ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. (From Auckland " Star" correspondent.) London, January 23.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 245, 10 March 1888, Page 3

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. (From Auckland " Star " correspondent.) London, January 23.

The Christmas holidays, which lasted wel into tho fivsb week of the prosont month, are at length over, and the business year has opened briskly, if not specially promisingly. In somo respects, as you may have heard (shipping interests, for instance), things really do seem looking-up. Not only has the building of vessels largely increased of late, but tho value of shares in our principal steamship companies has greatly risen. Thus P. and 0. stock, which at one time in 1887 was worth only £58, is now bold at £64 ; Royal Mail shares, valnod during la&fc year at i'36|, now stand at £55 ; Cunard stock, which lately fell to 81, is now being dealt in at 11^, and so on. Tho rise in copper, too, has given many of us a rare leg-up. A friend of mine who bought some shares in an American mine in 1886 for £8 a-pieco, sold them the other day for £40. Experts, I know, prophesy this boom won't last. It is, howover, an undoubted and consoling fact that a craze for copper ornaments (lamps, kettles, and bric-a-brac) has sot in.

NEW ZEALAND IN BAD ODOUR. Anglo-New Zealand firms are nofc, I fear, inclined to look forward very hopefully. Reports from the colony, they say, continue anything but reassuring; ; in fact, where New Zealand is concerned there seems a general disposition to cry" stinking fish." Nobody has a good word for tho colony, and many (witness Mrs Gordon Baillie's scathing criticism) condemn your condition ih unqualified terms. The truth is, the credit of the colony has been prejudiced (not very seriously as yet, perhaps, bub prejudiced), and tho sooner you recognise the fact and set to work to remedy matters the better.

THE PASSENGER TRADE IN NEW ZEALAND. Messrs W. Ashbyand Co. inform me that tho passenger trade to New Zealand showed a continuous falling-off throughout 1887. Messrs ShaM-, Savill admit having shipped 1,000 fewer passengers by their steamers than in 1886, and no doubt the New Zealand Shipping Company's boats suffered proportionately. The colony has got a bad name now with emigrants ; small capitalists are scared by what thoy read about the debt, and labourers mostly prefer America. As MessrsAshby'sNowZealand passenger trade has fallen oft, their American passenger trade has increased. The firm have, in consequence, been obliged to take larger offices, and will move from 17 to 24, Leadenhallstreet, shortly. Captain A&hby proposes to visit New Zealand on business about September next. The American route to New Zealand seems growing in favour. For tourist purposes it is, of course, unequalled.

BISHOP COWIE. Bishop Cowie has resolved to remain some time in England, (at any rate a year or so). He will however eventually return to New Zealand, reports to the contrary notwithstanding.

LORD BRASSEY. Lord Brasseys suggestion re the Band of the Grenadier Guards visiting the Australian colonies seems likely to bear fruit. Lieut. Godfrey has already been approached on the subject by a well-known Melbourne impresario. Lord Brassey will start on another long cruise in the Sunbeam early in the summer. The West Pacific is her destination.

NEW ZEALAND NO USE FOR HIGHLAND CROFTERS. . Mrs Gordon Baillie, who went out to the ( Antipodes with a view to forming a settlement of Highland crofter? in New Zealand, has come back convinced of the impossibility of the scheme— so far at least as your colony is concerned. "I always understood," said an interviewer to Mrs Baillio the other day, "New Zealand was considered most suitable for crofters. " Mark the reply : "Well, the late Mr Macandrew, of Dunedin wrote me that he had secured 20,000 acres in the Otago district, but I visited it and found it entirely unsuitable. Besides, there is no market in New Zealand, the coast is dangerous, the country is burthened with a debt of which evory new comer must bear a share, and ifc is under great depression, while Sir Julius Voxel's one idea is to borrow money to build railways in which there is no one to ride-. To live in Now Zealand at present is a luxury only for the wealthy." If Mrs Baillie were the sole tourist thus impressed with your colony, her statements might not carry much weight. Unfortunately, thoy tally *only too accurately with the assertions public and private of nearly all recent tourists.

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE. The prospects of the frozen meat Irrade are the reverse of promising. If anything, indeed, the present position of affairs is worse than it was at the commencement of 1887. On the one hand the supplies of fresh mutton from opposition sources (more particularly the Continent) have largely increased. Dutch Bheep, for instance, of which few of us had even heard two years ago, are now a notable and growing feature of the weekly market. On the other hand the demand remains limited. 'The principal reason of this is that the frozen meat trade is as yet praotically confined to London, and London with the best intentions possible can only consume a certain amount. Distributing frozen meat in the provinces by rail is too expensive a process, i.e. leaves too small a margin of profit bearing in mind the risk incurred. No large refrigerating cellar?, similar to those in London, have, been established at other prominent seaports; and it is consequently .almost impossible to consign cargoes pvofitably elsewhere than to London. One' thing seems certain— before the frozen meafc trade can be reasonably 'strengthened its area must be increased. To begin with, storing cellars at Liverpool. Bristol and Hull should be started, and cargoes consigned there. Liverpool, more particularly, should be tested thoroughly. It commands an immense number of populous adjacent towns, and mutton is decidedly expensive in Lancashire. Finally, remember very little more can be done whilst the trade is (as at present)practically confined to London and its suburbs.

ROYAL VI3IT TO AUSTRALIA. ; It is understood that the Queen has at present under consideration the advisability pf the Duke and Duchess of Connaught visiting Australia during the Melbourne Exhibition " season. Their Royal Highnesses' themselves < aj;e mo^st anxious she should co.nsentjtQ,the, plan, bui nothing has b<k)h' -settled"' tip to "date. Th«. proposed tour includes brief trip's to and ftew Zealand. ' , * Your' old friend Admiral Tryon must surely be . 6ne of Fortune's fondest favourites. Scatcely ti, twelvemonth passes without his receiving 'sbtnd distinction or another. It seems only the other day 1 was chronicling his ftprjo'infcment to 1 one of fche moat enviable posts' in th 6 keVVice at Portsmouth, and now he is named aa'Lord Ch*rles Bevoaford'a ■ucceswr at tho Admiralty. The follow-

in# description of the new junior Loid, which is from your namesake, the London " Star," will rather amuse those who were acquainted with him when Commodore of the Australian Station :— " Sir (Jeorge Tryon has the bluff, genial manner of the dramatic sailor, smoke.s many cigars, affects red ties, and is much inclined to whnt ladies call embonpoint The figure and face suggest an elderly cherub."

PATTI'S AUSTRALIAN TOUR. Bofore failing for Bounos Ay res, Mdme. Atlehno Patti agreed with a well-known improsaiio that if tho long sea voyage caused her no serious inconvenience, she would sign for a short concert tour through the Australian Colonies in 1889. Dread of the long sea voyage had been the real obstacle to In diva visiting your part of tho world hitherto.

HARD TIMES FOR STEAMSHIP COMPANIES. Unless times improve, it is, 1 hear, probablo that the Shaw, Savill and Albion steamers will be taken off the New Zealand station and run between Vancouver and Australia. Despite the temporary improvement in the prices of .shipping stock, experienced brokers consider tho outlook I vety blnck. " There is," a lawyer who ought to know told me the other day, lk hardly a carrying company paying a dividend now save those that have large reservo funds and can afford to pacify their shareholders out of them. We advise clients who consult us about investments to take advautago of the present impi'ovemenb (which we are sure is only temporary) to get rid of shipping stock, and on no consideration whatever would we allow trust funds to bo invested in any companies' sharos.

MR RENNIKER HEATON. Mr Heimiker Heaton has got back from his successful, not to say royal, tour through Australia, and been received with jubilation by his constituents. When Mr H. visited Canterbury last week to address them, cheering thousands took the horses from liia carriage, and dragged him triumphantly to the Conservative Club.

CLAYDEN GLORIFIES NELSON. New Zealand has been so consistently run down of late in the English papers that it is quite refreshing to read one of MiArthur Clayden's ingenuous "puffs" of Nelson in the " Daily News." Whatever may be wrong elsewhere in the colony, " Sleepy Hollow " is all right, a little heaven below, to which intending emigrants should at once make their way.

MR FROUDE ON THE CROWN COLONIES. Mr Froude's new bock of travel is very different to " Ocear.a," which was a piean over England's imperial genius — a song of triumph and hope. " The Bow of Ulysses " is a lament over greatness departed. According to Mr Froude, everything at the West Indies is in a state of hopelosa muddle and decay ; in fact, he pronounces Crown colonies are a huge mistake.

KAURI TIMBER IN LONDON. If it is true as certain (partially interested) persons aver, that New Zealand kauri answers better than any other class of timber for deck fittings, patterns, etc., the prospects oftheexportof New Zealand timber are undoubtedly looking up. It is certainly something that it has been found worth while to load the Aurora, which sailed for Glasgow the other day, entirely with kauri. Up to the present, the timber has been sent to Glasgow in small quantities from London and Liverpool, but the increase in the demand tempted Messrs Guthrie and Co. to try a direct shipment.

NEW ZEALANDERS HOMEWARD BOUND Mr and Mrs McLaughlan and family will bo through families for Auckland. Mr W. Green and Mr Bowron for Lyttelton, Mr Corpe for Wellington and Miss Yuness and Mr Hood for Dunedin per Ormuz, leaving Graveseud on the 2nd of February. The dairy produce brought over by the Tainuiis, I am informed, in capital condition ; moreover the consignment seems sufficiently large to test (in a primary manner) the probability of the new trade paying. A more favourable time of the year for the experiment could hardly have been selected. I shall vratch the result with interest. The visit of the projected football team to Australia and New Zealand has now been abandoned. After practising them in the Australian game for some days, their " coach " decided they were not strong enough for touring purposes. Mr Thomas Russell was quite eloquent on the subject of the New Zealand Land Mortgage Company's prospects and properties at the fourth annual meeting last Thursday, when a dividend of eight per cent, was declared and £5,000 added to the reservef und. Touching upon the recent panic with regard to the New Zealand Land Company's investments, Mr Russell said, it really might be imagined from the way some people talked that the directors had been doing a risky business ; whereas the whole of their investments were on freehold securities taken at a very low and safe valuation. He regarded ifc as one of the safest investments a man could have when he put his money in this company. Mr Russell added that he had taken advantage of a month's stay in Auckland to investigate very closely, very minutely and very critically the Company's affairs, and the conclusion he came to was that they were in a most satisfactory state.