ANGLO-COLONIAL AND GENERAL NOTES. Via Brindisi.) (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) London, June 29.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 289, 11 August 1888, Page 4

ANGLO-COLONIAL AND GENERAL NOTES. Via Brindisi.) (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) London, June 29.

SUGAR-GROWING IN NEW ZEALAND. In the House of Commons last night, Baron de Worms, in answer to a somewhat inexplicable query of Mr Summers's, paid that there was an Act in New Zealand to encourage the cultivation of beetroot and sorghum for the purpose of making sugar. It was passed in 1884, but was practically inoperative. The New Zealand Government had undertaken to enter into the Sugar Bounty Convention.

LORD CANTELUPE'S TOUR. Lord Cantelupe, Lord Delaware's eldest son, is about to make a tour of the world, taking India first, then Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific, and lastly, America. He is just of age.

THE M.C.C. AND THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS. We are extremely fond of prating about "British fair play," and of assertiug that in no other country are strangers treated in such a scrupulously honourable manner as in England. The behaviour, however, of the M.C.C. towards the Australians at Lord's last week can scarcely be adduced as an instance of this rule. On Friday morning the M.C.C. authorities would not allow the Australians to go on with their second innings, simply because the Avicket was wet and .easy, and they were afraid the colonials would make a long score. They adjourned play until two o'clock, but when two o'clock came the players sat down to lunch, and the game did not proceed till twenty minutes to three ! All this time a hot sun had been caking the surface, and turning an easy wicket into one almost unplayable. The spectators understood the situation perfectly, and showed their appreciation (?) of such dishonourable tactics by cordially hooting the English eleven when they turned out to field. When, in spite of this dodging, the cornstalks won tho match, I was delighted. The tactics of the M. C.C. were, no doubt, smart, but they were most discreditable to the leading club of the world, and all true sportsmen will heartily rejoice at their discomfiture.

THE JUBILEE PLUNGER. I had no idea till a few days back that Benzon, the Jubilee Plunger, was as well known in New Zealand as in Australia, or I should have told you more about him. There are always yarns enough current. Just at present, for instance, Mr Benzon is in fine feather. HisAvinningfc over Minting and Ayrshire were somewhat depleted by Crowberry's defeat at Paris : but whilst in the French capital, "The Jubilee" broke the bank and completely cleaned out the habitues of a gambling club, walking home one mox'ning with £16,000 in his pockets. This exploit was followed by a lucky Ascot week, Mr Fry alone losing upwards of £20,000 to him. Benzon dearly loves to be talked about, and consequenctly affects the eccentric. One of his vagaries is never to wear a shhfc twice. Duclos, of Bond-street, sends him home fourteen shirts every Saturday, one for morning, and one for evening dress for every day of the week. These he wears once and then casts away, his valet, no doubt, selling them back to Duclos. The other day a lady insisted on paying Benzon a £10 bet she had lost to him. He took it at last, but sent her jewellery, subsequently, worth £900.

THE NEW DRAMATIST.— AN INTERESTING BIOGRAPHY. The papers have most of them made an amusing mistake about Mr Haddon Chambers, the Anglo- Australian ]ournalist, whose play, "Captain Swiffc, "' made such a hit at the Haymarket last "week. One speaks of " a slip of a boy " bowing his acknowledgments, another of " a pale lad," whilst a third authoritatively declares Mr Chambeis to be "just 22." As a matter of lact, I believe "the new author" is about 30. He looks boyish (always will do till he's 60), but he has had a long and hard struggle both here and in Australia. His career is interesting, and should be instructive to aspiring young colonists. Mr Chambers is the son of respectable middle-class folks in Sydney. He was a ready writer from boyhood, and as a youth did good work for several Sydney papers. His friends thought him a genius and impressed him with the belief, so that by and-by he came to the concluoion that London was the only city in the world for a man of his parts. To London, therefore, young Chambers came with little money, much self-confidence, and a wife. Then began a struggle, the sordid details of which must be lefb to imagination. Suffice j it to say that if Chambers had not really been an exceptionally able man and a hard worker he must have gone under. He did all sorts of things ; hash work for Cassells and similar firms, stories for the magazines, children's tales for the S.P.C.K., paragraphs for the society papers. A t first, of course, most of this "copy" went to the waste-paper baskets ; but conscious of its bona fide worth he worked on, and by degrees obtained occasional recognition. Introductions to other literary men followed, andabout 15months ago, in conjunction with Mr Stanley-Little, Chambers dramatised, Rider Haggard's "Dawn." The jriece was played at a matinee, and met with such a promising reception that an amateur manager was induced to try and run it at the Strand. " Devil Caresfoot " (as it was called) did not, however, " gee," and at the end of a week or a fortnight the treasury was empty and the amateur manager non eat. Still undismayed, Messrs Little and Chambers removed their "Devil" to the Comedy Theatre, the risk of the venture being divided amongst several. Fate, however, wa3 against them, and in an amusing letter to the "Pall Mall," Mr Chambers eventuallyconfes&ed asmuch. Subsequently he obtained some kudos for a rather neat lever de rideau called "The Open Gate," but until Thursday afternoon last, when a large and fashionable audience stamped his "Captain Swiffc" with the hall mark of genuine approval, it cannot be said that it held any assured position. Now the worst is over. The feeb of Mr C. Haddon Chambers are well on the ladder of success, and if only he climbs steadily, and does not allow his head to be turned during the process, there seems no reason why he should not in time reach the safe and gilded heights occupied by Gilbert, Sims, and Pinero. The American rights of " Captain Swift " have already been sold for a large sum to Mr Coghlan, who will create the title role in New York, and I hear Charlie Warner hopes to secure similar privileges in Australia and New Zealand. Beerbohm Tree will put the piece permanently into the Haymarket bill after the midsummer recess in July. / " Alaiwa's Revenge," is the title of a novelette by Mr Eider Haggard, the first part of which appears in "Harper's" for July. Miss Braddon's " Fatal Three " is a s»r,fc of sensational sermon on the subject of marriage with a deceased wife's sister. It

reads easily enough, if you are nob exacting, but no one could call it a good novol. If Miss Braddon has deteriorated, so has William Black. That the author of the delightful "Strange Adventures of a Phaeton " should have condescended to the " Strange Adventures of a House Boat " is almost enough to make one weep. The descriptions of Thames scenery are good, and so are some of the incidents of the first volume, but the anecdotes interpolated here, there, and everywhere ! " Chesnuts" is no word for them. Here, by way of example, are two of the riddles which the charming heroine puts to a shocked elderly gentleman: Question — "If you wanted to stop Niagara what would you do ?" Answer—" Why, dam it, of course ! Question — " Why is General Wolseley like a cannibal ?" Answer — " Because he not only captured Rosetta, but Damietta (D nhe ate her)." Appalling, are they not? New and cheap editions are announced of Mr Baring Goulds " The Gaverocks " (quite one of his best books), and of Marie Corelli's delightful Norwegian story " Thelma ;" both nb 6s. I also notice 2s issues of Mrs Oliphant's " The Son of His Father," and of Miss Sneyd's "Jack Urquharb's Daughter." The latter came out some years back, and is, in its way, good, though never before published in cheap form. " Booties' Children," by the too prolific Mrs Stannard, I cannot recommend.