ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. (For the MAIL via Brindisi of April 2nd.)

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 155, 22 May 1886, Page 4

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. (For the MAIL via Brindisi of April 2nd.)

The Breakdown of the Britannic. J OKDOtf, April 2. Owing to the breakdown of the K.M.S, Britannic, which left Queenstown on Friday with the Australian and New Zealand mails, and came to grief 700 miles west of the Faftnebonthe following Monday, the San Francisco service will for once be found wanting The Britannicreturned to Queengtown under sail.

The Countess of Dudley Visits the Colonies. The Countess of Dudley will pay the Australian colonies a visit bhovrJy. She gees out mainly for the purpose of seeing her son (the young Earl) and his uncle, Mr Moncrieff, who are yachting in the Pacific. Lady Dudley was for many years considered the most beautiful woman in England, and even now surpasses many younger belies one hears talked about.

The Exhibition. _ The New Zealand Court at South Kensing ton approaches completion under the energetic superintendence of Dr. Yon Baast, £urely the very incarnation of wellmeaning fussiness. People who go to see him aver that five minutes' consecutive conversation is wholly out of the question. The worthy doctor rushes wildly about, popping up here, there, and everywhere, like " a parched pea in a frying-pan." He has a prodigious notion of the importance of his "ofheial position," which, however, will doubtless moderate when he begins to realise that London is not precisely Wellington or Chiistchurch.

The Herring Ova Catastrophe. The man in charge of the herring ova for New Zealand, which, so unfortunately, went all wiong, has returned from his interrupted voyage. A conference is to be held at Victoria Chambers to-day, at which Professor Cossar Ewaxt and tha maker of the machinery w ill be present, to consider and determine the causes of failure.

Death of Major Levin. I deeply regret to announce the death of Sir F. D. Bell's nephew, Major H. M. Levin (of the Princess of Wales's Otvn Yorkshire Regiment), who succumbed on luesday lasc to a complaint contracted in India. He was only 36, but had become a Major, which Sir Francis considers was exceptionally early. His father, formerly of New Zealand, is now residing in England, but his elder brother is still a denizen of the colony. Major Levin died in Cleveland Square

Cable for New Zealand. Sir Francis D. Bell has received several offers to lay a cable from Australia to New Zealand along the existing route. The lowest offer is for £150,000, and has been submitted to New South Wales for consideration.

Personal and General. Lord Dalhousie has materially benefited by bis tup to New Zealand. The insomnia from which he suffered so seriously at one time gave way to sea air and the regularity of fchipboard life, and he is now in fairly good health. Both Lord and Lady Dalhousie speak enthusiastically of tho colony and colonists. Mr Walter Reynolds has arrived in London to superintend the rehearsals of his new play, which is to be produced at the Gaiety next week.

State Directed Emigration. Lord Harrowby has moved for all papers on State dhected emigration addressed to the Colonial Office duiiug the last 12 months. He will also aek the Colonial Secretary how far he proposes to meet the wishes ot the important deputations which have brought the question of S'atedirected emigration before the Colonial Office.