ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. (For Extra Mail via Brindisi or September 17th.) London, September 17.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 313, 3 November 1888, Page 3

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. (For Extra Mail via Brindisi or September 17th.) London, September 17.

The Maori football team are due in about ten days from now. The financial succesg of bheir tour will possibly depend on the result of the first match. If they-bea* or make a good fight with a first-class team, public curiosity will be aroused and ciowds will flock to see them, especially iv the pro\inces. Londoners do not care for iootba 1. Lancaehire should be the colonists' chief babble ground. They'll draw a far bigger " gate at a small town like Blackburn than they would at Lords or the Oval. A great mistake has been made in not engaging an English football expert to manage or at least engineer the tour. It would have saved money in the end. Opinions seem bo differ widely as to the merits of the team. A gentlemen just home from Auckland told me yesterday that he didn't believe they would win a single match, whereas two English tourists who saw the Maoris play (I think ab Christchurch) were tremendously struck with them and pronounce the team equal to tackling even the redoubtable Preston North End. As I predicted would probably be the case, freight to New Zealand has been raised to 355. Mr Tyser took possession of the New Zealand Shipping Company's offices the day before yesterday. I hear it is probable that the various branch offices in the chief towns of the colony will be closed, and the business transteired to agents ; albO that other important retrenchments are in contemplation. Mr J. G. Harper, for many years with Owen and Graham, 'of Auckland, arrived Home by the Ormuz on Tuesday. Mr Pitt, of Gis borne, also came by this vessel. If Mr W. L. Rees, as I suppose, read his paper before the British Association, I have been unable to find any chronicle of the fact. Clearly, therefore, his suggestions can't have excited much attention. I fear the leading Anglo-New Zealanders do nob propose to give Mr Rees much assistance in forwarding the crofter colonisation scheme. Mr Henniker Heaton is back again in town, looking all the better for his holiday. I hear Vogel wants him to assist in forming a company to buy out the interests of the Eastern Extension Cable Company in Australia, and combine them with the new Pacific Cable Company, which, however, he thinks should start from 'Frisco, not Vancouver. The whole thing is, of course, in mibibu* at present. Lady Bowen and some members of her family were, I regret to learn, in the dreadful railway accident at Dijon. Fortunately, they were not in the front carriages, and escaped with some bruises and a , very severe shaking, the efiects of whirh will, ib is feared, be felt for some time to come. Ai'chbishop Redwood has arrived in London, and visited Cardinal Manning at Westminster. Arbhibishop Croke came up to town to see him .yesterday. Bishop Barry's 1 appointment to, Chester was considered a certainty, and his -being after all passed over has caused intense surprise. It is said his lordship alienated Lord Salisbury's friendship, and sacrificed his pi emotion, by the lengths to which he went in a liberalising direction at the recent Lambeth Conference. The news of poor R. A. Proctor's death at New York of yellow fever has caused great concern in all sections of society. You will, 1 expect, have heard all about ib irom America via 'Frisco. I am told he had arranged with R. L. Smythe for another lecturing tour in the Antipodes at no distant date. Mr A. Potchett Martin has prepared a volume of selections from the "Australian Poets." Mr Martin and his wife are the cbief contributers. In the hands of good publishers Rolf Bolderwood s capital story of the early times in Australia, " Kobbery Under Arms," would have been a huge success. I hear Geo. Robertson offered to buy an edition of 4,000 in the 2s form for the Australian market, and that his proposal was refused. The publishers (Remingtons) also loftily declined a liberal otter I made them for serial rights. What does " Truth " mean by saying that objections to the reduction of your Governor's salary to £'5,500 weie raised in an " exalted quarter," and that in consequence it will remain C 7,500 as heretofore? •' Exulted quarter" usually means Royalty, doesn't it? Admiral Robex-t Scott, who signs himself " Late Honorary Commodore of New Zealand Naval Artillery," has been writing to the "St. James's Gazette" to urge the issue of a loyal decree creating an Imperial naval volunteer force. He instances the excellent work done by naval volunteers in New Zealand, and describes a sham attack on the town of Oamaru. Miss Genevieve Ward lias, for the time being ab any rate, abandoned the idea of a second antipodean tour, and settled down with her friend, Mrs Sanford, in a charming new house at Bedford Park. She will not act again for some time, and may perhaps retire altogether. One of the most interesting papers read before the British Association was Mr A. W. Howitt's, on " Australian MessageSlicks and Messengers." I wonder if ib is known in New Zealaud that Miss Yonge wrote her famous novel, "The Heir of Redclyfie," for the purpose of raising funds to tit out Bishop Sehvyn's schooner, the Southern Cross. The book turned out a gold mine, running through seventeen editions between 1853 and 1868. Ib is now for the fh'3t time to be published in a cheap form at 3s 6d. An opera entitled " Pomare, or Love in Topsytui'veydom," the libretto by Mr John L. Kelly and the score by Mr Barnetb, both of Auckland, New Zealand, has been sent Home for consideration of metropolitan managers. The story resembles that of Gilbert's " Wicked World," save that ib is more humorous, and the lyrics are particularly neat. I fear, though the comic opera "boom" is over,thataGilbertian piece would have to be backed by exceptional influence (not to mention cash) to secure acceptation here. A matinee would be tho only chance.