(Pers.s. Tarawera at the Blufe.)

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 31, 5 January 1884, Page 3

(Pers.s. Tarawera at the Blufe.)

London, December 21. Mr Richard Speight, late Assistant General Manager of the Midland Kail way Company, who has been appointed Chairman of the Commission for Victorian Railways, was entertained to a banquet at Derby to-day. Mr Vernon Harcourt, Home Secretary, and Member for Derby, presided. There was a large and representative attendance, and the banquet passed oft" most successfully. Mr Murray Smith, Agent-General for Victoria, responded on behalf of that colony. During the evening Mr Speight was presented with a purse of 2,000 sovereigns. The "Standard considers that the Australian colonies are borrowing too largely, and condemns the floating of recent loans. Earl Derby has announced that purchases of land by British subjects from the natives of New Guinea will be disallowed. A suggestion has been made that the Australian Colonies should agitate for the j abolition of passenger dues at the Suez Canal. It is suggested in financial circles that Victoria, in floating her proposed £4,000,000 loan, should place it in the hands of a syndicate, who would take it at a fixed rate, and float it on their own terms at what they consider the most opportune moment. Mr William Hay, a late member of the j New South Wales Assembly, has a letter in this morning's "Times," in which he advocates the appointing of a system of Colonial life peerages. Latest advices from the Porte show that Turkey ,is unwilling to interfere for the suppression of the insurrection in Soudan.