THE ENGLISH MAIL (VIA BRINDISI). ANGLO-CULONIAL NOTES. (From Our Special Correspondent.)

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 392, 10 August 1889, Page 4

THE ENGLISH MAIL (VIA BRINDISI). ANGLO-CULONIAL NOTES. (From Our Special Correspondent.)

London, June 21. THE NEW FOOD PRESERVATIVE. The sneers and " pshaws " of chemists notwithstanding, the Food Preservative Company continue to make progress. Amongst recent co averts to their fumigation process is Captain Hector, of the P. and O. Company, who takea a sample carcase that has been treated out with him on the Victoria this time. If it withstands the heat of the tropics ho and some friends contemplate purchasing the Australian patent, as there will be no doubb that fumigation will ultimately supersede refrigeration. The other afternoon I met quite casually at the Sb. Georges Club the gentleman who has purchased tho patent for the Argentine Republic. He was enthusiastic on the subject, although some of his experiments appeai'ed to have been the reverse of successful. He told me he took out to South America samples of meat, iruit, and hides which had been treated. Everything kept good till the steamer entered the tropics, when the meat and fruit went bad. The hides, however, remained all right for three months, in fact my informant brought them back to England with him. He concludes from this thab the sulphurous acid fumes are dispersed by heat, save las in the case of the hides) where there is plenty of moisture. A number of experiments to test this theory are in progress. The Argentine patentee is quite satisfied that fumigated meat hung in cool (not refrigerated) chambers would keep good as the hides did.

NEW ZEALANDERS AT PARIS. Mr Peacock, M.H.E., crossed to Paris lasb Friday, only to find that Sir F. Bell had just left for London. At the Exhibition, however, he ran up against Dr. Grace, who was making his debut there as New Zealand Commissioner. Miss Grace, needless to say, is convalescent. JVJr Peacock returns to-morrow. Mr Brett, who is interesting himself in the mineral exhibits of the New Zealand Court at Paris, had intending accompanying Air Peacock to Paris, but when the time came he was laid up ill. He has been really very poorly for the last fortnight, getting better one day only to retrograde the next, but has now, I hope, turned the corner. A Turkish bath on Tuesday •worked wonders. Mr C. H. Houghton, of Dunedin, arrives in London from Paris to-day, and will take up his quarters at the Arundel Hotel. Mr Malfroy. the superintendent in charge of the New Zealand Court at Paris, was for a long time engineer of the Public Works Department at Rotorua. He speaks French like a native, and is very popular with the colonial visitors, to whom he can and does give many useful " wrinkles."

NEW ZEALANDERS IN ENGLAND. Mr Jno. Milne has been luxuriating in the bosom oi his family at Leicester during the week, but starts shortly on a round of visits to Manchester, Bradford, Hartlepool, Edinburgh, and London. Mr Milne finds Leicester has grown and improved vastly during the past nine and a half years, and, like visitors to New Zealand, can see no signs of alleged existing depression. Mr F. Larkins, late of Auckland, who has become quite an • ' Exeter Hall old man, " read a paper the other evening at the annual meeting of the Association of Lay Helpers on " The Work of Readers and Lay Helpers in the Colonies." Both Mr Edward Roper and Mr Hume Nisbefc are exhibiting a series of pictures of New Zealand scenery in London just now. The latter's novel, " Eight Bells," by the way, has been specially well reviewed.

LITERARY NOTES. The author of "Antipodean Notes " (Mr D'Aguilar) has just published a volume of stories appropriately entitled '• Whims." They are similar in character to the late Grenville Murray's " Strange Tales." ■> The play in which Mr Marriott Wilson and Mr J. M. Barrie are collaborating is (I forget whether I mentioned this before) founded on the life and experiences of Richard Savage.

DR. HAINES. Dr. Haines, of Auckland, is nob, after all, going to Birmingham. He could nob make bis arrangements fit in with those of the eminentspecialist there whosesurgical operations he desired to witness, and so he has given the expedition up. He says he cares the less about this, as what with studyiner a number of specially interesting cases at Gny's and St. George's Hospitals, prosecuting certain microscopic researches of great interest in conjunction with Dr. Abrahams, Professor of Histology at Westminster Hospital, and investigating generally recent advances in medicine and surgery, his time is more than fully occupied. The leprosy scare has led to a great many medical men turning their attention to this obscure disease. The first English authority on leprosy is the afore-mentioned Dr. Abrahams, though professional jealousy has nob permitted the fact to become as public as it ought. Dr. Haines ia working with him now, and, of course, interesting himself to some extent in the question of the hour. He leaves London early in August, and will take Paris, Milan, and possibly Florence, en route for Brindisi. Towards the end of September you may expect to see him back in Queen-street, primed to the muzzle with all the latest medical and surgical " wrinkles." REGIMENTS FOR THE COLONIESIn a letter to the " Times " of Tuesday, Lord Lamington expressed the opinion that it would be a wise step, and one conducing to the loyalty of the colonies, to station regiments of Imperial troops in the chief cities of Australia and New Zealand, but more especially in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. I think so, too, providing the regiments were smart ones, capable of entertaining well and generally brightening up society.

DAVID CHRISTIE MURRAY. Mr Christie Murray left England rather suddenly last Friday, a fortnight earlier than he intended. This was in order to spend some time at Teneriffe, which he may not improbably make the scene of his next story. The Aorangi leaving here next Thursday will pick him up and take him on to Hobart, where be disembarks and proceeds to Melbourne. Mr Appleton says Stanley will carry out his lecturing tour of the Australias (which his present expedition interrupted) as soon as possible after his return.

PHIL ROBINSON. Whatever may be Phil Robinson's — well amatory eccentricities— one thing is certain, he is a model father, and quite devoted to his two children. lam told on good authority that had the Courts ruled he must give them up to the lady who recently obtained a judicial separation from him, he would have disobeyed and bolted. This would have entailed abandoning bis post on the Sunday " Times," and been a very serious thing in all respects, but for

his children's sake he felt ib must be done.

THE BRENNAN TORPEDO. Mr Louis Brennan does not appear greatly disturbed by the announcement that Commodore Schley, of the United States Navy, has invented a torpedo which will forthwith render his obsolete. The young Australian says he hears this sorb of stoi'y on the average once a month, and always on the best authority, bub somehow the new torpedo itself nevor puts in an appearance. He is now busy with his typewriter, which experts consider will create as great a stir amongst inventors as the torpedo. Your late visitor, Stuarb Cumberland, started a new illustrated Sunday paper, called "The Mirror," on the 16th isisfc. It is nob a specially brilliant production, either from an artistic or a literary poinb of view, and I shall be interested to note how long the printer's pocket (behind the venture) holds. You have, perhaps, already noted your coming < visitor Christie Murray's novelette, " Wild Dame," in the summer number of the "Illustrated News." Ibis written in conjunction with Henry Herman, and does not strike me as a good specimen of Christie's work. I much prefer Murray solu-b to Murray cum Herman. The illustrations, however, are admirable. Dr. Mannington Caffyn has, I learn, sold the patent of his new Essence oi Meat to u syndicate for £70,000. They only await the arrival of certain documents from Caffyn's parbners in Melbourne bo begin business.

THE PRINCE OF WALES AND LEPROSY. The Prince of Wales was careful to bring the Australian colonies into his speech at Marl borough House on Monday anenfc the imperative necessity of taking practical steps for checking the progress of leprosy. This disease, he said, seemed to be spreading in the Australias, and in some pf the colonies its ravages were almost unchecked. It might starble Londoners to know that at the present moment there was a man with unmistakeable signs of leprosy on hia hands' employed at the Central Meat Market. The Damien Memorial Hospital will now without doubt become an accomplished fact. Monday's meeting was a great success. H.R.H. has seldom spoken to better effect, and he was well supported by Sir James Paget, Cai'dinal Manning, and Mr Frank Harris (of the "Fortnightly Review "). Mr E. Clifford, whose article in j the " Nineteenth Century " on the settlement at Molokai I sent you recently, read a sympathetic letter from the priest who has taken Daniien's place, describing the good Father's last moments, and brought tears to many eyes. The Duke of West- ; minster alone was weak. It is this phenomenally rich man's misfortune that he seems unable to take interest or feel enthusiasm in anything. Apathetic weariness is the invariable expression written on his face. He appears to fulhl certain duties because they are duties, but he does so with but poor grace. Rumour declares the only time the Duke ever smiled was when Ormonde won his great race at Ascot, beating Minting and Bendigo.

THE COMEDIAN TOOLE. The papers seem to look upon " good old Toole's " success in the Australian colonies as a foregone conclusion. They forget that twelve years ago when the popular comedian was in his prime he fell quite flat in the United States, and furthermore, that you have already seen some conspicuously funny actors in Australia. The late Fred Marshall, G. W. Anson, Royce, and Fred Leslie are all in my opinion far more subtly humorous comedians than Toole. In London, of course, Toole is like Sims Reeves, a popular institution, tolerated rather for the sake of what he was than for the sake of what he is. Not that the old man won't amuse a good bit. Only don't expect to seea greater comic actor than you have ever seen before, or you'll be disappointed.

THE GAIETY COMPANY. The Gaiety Company are back again from Australia, and have (all save Fred Leslie, who is ill) been undergoing a severe course of "interviewing." I see Letfcy Lind was asked why they omitted Adelaide from the tour. She replied that Adelaide wasquite close to Melbourne, and that the people there who wished to see the Gaiety Company's performances came over by train. It was only a thirteen hours' journey, and they thought nothing of that in the colonies. Letfcy liked Australia ' better than America, and quite fell in love with Sydney. She means to go back there some day. Miss Lind looks much fatter than when she left London, and so does ) Nellie Farren. Fred Leslie, poor fellow, is> ' suffering from an attack of blood-poisoning.

THE CHARGE AGAINST LORD MANDEVILLE. - All the influence which the Duchess of Manchester and her great friend, Lord Hartington, could bring to bear has not sufficed to hush up the criminal charge against Lord Mandeville. The matter was referred to in the House of Commons last week, and the Public Prosecutor instructed bo take up the case. On Friday last the heir of the Montagus was arrested, and on Saturday Geprge Victor Droyo Montagu, commonly called Viscount Mandeville, stood in the dock at Clerkenwell Police Court, charged with obtaining money under false pretences. The allegation is that Lord Mandeville, in order to persuade a solicitor named Apps to lend him money in 1887, grossly misrepresented his present possessions and liabilities and his* future prospects. On the understanding that Lord | Mandeville was heir to the Duke of Man- I Chester and a property yielding £54,000 a year, that his liabilities did not exceed £1,000, that he had no bills out that, he had ! nob pledged his future prospects, and that he would repay the money when he sold an estate called Santa Rosa in South America, Apps lent him two sums of £925. When Lord Mandeville became bankrupt recently Apps learnt that the South American estate existed only in his Lordship's imagination, that the young man's life interest in the family estates at his father's death would not exceed £20,000 a year, that he had raised every farthing he could on his prospects, and that his liabilities when he came to borrow in 1837 were much nearer L £40,000 than £1,000. After Mr Grain (for his Lordship) had expressed profound surprise at the proceedings having been taken, and promised to explain everything satisfactorily, the hearing was adjourned. [A cablegram has since announced that the charge was dismissed.]

PICTURES FOR DUNEDIN. Messrs Wallis and Sons, proprietors of the French Gallery in the Pall Mall, have promised to send to the Dunedin Exhibition a collection of French, German, Austrian, English and Belgian pictures, worth £5,000. It is also likely that the British and Australian Art Society will exhibit a collection, and if a selection of the British pictures shown at Melbourne are also sent out again, the art gallery will be one of the features of the New Zealand Exhibition.

CO-OPERATIVE COLONISATION. Had Mr W. L. Rees been in England lasb week, he would have had a splendid oppor-

tuniby of making converts on a wholesale scale to his scheme of co-operative colonisation. A few days ago at Ipswich aMr Vaughan Nash read a paper at the meeting of the Co - operative Congress on •' Cooperation in Relation to International Commerce," which would have furnished Mi* Reos with just the opportunity he needed. A colonial f6te is being held in Paris today.

THE MAYBRICK CASE. All sorts of rumours are flying abou^ Liverpool with regard to the Maybrick case, but as the police are what is called "discreetly taciturn," it is impossible to ascertain which are true and which false. ( One 'Story, 1 believe, is not without some foundation, viz., that a local chemist has been discovered who swears Maybrick was an habitual arsenic eater, and that he served him frequently for years with as much ns 40 grains at a time. Maybrick was oxtremely reserved in making his purchases, and would never allow them to be booked. Furthermore, he insisted on being served only by the master of the shop himself, and once when the latter was ill asked for a note to another chemist. If this yarn should prove on investigation to be correct, and not just the invontion of a notorietyhunting tradesman, Mrs Maybrick will be safe. Another story is to the effect that two dogs belonging to a neighbour of the Maybricks were recently poisoned, and that their bodies, on being exhumed and oxamined, showed signs of arsenic. Mr Maybrick, it is said, stiongly objected to these two animala, and was frequently heai'd vowing vengeance against them. The suggestion, of course, is that he bought the packet of arsenic discovered in the hat-box after his doath for the purpose of getting rid of them. That, I think, may \ery woll be, but it does not get over the damning fact of the soaking of the fly-papers and the discovery ot a brown solution, such as would come from the said fly-papers, in the remnant of crusted rcvaleiita arabica discovered in the basin at poor Maybrick's office. Mrs Maybrick had another nervous attack after the conclusion of the magisterial inquiry. Since writing the above, I learn that in addition to the chemist aforementioned, a gentleman named Bateson, a cotton-broker, will swear to knowing that poor Maybrick habitually took arsenic whilst he and his wife were on a visit to witness's house in America, and furthermore that he (Bateson) warned him against the practice. The weakness of the defence of course lies in thefacb that there is no earthly conceivable reason why a man should take arsenic habitually in secret. If ifc had been opium, or morphia, or chloral, or chlorodyne, one could understand the practice. Ladies, we are all aware, eat arsenic for the sake of the lovely complexion it gives them, but Maybrick was an elderly man who cared not a jot about his complexion.

ANOTHER DIVORCE SUIT. Mr Geo. " Abington " Baird, who was one of the co-respondentsin the abortive divorce proceedings which that amiable young man, Lord Ailesbury, initiated against his " Missus " some little time ago, now figures in the same attractive, but expensive role in another matrimonial tragedy. The lady on the present occasion is a pretty and fairly capable actress, known to the public as Agnes Hewitt. She is the daughter of an Indian officer who fell at Luck now, and was first married to your old friend the late Lytton Sothern. Two years ago he died, and six months later his disconsolate widow wedded Francis or Frank Darbishire, the brother of the famous Oxford stroke, and himself a "crack" cricketer and an indifferent playwright. Some little time ago the Darbishires got to know Geo. Baird, who provided the coin for the fair Agnes's disastrous seasons at the Olympic Theatre. Mr Darbishire now accuses his wife's benefactor of loving her " not wisely but too well," petitions for a decree nisi, and fixes the solatium for his wounded feelings at the modest sum of ten thousand pounds. The trial will excite considerable attention, as all parties to the suit are well known.

Mr Goschen was very complimentary to Irishmen in his speech ab Sheffield. He lauded the services of the Irishmen who were in command of the Calliope on the occasion recently when that man-of-wav worked its way to sea Dufc of a harbour where a number of Ameiican and German men-of-war were drifting to destruction on the rocks. The captain was an Irifahman, the staff commander an Irishman, and the chief engineer an Irishman. The engineer, we imagine, is entitled to a large share of the credit, judging from the following report made to the Admiralty by the captain: — " I called on the staff engineer for overy pound of steam he could give us, and slipped the one remaining cable. Tho engines worked admirably, and little by little we gathered way and went out, flooding the upper deck with green sea.s which came in over the bows, and which would have sunk many a ship. My fear was that she would not steer and would go on the l'eof in her passage out, especially as tho Trenton, the American ship, was right in the fairway, bub we went under her stern and came up head to wind most beautifully. Once outside her it was nothing bub hard steaming. If the engines held out we were safe. If anything went wrong with them we were done for, but, thanks to the admirable order in which the engines and the boilers had been kept, we steamed out in safety into the Pacific/ The engine-i'oom of the Calliope was manifestly in good hands. Captain Kane has relatives in Auckland. " Banking Under Difficulties " is the title of a recent publication, a copy of which has j been forwarded by the pablisherf. It is an - interesting record of lite on bhegoldfi9lds of ! New South Wales, Victoria, and New Zealand in the early days, written by a " Bank Official " from personal experiences retained iby means of a diary. The book, however, is not written in diary form, bub mining in its colonial infancy with all its peculiar and at times excibing associabions is worked up into a highly entertaining narrative. The latter half of the book is devoted to gold mining in New Zealand, chiefly on the West Coast, and some hairbreadth escapesand notablegoldrobberies are recorded. Onequotation will give some idea of what life in New Zealand was in 1865—" Tho regular price was 5s for any of the Australian weeklies, and as much as you could get, bub never less bhan 10s for any of the Home papers. The life, though, was simply awful. At that time, to many of the diggings, food had to be carried on men's backs. Flour ranged from 9d to Is 6d the pannikin full, and other things in proportion. Thus it will be seen, that although we got 2s 6d for posting a letter, and as much more from bringing one from the GreymouLh (to Hokitika), it was money hardly earned. In a fortnight's trip I usually made from £40 to £50." Obherincidenbsare recorded wherefat bullocks sold for £75 each and sheep for £5 each, and the record of shipping losses on the Hokitika Bar is appalling. The shiping losses in 1865, i.e., the value of ship* and goods damaged and destroyed, .is estimated ab hundreds of bhousands of pounds, ,and bhe influx of immigrants was enormous. The book is full of exoiting narrative and will well repay perusal.