ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 436, 11 January 1890, Page 5

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

(from our special correspondent.) London, November 30th. The meeting of the New Zealand Shipping Company next Wednesday, to consider the attached report and balance-sheet, and.also the rival schemes of Mr T. Johnson and Mr Dawes to clear off the Company’s indebtedness to the latter gentleman, will be the most important in the history of this somewhat uniortunateconcern. Mr Johnson may be said to represent the old policy of the Company, initiated, by Sir W. Pearce, and Mr Dawes the new. They are rivals, and each intends doing his utmost to carry his particular views on Wednesday. To this end Mr Johnson has circulated amongst shareholders a pamphlet containing most important “ correspondenceand other documents on the affairs of the Company.” In it the history of the Company, and its relations to Tyser and Co. and Dawes, are gone fully into, and particulars are given of the latcer's and Dawes’s financial schemes. The strained state of affairs between Mr Johnson (Deputy Chairman) and most of the rest of the Board (who support Dawes) may be gathered from the letter addressed to the Chairman and directors repudiating the report and bal-ance-sheet issued, on the ground that he was not afforded an opportunity of testing their accuracy. The meeting is sure to be a very full one. The Hon. Randall Johnson, of Wellington, is dissatisfied with the place he has taken at Exeter, and will probably remove to London at an early date. Mr Bridges, of Hawke’s Bay, has just arrived in London. Since leaving New Zealand he has visited China, Japan, the United States, and Canada. A German author has just produced a magnificent illustrated work on the “Art of Tattooing.” The plates are produced in colours, and include all the portraits of tatooed warriors (as painted by Mr G. Lindauer) exhibited by Sir Walter Buller at the “ Colindies ” in 1886.

Mr Samuel Deighton’s “Vocabulary of Maori Words” (Chatham Islands), which was laid before the House of Representatives last session, has been forwarded to Professor Max Muller by a colonist in this country. The professor regards the production as a very interesting one, seeing that the aboriginal Chatham Island race is on the verge of extinction. Several of the Agents-General will be present at the annual dinner of the Royal Society, which takes place at the Hotel Metropole on the 30th of this month. Following the example of the New Zealand Court at the late Paris Exhibition,the directors of the Ethnographical Museum at Berlin (the finest in the world) have had a Maori chief modelled in wax and papier mache, and exhibit it in full costume in the galleries. Mr Charles Taylor (formerly a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council and son-in-law of the late Alfred Domett) leaves for the colony on a flying visit on the 6th prox. His eldest son, who has qualified as a solicitor, has commenced his career in Buenos Ayres with every chance of success.

Mr Walter Turnbull, formerly of Wellington, is in very bad health and has gone to the Mediterranean for two months, accompanied by his younger son, Mr Alex. Turnbull. Unless this trip re-establishes him he is advised to try a long sea voyage to New Zealand. Mr Petherick, of the Colonial Book Agency, 33, Paternoster Row, has commenced the preparation of a descriptive list of the bibliography of New Zealand for publication in “The Torch,” in the same style as he has already done that of Australia.

A second-hand copy of Hooker’s “ Flora of New Zealand” was sold at auction a short time ago, and fetched £24. A copy of Angas’ “ New Zealanders, Illustrated,” in paper-covered parts, recently realised 18 guineas. In a former letter I gave an account of the manner in which “ honours ” had been distributed at the PariE Exhibition. There is very little to add, except that Mr Walter Kennaway, who was bracketed with the attendants in his own section for the Silver Palm of the Academy, has been recommended for promotion to the Gold Palm—the same rank as was accorded to Sir James Hector—and his name will in all probability appear in that character in the next official list of honours to be issued on January Ist. The Hon. Mr Walker, the Executive Commissioner for Victoria, is incensed at having a lower grade assigned to him in the Legion of Honour than Sir Graham Berry, and has written to the French Government declining the honour altogether. The intelligence of the revolution in Brazil, coming upon us as it did without a moment's warning, has naturally caused much embarrassment and inconvenience in the City. I may mention a case in point. The London and Brazilian Exploration and Public Works Syndicate, of which Sir Walter Buller is Chairman, had just brought out their first company, the Land Mortgage and Investment Company of Southern Brazil, Ltd., with a share capital of £550,000. Indeed, the prospectus appeared in last Saturday’s papers side by side with the first tidings of the revolution. This was certainly very hard luck, seeing that nearly all the City papers had articles commending the enterprise as a sound financial undertaking, whilst not a single deprecatory line appeared anywhere. But Sir Walter had, as the event proves, taken every precaution against failure from any unforeseen cause. Nob only had he secured an exceptionally strong Board of Directors, with Mr Sampson Lloyd, of Lloyd’s Bank, as Chairman ; but before going to the public he had got £250,000 of the share capital firmly underwritten by some sixty of the best City houses. This made the ultimate floating of the Company, whatever might happen, an absolute certainty. When the crisis arose the first thing to be done was to withdraw the prospectus temporarily from the newspapers and to call the underwriters together to meet the syndicate “ to consider the situation.” A meeting was held on Friday at Winchester House, at which, after a friendly discussion, the following resolutions were unanimously passed:— (1) That without prejudice to the legal position of the vendors, and the Southern Brazilian Company, and the underwriters respectively, the further issue of the prospectus of the Southern Brazilian Company and the application to the public for subscriptions be postponed for three months, or until such time as the directors of the Southern Brazilian Company think it prudent to proceed therewith. (2) That the underwriters of the Southern Brazilian Company do and hereby agree to retain the same interest in the underwriting as heretofore, and on the saro© terms and conditions as those of the underwriting contracts executed by them, and agree when called upon to endorse such conditions, both as to extension of time and amount of underwriting. The immediate effect of the change of Dynasty, if I may so term it, in Bra?!! has been to depress Brazilian stocks in a very small degree. The only danger is that the Bepublic may split itself up into a number of independent states ; bat the general belief in the City is that a staple

Republican Government has been formed, and that our business relations will not in the end bo affected by this bloodless revolution. The appeal made by the directors to the shareholders of the New Zealand Antimony Company for a further amount of working capital, to be secured by the issue of cumulative preference shares bearing interest at the rate of per cent, per annum, has been well responded to, and the Board will now have at command a sufficient amount of money to complete the development of the mines at Endeavour Inlet. Mr R. Hudson, ot Dunedin, has been spending the last fortnight making the acquaintance of Messrs Burns, Webb, and other leading lights of the Socialists and Fabian Society. On Sunday he visited William Morris, poet and furniture factor, and subsequently heard that eccentric genius orate. Mr and Mrs Hudson leave for the United States and Canada very shortly, where they intend to spend some weeks, returning here however before proceeding Now Zealandwards.