ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. (Via Brindisi.)

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 281, 14 July 1888, Page 6

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. (Via Brindisi.)

SIR JULIUS VOGEL. London, June 6. I have been trying to see Sir Julius Vogel and ascertain what the precise nature of his little game over here may bo. All sorts of iwnows are afloat, but nobody seems to know anything. In the city he is supposed to beincubatingat least twocompanies — one a mining enterprise, the other a new short cut to New Zealand via Panama. At Vic- i toria Chambers, on the other hand, his business is vaguely connected with a book, inferentially an autobiography. All lam really certain about definitely is that your ex-Treasurer has taken up his abode in the classic shades of Btiyswater.

A NEW ZEALAND PATENT. Messrs W. Ashley and Co. inform me that they have jusb patented the collision apron invented by Mr James Holmes of the North tShorej Auckland, and described in the local papers of March 30th. Messrs Ashley have been protecting Mr Holuies's interest tor some months past, but the London patent was only taken out the other day.

CAPTAIN ASHBYS TOUR. All being well Captain W. Ashby leaves London by the P. and 0. steamer sailing the first week of October for a tour all* over Australia and New Zealand. Ono object of this trip is to enable the captain to judge with his own eyes the condition of the various colonies, so that he may be in a good position to give the firms numerous clients sound advice. Capt. A&hby proposes to make some stay in Auckland on private business, but will also visit Christchurch and Dunedin.

SAMOA. If Englishmen do nob at last recognise the discreditable m inner in which Lord Salisbury has knuckled under to Germany re Samoa it is not Mi* XV. Me Arthurs fault. Both in the lobby and the House itself he has spoken out boldly and exposed Sir Jas. Fergusons feeble sophistiie 5 . But nobody caves a dump about Samoa. lam afraid, the subject is not one you can louse an hon. member's interest. The place is too remote and the question bustles with difficulties.

THE NEW FLAG SHIP. H.M.s. Orlando, uhich was commissioned last Thursday for service as flag ship ot Kear-Aduiiral Fairfax on the Australian station, is one of the new class of belled cruisers, and has a displacement of 5,000 tons. The machinery is 8,500 tons? and is capableofsendin<?heralonfr 18 knots an hour. Needles to say the Orlando will be the fastest and most powerful cruiser e\er employed in Australian waters. By the the French are going to fit up the Messageries boats so that they can be used as auxiliary cruisers in time ot war. A comrais&ion has already commenced to overhaul the Australian fleet for tins purpose.

PIIIVILIGES. OF AGENTS GENERAL The Parliamentary Committee lepoiting on the admission of strangers to the Commons, lecommended (a= I foictold "would be the case) that Agents General of the prime colonies should be allowed the same pri\ iliges of entree, as Ambassadors, and to give them the power to be represented dm ing debates by two persons in the diplomatic gallery. It is not participated that the House will throw any difficulties in the way of this xea&onabie proposal.

MB C. LA. ROCHE. Mr C. La Roche, of Auckland, called on me yesterday. He came merely in order to borrow a few Stars (his own n"le3 having missed the mail), but we fell into conversation, and had quite a pleasant chat. What an admirable type of the successful colonist he is ; hard-headed, yet intelligent and recepthe, with liberal ideas and a mind evidently much enlarged by travel, and by constant rubbing-up with all sorts and conditions of men. He tell& me that since he could afford it he has made a trip home about every fi\ c years, so a? to guard against the inevitable l> fossilination " resultant on existence amidst the comparatively contracted interests of a colonial town. This time Mr La Roche Ins done Egypt, Palestine and Italy,and contemplatcsatrip to Switzerland. For the last six: weeks he has been investigating our great Provincial centres, Liverpool, Bhmingham. Hull, Manchester &c &c. Provided with letters to the Mayors of the^e cities he naturally saw all there was to be xeen and acquired numerous " wrinkles" Municipal, Commercial and Masonic. The c e I imagine will be quite at the service of Mr La Roches fellow-townsmen if they care to a\ail themselves of the privilege of picking his? brains. He .seems, warmly attached to his adopted home, anrl has large ambitions for Auckland in the future. Such a man ought to be forced to the front in local and municipal matters and made the most of.

ENGLAND AND THE COLONIAL ANTI-CHINESE MOVEMENT. An immense amount of ink has been spilt in the la.st ten days in the attempt to explain to English folk what is the meaning of the " Chinkie pest," and to justify the Antipodean Anti - Immigration Ciusade against the heathen Chinee The be?t letter on the .subject was from an Australian working man, who signed himself "R.W.M.," in the" Daily* News," and whose strictly moderate language, yet conclusive determination were highly effective. "The Chinese must go. On that point we are resolved. At present the colonies are acting individually, but they will soon act in concert. Abhorrence of the Chinese may at first prove more effectual than even attachment to the mother country to unite them in a federal bond." A letter from the proprietor of the Sydney " News," Mr Chris. Bennett, has also appeared, on the came subject, and the anonymous correspondent who signs himyelt variously "Colonist," " Aiibi-Chine&e," and " Old Colonist," is lampant. The " St. James's Gazette " eulogises the diplomacy of New Zealand in declaring the Chinese ports infected. It wa& certainly a master-stroke of /mev.se and one from which other colonial governments might well take a hint instead of doing their best to embroil the Old Country with the Cele>tiala. The "Pall Mall Gazette," which has taken up the Chinese immigration question with a good deal of vigour, contained a very important interview on Saturday laot, which I attach. The drift of it i 3 that if the colonies, instead of deliberately breaking internationel law and ignoring the treaties and responsibilities of the Imperial Government, had approached the subject of Chinese immigration through the proper channels, they would have been met halfway by the Celestials, who are far from being anxious to encourage their countrymen to leave China. There is, they aver, ample room in China for the Chinese.

JOE SCOTT'S TRIUMPH; If the popular craze for pedepfcrianism, which culminated with the Western v. O'Leary match were not as dead as Queen Anne, your Joe Scott would have a golden future before him, Unfortunately, no one now cares a dump for this form of sport. Even Jolly Sir John, who provided coin

galore for walking matches in Weston's day and was so thunderstruck by the Yankee's performance that hetookbimhomcandmade much of him as a phenomenon, scarcely noticed the New Zcalandcr's far more wondorful feat last week. The Agricultural Hall affair, in fact, -was a financial frost, notwithstanding Hibberd's recordbreakingin thcearly partand Scott'& brilliant victory in the latter part of the contest. Tothoso who lemember thedensely crowded hall with people fighting and tumbling over one another to get a sight of the pedestrians dining the latter part of the WestonO'Leary "bcom" its dreary desolation whilst Scott'a triumph was culminating, seemed cruel and '*' hard lines " on the Antipodean. Of: course *omc folks were there, but a more &priuldinij, not enough to fill the Aquarium even. Scott would now be wise to go to America, where walking contests seem ftom all accounts to be catching on again.

THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS. The colonists' career of tiiumph was checked at Manchester lnsb week, principally through their own doplorablo carelessnoss. In each of tho county's innings they throw away many runs. Tho field in ■» was wretched, catcher were missed, and Jarvis's wicket - keeping would have disgraced an Eton boy. He was removed at last after missing a palpable opportunity to stump Napier (I think it was), but the change- came too late. In their second innings the Australian wickets went down like ninepins, and to the overwhelming deliirhb of an immense holiday crowd what seemed likely to be a decisive defeat for the Lancastrian* was converted into a brilliant victory.

DOWNFALL OF THE AUSTRALIAN BOWLEKS. Over 12,000 persons paid gate at Lords on AJonday to witness the match between the Gentlemen and the Australians. Up to this time the colonial bowlei.% Fen is and Turner had met with nothing but success, fot it was no fault of thciis that Lancashire won labt Friday's match. Indeed, the h'ghest indhidualscoie against them in the courseof half-a-dozen matches wassometbing under 50 — by Mr Rashleigh at Oxloid. Monday's performance must consequently have been an unpleasant surprise. YV. G. Grace, playing in his best iorm, knocked Ftrris's deadly balls about and coquetted with Turner's as though the pair were common trundlei"?. The colonists, 1 should explain, were not in a very pleasant frame of mind when the Gentlemen commenced to bat (they themselves had only put together 179 on a fast running wickeU, but the situation became almost, unendurable as the act went on. W. G. Grace was simply magnificent. Bowl as thej might and field as they might, the colonists could not prevent him adding run tnrnn, and when 7o'clockcamchchadscored 150 not out, and the Gentlemen totalled 236 with only one wicket down. Apart from its other merits, Dr Grace's innings was "a triumph of health and physical power" (\ide "Daily News'"). On July 18 the gicat batsman will be 40, and yet after hawng been at the wicket two horns he sco>ed his last 50 runs in little more than 30 minute*. How the onlookers cheered 1 leave you to imagine. Notwithstanding this fine play, the Gentlemen weie not fated to win the match. They got themselves out quickly on Tuesday afternoon, leaving 3 hours in which to dispose of the Australians. Unfortunately, however, Bonnor, Bannerman and Jones were in foitn, and knocked Rudclifle's bowling about anyhow, the consequence being that when time was called the match was drawn, and loos favourably to the Gentlemen than mighl have been antici- ! pated. ! Through pissengeis per Arcadia sailing to-day : For Auckland, Mr and Mrs P. McArthur ?nd Mr H. W. Chubb. Per Ocean a on July 13th : For Wellington, Mrs Grundy. Per Ormuz on June Blh : For Port, Chalmers, Mrs Otway and child. For Lytcelton, Mr A Downer. For Wellington, Mr G. Aldous. The '"Star" of Derby Day published an amusing interview with our mutual friend Jem Mace, who, by the wav, I t-aw in Bar nard's ring, doing good business.