OUR HOME LETTER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10063, 3 February 1909, Page 4

OUR HOME LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) London, December 25. MR JOSEPH FEIL OX NEW ZEALAND. At the Technical Institute, West Norwood, the announcement of a lecture by Mr Joseph Feil on New Zealand drew the largest audience that has ever been seen at any of the 'Saturday evening entertainments this season. Probably one cause was "rateful remembrance of a former visit and the pleasure experienced thereat; but we would like to think that in part, at any rate, the large audience was due to an increased interest in the outlying members of our great Empire. Certain it is that Mr Feil is just the man_ to arouse and' keep alive interest in New Zealand; he believes in his subject and its future; his knowledge of the great colony. is full, personal, accurate and up-to-date, Ins stvle is easy and self-possessed without any unnecessary talkee-talkee, and the lantern slides form quite an art gallery of beautiful pictures. As the lecture is given in connection with what maybe called the education -work of the New Zealand Shipping Company, Mr Feil adopts the plan of embarking Ins company on board the steamship Turakina, belonging to that company, describing the journev outwards, the landing, and the travelling through the two islands, all being macle wonderfully real and vivid by the fine photographic slides. Much valuable information is given in the course of the journey through the country, and it may be advantageous, says the lecturer, to put that together first for the benefit of intending emigrants or tourist 6. In the first place, he explained, from the position of New Zealand in the Southern Hemisphere, the climate is, perhaps, on the w-hole the most suitable one for British colonists, as it certainly is as healthy as any in the world. The variety of possible occupations affords opportunities for all classes of people ; the timber business, the gum-digging, the butter-making, the cattle rearing, the gold mining, appeal to different natures, and in New Zealand all can liu samupled. The the policy of the New Zealand Government ."cuius a most enlightened one. It endeavors to attract people to the land, gives them every inducement to remain, and is making strenuous efforts to shut out the social miseries of the older lands. Then it will come as news to many that New Zealand is .becoming quite a. health resort. The hot springs of North Island in the neighborhood of the famous Terraces are beine exploited as thermal spas, and remarkable cures are reported. And as for sport, there is endless variety for both rod and gun, the fishing being really remarkable in its way. It is not to be supposed that this useful information Was given in such bald form, but artfully and skilfully woven in with, the talk about the 150 pictures that passed before the pleased eyes of the listeners, as after landing at Auckland, with its imposing water front, they made acquaintance with the wonders of the North Island, learning something of the extinct moa, and visiting the great forests with the remarkable kauri trees, the great Waihi gold mine, a cattle yard, a butter-making factory producing two tons daily: and so on to the Maori district, the Hot Lakes and the geysers, getting on the way glimpses of enchanting scenery and finally reaching Wellington, the capital. Then, crossing Cook Strait, the South Island is taken in hand in the same way, and! Christchurch and the great Canterbury Plains first come under notice. Some idea of the importance of the frozen meat trade may be gathered from the fact that 20 years ago the value of exported mutton was £19,000 ; last year it was £2,400,000. New Zealand flax, the wool industry, Dunedin, and the lovely scenery on the river Avon all passed in review, and all too 60on the ship was homeward bound, and London was reached once more. All who attended this lecture carried away with them a more just and thorough idea of New Zealand and its possibilities than they cou'd have gathered from the study of any number of geography or other books, and they learnt it in the pleasantest way possible. It should be said that .during the interval Miss Elene Eke sang charmingly the Dominion anthem, "God Defend New Zealand.

THE WOOL SALES AT BRADFORD. As compared with a month ago, the market is still dull, and "there does not seem to be much prospect of animation this' side of the year. The trade is evidently well supplied with raw material for the present, and, indeed, for some time to come, and the supreme difficulty at the moment, from a Bradford point of view, is to get customers to buy tops or yarns at prices to line with what has been realised for raw material during the past month. No doubt importers in London are well satisfied- with the result of their manipulation of supplies. Had they let a' larger proportion of the wool come forward in May and June they would not have got anything like so much for it as they did in October and November.' There is no doubt that wool has been sold at a higher price than the actual trade in manufactured and semi-manufac-tured, goods would strictly warrant, and the situation still requires some adjustment as between raw material values and prices which users are prepared to pay. The hare statistics relating to the amount of wool carried forward at the various sales in London this year are in themselves a striking illustration of the success of the tactics of the brokers, especially when the trend of values is borne in mind. Here is the record ti the number of bales carried forward • - --ath of

the sales—January-February, 30,000; March-April, 78,000 ; May, 120,000; July, 88,000; September-DecembeT, 38,000; November, 11,000. To complete the records one' ought also to ehow how values fluctuated over the same period, and the appended table indicates the values at the highest point in January, the lowest point reached in May, together with the average quotations: —

Botany spinners have a larger proportion of machinery running than crossbred spinners, but in both branches of the yarn trade particulars are hard to get. Home wools show an upward tendency, and they are against the buyer. It may be noted that manufacturers are not getting the response from America that they were_ led to anticipate by the inquiries they received when the election closed, the repeat orders being few and far between.

LUDGATE HILL AND ITS TOYS. Many New Zealanders over here just now miss an old and interesting sight, one that hardly has its parallel in any city in Europe. The Santa Claus of the Gutter has been ''moved on" by the stern guardians of the law. The glory of Ludgate Hill is departed. A week ago and it was, as it has been for many years, a very ffoblin market. Now it is all business and ciesolation. The toys are gone. A week or so ago and youi jostled leisurely through a happy, adhesive crowd, where no oiie was in'V hurry. Now you fight your way along in an unholy throng of hustlers. A man must have the heart of a Scrooge not to regret the toys. Still you cannot blame the police. When you have palpitating, perambulating battering rams like motor-buses sliding and slewing down the roadway there is no longer room for what was possible in the happy old days of the "knifeboard." The traffic "rows and srows, and the superficial area of Ludgate' Hill stands still. And now, if nature or necessity moves you, you maycanter from end to end of the gutter of Ludgate Hill, and the motor-bus finds no more encroaching crowds to tempt its homicidal instincts. But, alas! what have we lost! For so long a time that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, the hawkers of toys have made their Christmas market on Ludgate Hill. Last year, for the first time, they were moved on, this year the tragedy is performed again, and it becomes part of the order of things that Christmas in the city is to look like any other day. And if we were not all worshippers of the great god Hustle, the dark streets might still be a fantasy of dreams and fairyland. The other day, as one wandered through i the line of their glittering, gaudy trays, the shrill hawkers were worth a.n artist's study. Here was a wrinkled, whitehaired grandmother, whom Rembrandt might have sought; here a clean-limbed-, lithe lad, ruddy and vigorous, who must surely belong to hill and moorland, and not to the dingy alleys of the town. Then you came upon swarthy, dark-eyed folk, with strange, delicate hands, and fragile shoulders, creatufts of the distant mystery of the East. Now, it was some quaint gamin of the London streets keeping up a sham quarrel with his neighbors and chaffing the crowd. And now a man, broken and seared with disease and poverty, yet bearing still some of the marks of gentle breeding and .culture, hinted at some strange, hopeless tragedy. What miserable memories, heart-killing memories, perchance, of happy, honored days, of kind friends, and of relations, long since passed away, were haunting him as he stood in the "gutter with bowed head, silent and sorrowful, amid the eager yells and mirthfid jest of commerce, offering his humble tray of grotesque toys. Well, the order changeth, and they are all going. They still ply their trade, but by ones and two in different streets, and the children's fairyland of Ludgate Hill is no more.

Jan. May, Dec 14 1908. 1908. 1908. d. d. d. 70's .. ... 27$ 22g 25 64's .. ... 26| 21i 23| 56's .. ... 22* 17i 18| 50's .. .. ... 19 14| 16i 40's .. ... 13i 8 Hi Lincoln . hoggets ... Hi 7| (June) 9 North. hosgete ... 12j 9? (June) 12