their own countrymen. Perhaps the latter are "keeping dark" for the present, so that their friends may get heavy odds, but this would scarcely be doing the " gentlemanly thing" for the jeunesse doree of an American university. We do not think their style of rowing equal to our own, but they are said to have immense " going " and " staying " powers —which apart from style or " form," as it is now called, must tell over a long course. [By telegraph we learn that the Oxonians have proved victorious.].

Talking of rowing reminds me that we have just lost a man who I believe was a crack oarsman at Cambridge in his day—l mean Lord Justice Selwyn —one of the Equity Judges of Appeal, and a younger brother of the Bishop of Lichfield. It is scarcely two years since he went per saUum from the bar to the bench—from being SolicitorGeneral under Mr Disrael's Government to be an Appellate Judge in Chancery, As a lawyer, he had no claims or pretensions to the post, but he was a sound Conservative and a good churchman, who had represented the University of Cambridge for several years in Parliament; nevertheless, owing to the suavity, urbanity, and

courtesy of his manner, he gave great satisfoction on the bench. He was only fifty-six years of age, and scarcely looked fifty. He was a much handsomer man than the Bishop, and'in stature and bearing there was no man on the bench his equal. It is understood that he died in consequence of an operation for (I believe) stone, from which he had been suffering for some time.

There was lately a terrible colliery explosion near Dresden, in Saxony—■ when upwards of 400 men are supposed to have perished. We also had an explosion of our own at Haydock Colliery, resulting in the loss of several lives. But the "chapter of accidents," alone at home and abroad, if duly chronicled, would fill two or three letters. But this is nothing new. There are, however, several topics of public importance which, for want of time and space, I must hold over for another letter.