TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 444, 8 February 1890, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

(FROM DPR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.) . London, December. LITERARY. It may be interesting to ; note that Mr Wm. Macdonald’s friends clid not permit him to leave England without the inevitable valedictory banquet. This took place as long ago as the 26th ult. at the Freemasons’ Tavern, and was attended by all sorts and conditions, of pressmen. Mr Alexander Paul, of the “ Daily News, occupied the chair, and Mr E. Ranger Johnson the vice-chair. Needless to say a very jovial and harmonious evening was spent. DRAMATIC NOTES. The employment of music hall “stars in metropolitan and provincial pantomimes has become so general that from the first week in December to the last in February the smart London resorts of the class of the Empire, the Pavilion, the Alhambra, and the Canterbury, find themselves left absolutely without talent. “We are simply at our wits’ end what to do,” confessed . a well-known- manager the other evening ; “it has been growing worse every year, and this winter the exodus looks like being wholesale. So far as I can ascertain, there won’t be a variety artiste worth employing left in town by the lourbeenth.”

MAGAZINE PROGRAMMES FOR 1890. The magazine programmes for 1890, none of them read specially tempting. “Temple Bar” should be strongest in fiction, as Miss Broughton’s new novel “ Alas!” and a story called “ Pearl Powder,” by Mrs Annie Edwards, author of “ Ought We To Visit Her,” etc., will run through its pages. “Good Words” announces “ Basil and Annette,” by B. L. Farjeon, and “ Dorothea Latimer,” by Mary Linskill, as its chief attractions, but if I take in this magazine at all it will be for the sake of J. M. Barrie’s “A Tillyloss Scandal,” or to see what Lord Lome (of all people) has to say about “Oyster Culture.” Mr Val Prinsep, A.R.A., contributes a serial story of the French Revolution called “Virginie” to to “Longman’s,” and Alphonse Daudefc has written some final adventures of the famous Tarbarin, entitled “ The Colonists of Tarascon,” for “Harper’s.” Henry James will translate Daudet for the last named magazine, which also promises novelties by Howells and Lafcadio Hearn. The “Sunday Magazine” is to contain “Maitland of Laurieston,” by Anne S. Swan, and “Rex Raynor, Artist,” by Silas Hocking ; and “ Murray’s,” in addition to W. C. Norris’ new novel, “ Mother and Son,” advertise “ Miss Blake, of Monkshalbon,” by a new writer. “Cassell’s Family Magazine,” for 1890, which opens with December number, commences three new serials—- “ The Stronger Will,” by Miss Everett Green, “To Be Given Up, ”by the prize story winner, Kate Eyre, and “In the Wild West,” by Jno. Berwick Harwood. “Belgravia” has apparently ceased to exist, and few people nowadays read either the “ Gentleman's ” or “ London Society.” If I were confined to two magazines next year, I should take in “ Temple Bar ” and “ Longman's.” NEW BOOKS, ETC. Mr R. D. Blackmore’s new novel, “ Kit and Kitty,” a story of West Middlesex, will be published to - day in three volumes. It should be good, as it has taken some years to write. Black’s novelette,“ Nanciebell,” in “Yule Tide,” is in this author’s less robust style. The feminine adjective “ nice ” probably best describes it. Reading Black after wallowing in George Moore is like breathing ozone after suffocating in the unspeakable atmosphere of a drunkard’s bed chamber.

During his present incarceration “ the patriot William O’Brien ” has been writing a novel entitled “When We Were Boys,” which will appear in an early issue of “ Lippincott’s Magazine.” The December number, by the way, contains “All He Knew,” by the clever author of “ Helen’s Babies.” The system of publishing a complete one volume novel in each issue of “ Lippincott’s ” started two years ago will be continued in 1890. . Julian Hawthorne will contribute a story called “Miilicent and Rosalind ” to the January number, and be followed during the year by A. Conan Doyle (the clever author of “ Micah Clarke Amelie Rives, Captain Charles King, Oscar Wilde and others. The second effort of the author of “John Ward, Preacher,” will be called “ Sidney,” and run through the “ Atlantic Monthly ” next year. The same periodical will publish a tale entitled “Felicia,” by “Charles Egbert Craddock ’’(Miss Murfree), and some reminiscences by Oliver Wendell Holmes under the heading of “Over the Teacups.” These American magazines are now running some of our English periodicals pretty hard. “Asolando” is the title of Browning’s now poem, to be published on the 12th insfc. Haggard’s “Allan’s Wife,” consists mainly of a collection of short stories, contributed to “Atlanta” and other periodicals.

Lord Lome’s novelette, “A Canadian Love Story,” will appear in the “Pall Mall Budget ” for December 19bh and 26th. It tells of a young Canadian who falls in love with an Indian chief’s daughter while hunting in the far North West, and contains some tragic incidents of the Riel rising. Lord Lonsdale is busy with a book, which the man in the street says should be called “ My Adventures : Amor ms and Arctic." The author of the popular hymn, “ There Is a Happy Land,” died on Saturday last at Edinburgh, aged eighty-two. He was a schoolmaster by profession, and spent most of his life in India. Few, I expect, ever before heard of Andrew Young, yet he wrote many of our best-known Sundayschool lyrics. Mudie says the novel most in request at present is “ Sant ’llario.” The author, Mr Marion Crawford, passed, through London last week en route for Washington, where he and Mrs Crawford .winter. Marion Crawford is a very handsome man, six feet high, and with the bodily proportions of a Greek statue. .. He is an adept in athletics and all manly sports, bub more particularly in fencing, as : readers of his books will easily imagine. Italy, he of course knows better than any other country, but he has also lived in Turkey, Germany, India, and the; States, hence the cosmopolitan of his books. Mr Crawford met his wife at Constantinople, where tbe scene of that exciting work “ Paul Patoff” is laid.

A'SMART WEDDING. One of the smartest Anglo-colonial weddings which have taken place of late was that of the talented and extraordinarily successful young Australian, Prof. Gilbert Arthur Murray, son of Sir Terence Murray, K.C.M.G., with Lady Mary Howard, elder daughter of the Earl of Carlisle, which was celebrated on Saturday last at Castle Howard, M alton. • The marriage was solemnised in the small chapel at the Castle by the Master of Balliol, Dr. Jowett, assisted by the Rev. H. Whitehead, vicar of Newton, Peigney, Penrith, officiated. The bride, who was given away by her father, was attended to the altar by

the Ladies Cecilia, Dorothea and Aurea Howard, her sisters; the Lady Guiselda Olgery, her cousin, Miss Margaret Davies, and Miss Bunney, a fair Australian. Eighty young girls dressed alike, from the five villages on the Castle Howard estate,- also attended the bride, who .was becomingly attired in a gown of ivory white satin, trimmed with fine old Limerick lace of which also her veil was composed, and carried a large bouquet of Roman hyacinths. She wore no jewels. The bridesmaids were dressed in white, trimmed with rose-coloured ribbons, and the village maidensintheirrose-coloured dresses, straw bonnets trimmed to match, and their white embroidered China silk shawls, added a touch of bright colour to the scene. The bridegroom’s best man was Mr Margoluith, Professor of Arabic, Oxford. The Countess of Airlie, Lady Taunton, and Lady Elizabeth Grey, aunts of the bride, made her valuable presents, of which there was a large and costly list, including some of a public character, sent by a deputation in each case, from various temperance and other social and intellectual institutions in Cumberland and Yorkshire with which Lady Mary Howard had prominently identified herself. The Earl and Countess of Carlisle afterwards entertained the wedding party at breakfast at Castle Howard, and the newly-wedded pair subsequently left for Naworth Castle, Lord Carlisle’s seat in Cumberland, where they spend their honeymoon. THE NEW ZEALAND SHIPPING COMPANY. Wednesday's meeting of the New Zealand Shipping Company proved a complete and well deserved triumph for the Board and Mr Dawes. Never was a man more completely routed and sat upon than the consequential Deputy Chairman. When the meeting commenced quite half of those present inclined towards Mr Johnson’s views. When the meeting ended he had not six supporters in the room. Those who came to curse remained to bless.

The Chairman’s speech was (vide attached report) very long, and recounted succinctly the circumstances which led to the acquirement by Dawes of the late Sir Wm. Pearce’s shares and mortgages in the Company, and the election of himself and his brother Colonel Dawes as directors. The. Board, Sir John explained, were powerless at the time to prevent Mr Dawes buying the property. Even had it been offered them (which it was not), they could not have raised the necessary purchase money, nor a fourth of it. They were, however, responsible to the shareholders for putting Dawes and his brother on the Board, and now asked the meeting to approve their action by re-electing them. Cordial applause greeted the conclusion of Sir John’s speech. Mr Johnson then read a tremendously long statement, charging Mr Dawes, Mr Strickland and the Board generally with all sorts of high misdemeanours. What the effect of this rigmarole would have been had it been clearly and impressively enunciated, I can’t say. Possibly some of the mud might have stuck. Scampered over, however, in hurried semi-audible tones, it moved the meeting only moderately. The sum total of Johnson s accusations is that since the hole-and-corner sale of Sir W. Pearce’s 10,000 shares nominally to Mr Dawes, but really to a syndicate composed of that gentleman and Mr Savile, everything had gone to show that Savile, through Dawes and Westray, really ruled the roast in Leadenhall - street. If proof of this were wanting, it was to be found in the complacency with which the Board when the Coptic broke down recently at once tendered the Rimutaka to its rival on the easiest terms to take her place. Mr Johnson also found fault with the chartering of one of the Ducal line and the dismissal of the late Secretary, MrPalmer Jones, who had, he said, saved the Company £20,000 and been kicked out for his pains. After wandering on for fully three-quarters of an hour, during the greater part of which he was inaudible, Mr Johnson sat down and a Mr Alsop arose and seconded the Johnsonian amendment. Mr Alsop, unlike his predecessor, spoke slowly and with awful distinctness. He made much of Mr Savile having one-fourth of Mr Dawes’s shares in the Company, and contended that if they handed over the control of their affairs to the Dawes party they practically handed them over to their rivals. Mr Savile, he said, openly boasted that his influence had been paramount in the New Zealand Shipping Company’s affairs ever since the steamer line had been started. This gentleman’s remarks created considerable effect, and so did those of his successor, a grave elderly tradesman named Dence, who disclaimed any knowledge of the disputes under discussion, but found great fault with the balance-sheet, which he said lumped things together in a most extraordinary way, and was altogether a document that would disgrace a junior clerk.

Sir John Govst later promised that next year the balance-sheet should be more detailed.

Mr E. S. Dawes then gob up, and taking unlucky Mr Johnson’s pamphlet (which he called “ this literature”) in' his hand, commenced quietly but dexterously pulling it to pieces.

Mr Dawes first of all disposed of the charge that he acquired his interest in the Company in a hole-and-corner manner. Alluding to the condition of affairs before he became connected with the undertaking he said, “In November, 1888, the Bank of New Zealand called on the Company to pay a large sum, which it could not do, and negotiations had to be entered into with the lace Sir W. Pearce, the largest creditor, to find the money. During the negotiations Sir William died, and thev had to be completed with the executors. Mr Johnson hadgiven themtounderstand that had a certain transaction which followed, in which that gentleman was concerned, been put openly before the Board, the latter would have been able to complete it without his (the speaker’s) assistance ; but he proceeded to argue that this was altogether an erroneous view, pointing out that the necessities of the Company were so serious at the beginning of this year that they had to submit to the terms which the executors of Sir W. Pearce enforced upon them when they advanced the money to pay off the claims of the Bank of New Zealand. Mr Westray, than whom the Company had no better friend, called upon him (the speaker) and showed him the great danger which then hung over the Company, at the same time stating that by means of the agreement with the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Companyand the Colonial Union Company they were making money very fast. After due consideration he took an interest in the Company amounting to £267,000.' Whoever had acquired the great interest in the Company formerly held by the late Sir W. Pearce would have enormous power over the Company. His intentions towards the Company were strictly honourable. He could assure them of that, in fact his interests and those of the shareholders were identical. With regard to the re-instatement of Mr Strickland it was not true that he stipulated for it. What he did stipulate for was that the Company should have some manager. He was not acquainted with Strickland at that time. All he knew was that the manager was under notice to leave because of charges Johnson had brought against him. He then

said: Before we dismiss. Strickland, who knows our affairs so intimately, who has been, with us seven years and who will inevitably be snapped up at once by some ■ of our rivals, for goodness’ sake let us see what these charges really amount to. A special Board meeting for the purpose was held. Before it began he regretted to say he unfortunately came into collision with Mr Johnson, who wished to admit to it two of the Company’s lesser officials. He (Dawes) protested against this, observing that as they were going to inquire into charges intimately affecting the character of their manager it was monstrous that any under-strapperswhatever should be present. He objected to this then, and under similar circumstances he should object to such a proposal again. Was he not right ? (Hear, hear.) Well, the meeting then commenced by Mr Johnson producing a formidable folio of MS. (much as he had done to-day), and reading to the Board a lengthy rigmarole of charges against Strickland. To cut the matter shorti he might say, the Board after hearing both sides reinstated Mr Strickland. Eight months had passed since then, and during which the speaker had made it his business to look closely into the manager’s work and conduct. He could now assure the shareholders from personal knowledge that in Mr Strickland they possessed a valuable and trustworthy servant. (Hear, hoar.) From the first, Mr Dawes went on to explain, Mr Johnson took up a hostile attitude to him. Why ? Well, he thought he could explain that. Mr Johnson was the head of a firm of shipwrights who had till lately the bulk of the Company’s repairs to do, no tenders being ever called for. He was, in consequence, a very big man at the Docks, and ordered this, that and the other to be done the steamers, no one saying him “ nay.’ The captains bowed low before him, the mates touched their hats, in fact (Mr Dawes explained) Mr Johnson and his firm must have made a very nice thing out of the New Zealand Shipping Company. Mr Johnson knew, of course, tnat Dawes was not the stamp of man to stand such a state of affairs at the Docks as the old regime, and for this cause Mr D. fancies he resented his advent. Anyhow, he tried to pick, a quarrel from the first. Mr Dawes then went into the question of the removal of Mr Tyser from the Board room. His explanation amounted to this : That Tyser and Co. were the Company’s brokers, that their accounts constantly came under discussion, and that .it was impossible to speak freely with Mr Tyser in the 100 m. Mr Dawes instanced the case of an item of about £l5O for “ telegrams to New Zealand ” in Tyser’s account which attracted his attention.. What could they be ? Mr Tyser was politely requested to lay them on the table. He didn’t seem to like the suggestion at all, in fact resented it. At length the fact transpired that one cablegram costing £2O was to the New Zealand Board urging them above everthing to oppose tooth and nail the Dawes interest. Mr Daw'es said much had been made of the fact of Mr Saviie having acquired a fourth share of the Pearce interest, as if it would enable him to make Dawes do what he liked. He could assure the shareholders that where his interests were as vitally concerned as in the case of the New Zealand. Shipping Company, he was not in the habit of being dictated to by anyone. Mr Savile most certainly would never dream of attempting to coerce him to injure the New Zealand Shipping Company and his enormous interest therein, in order to benefit the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company. It seemed to the speaker that instead of thinking such rubbish, the shareholders might for a moment reflect on the position of Mr Tyser (also, it should be borne in mind, manager and Chairman of a rival Company), who, till Mr Strickland was reinstated, had all the business of the New Zealand Shipping Company passing through his hands. Mr Dawes further stated that he was quite ready to enter into an agreement by w'hich he would release everything; whenever the directors thought fit they could draw out a mortgage need to cover the entire indebtedness of the Company and to float the debentures. It was quite true that he had not paid £8 for his shares. In January this year shares of the Company were bought and sold as low as 12s fid. When he joined the Company they were £2, and he had recently bought some more at £4. The speaker wound up with further assurances of his honourable intentions towards the Company, and sat down, after speaking more than three-quarters of an hour, amidst loud applause. . His speech was too long to give verbatim or even moderately fully. I have tried, to give the substance and obvious intention of the speaker rather than his actual words. Mr Dawes is short, shrewd, “canny, and full of energy; but likewise genial, kindly, and twinkling with humour. Mr Tyser then inflicted on the tired meeting a lengthy oration, the sum of which was that if the New Zealand Shipping Company didn’t keep friends with Tyser and Co., it would end in disaster. Presently the Colonial Union would be able to escape from the trammels of its present agreement, and then (unless he had a seat at its Board, as once on a time promised) let the N.Z.S. Company look out for squalls. Mr Martin, a Glasgow shipowner in the New Zealand trade, with an accent as rough as a heap of stones, then favoured us with a little sound common sense. He first of all nailed to the mast one of Mr Johnson’s most glaring misstatements, a matter in which his own name had been taken in vain. Then seizing the Johnsonian pamphlet, he said, “ But wbat, gentlemen, is the use of quarrelling about * leeterature like this, when our report and balance-sheet convey such good news as they do to-day ? The business of those in the New Zealand trade is to work amicably together, and keep poachers out . I am an old poacher myself, so is Tyser. But for you big companies squabbling, we should never have got into the trade. Now we are in it, we want to join you in keeping others out. Mr Martin further announced his readiness to stake his reputation as a shipowner on Dawes’s ability to pull the Company through. , After some remarks from Mr Temple and Sir Chas. Clifford (who admitted having been suspicious of Dawes’s intentions at first, though he had now come to the conclusion that he was the one man in the City who might and perhaps would steer their 9hipinto smooth waters), the Chairman observed that in other circumstances Mr Russell, Mr Strickland, and himself would have liked to answer many things that had been said, but he thought the question was now ripe to be. voted on. He might state that the directors had no desire to conceal anything from the shareholders, but they could pot print all their affairs in the accounts. He then put the amendment, which he declared. 1 ost; and afterwards submitted > the. original motion, which he declared The retiring directors —Mr Dawes, Colonel Dawes? and Mr Westray-and the auditors were subsequently re-elected.