ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 459, 2 April 1890, Page 5

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

(Fkom Our Special Correspondent. )

London, February 22. SIR WALTER BULLER. Sir Walter Buller, accompanied by Lady Buller and Miss Buller only (the bwo sons remain in England), sailed for New Zealand via Australia by the s.s. Austral last Friday, and should reach Dunedin soon after this letter. Although Sir Walter has been “ going ” ever since November, he made up his mind to actually start rather suddenly. I fancy the news by the last ’Frisco mail resolved him not to be further deterred by any superable obstacles. Before leaving, Sir Walter entertained a number of friends, including the Agents-General and most of his brother directors, at a farewell dinner. Like most thoroughly capable men,be is popular in tiie city,and it waswith very real concern the three Boards of which he is chairman permitted him to depart. Even when the family’s luggage was on board the steamer, the directors of tho New Zealand Antimony Company begged Sir Walter to postpone his journey a fortnight, in order that he might preside at the forthcoming meeting of shareholders. To upset every plan like this at the last moment is not at all Sir W. Boiler’s way. He consigned the shareholders of the Antimony Company to well, the capable bands of Sir Jno. Stokes, and with every good wish for a harmonious reunion, departed. At Fenchurch-street station a largo number of personal friends assembled to bid the Bullers bon voyage, and tbe ladies were loaded with flowers, grapes, etc. The shareholders of both the Antimony and the Blue Spur Companies anticipate satisfactory results from Sir Walter’s visit to the colony. The expectations of the Blue Spur folk are not high, but there is a feeling that if anyone can make head or tail of the embroglio, Sir W. Buller will. Whether Sir Waiter stays permanently in the colony or merely long enough to set the affairs of these bwo companies in order, will depend on a good many things. I suspect him of a sneaking inclination to enter political life, and consider it should be judiciously fostered. That, as I have frequently remarked before, he would be an important addition to the power and influence of either party in the House, no one who knows the man and has heard him soothe and control an emineuily hostile meeting can doubt. DR. LEWIS. The appointment of Mr Thomas Hope Lewis to be naval surgeon and agent at Auckland is, I notice, gazetted for the 17th instant. WAKEFIELD’S BOOK.

Mr Edward Wakefield’s “New Zealand of To-day ” has nob, I regret to notice, been taken up by the London booksellers, even such “ all sorts” vendors as Denny’s passing it by. I asked the manager of the latter establishment why this was, and he said, “Oh! it’s by an American.” I corrected, “ You meant printed in America.” The truth is Dr. Murray Moore’s book appeared just a week before Wakefield’s, and there is not such a demand for works on the colony in London that booksellers cared about taking both.

The colonial edition of Sir Charles Dilke’sbook, which is in one volume, will be despatched to-day per Austral. FAR.JEON AT HOME. Mr B. L. Far]eon is the “Celebrity at Home” this week in the “ World.” Need I say that “ the luck-giving New Zealand greenstone ” on the novelist’s watch-chain, and the “ massive silver inkstand presented to him by the employees of the Otago ‘Daily Times’ and ‘Witness,’ in February, 1866,” are duly trotted out. Mr Farjeon’s new novel, “ Basil and Annette,” is going, he alleges, to be his chef d'muvre. Miss Eleanor Farjeon (adaf. eight) has poetic gifts, and Master Joe promises to be a great actor. Withal they are a modest family, they are, they are, they are. THE RAT PLAGUE. The plague of rats has become so severe in Lincolnshire that the farmers are at last thoroughly frightened, and urge loud remonstrances against the continued exportation of stoats and weasels to New Zealand. One agriculturalist who was in times gone by tempted by the 7s 6d offered for every livo stoat now bitterly laments his shortsighted cupidity. Threshing a small wheat stack the other day he found and his dogs killed no fewer than 120 rats, nearly as many escaping. SIR JULIUS VOGEL. Sir Julius Vogel has tried in vain to “buck up” against Mr Heaton on the Imperial postage scheme. The member for Canterbury made such mincemeat of his objections and understands the whole subject so thoroughly (whereas Vogel’s knowledge is clearly superficial) that your ex-Premier at length subsided lamely into silence. MR J. McCOSH CLARK.

Mr J. McCosh C'ark, Mr Thos. Russell, C.M.G., MrJ. A. Ewen and other New Zealanders were present at the annual dinner of the Australian and New Zealand Underwriters’ Association on Saturday.- Mr Archer, C.M.G., proposed the Association in a speech of purely technical interest. Then Mr Howard Smith gave “ The Visitors,” to which Mr McCosh Clark, who was introduced as an ex-Mayor of that promising little town Auckland, responded. REV. C. CLARK. The Rev. C. Clark is a through passenger to Port Chalmers by the Austral, which sails to-day. DUPLICATE CABLE. The Scotia left London on Thursday last, with 1,300 miles of cable for the duplication of the present service bwixt the New Zealand coast and La Perouse. Mr Frank Lucas and Mr Thomas Smith accompany the vessel in the capacities of chief engineer and electrician respectively. The cable was made by the Telegraphic Construction and Maintenance Company, and it is expected that the service will be ready for use by the end of May. THE CAPTAIN OF THE CALLIOPE. The home-coming of the hero of Apia, Captain Cane, of H.M.s. Calliope, will be somewhat o’erehadowed by the death of his father, Sir Thomas Cane, a few days ago. The Calliope should arrive at Portsmouth in the course of a few days, and the reception of Captain Cane and his gallant crew by their confreres and the public will be something more than hearty. REV. THOMAS HEY WOOD. The Rev. Thomas Hey wood, of the Fre 6 Methodist Church at Heywood, intend 3 visiting New Zealand early this summerHe expects to remain in the colony for at least a year. NEW ZEALAND MAILS VIA CANADA. \yhen some tipie ago the project of carrying the New Zealand mails via Canada Vancouver instead of via ’Frisco, was mooted, it was asserted by certain ignoramuses that tho snow would seriously interfere with the regularity of the mails. As a matter of fact tho snowfall on the Cana-

dian side is far less than on the American side, and the danger of snow blocks on the Canadian Pacific railways is scarcely worth mention. This route is acknowledged to be the quickest to China and Japan, and there is no reason why in the near future our mails should not be sent via Canada and Vancouver instead of via the Suez Canal and the P.O. or via United States and San Francisco, SIR JOHN GORST.

The “ World ” thinks that your old friend. Sir John Gorst, is destined for early promotion. “Hepossesses,”says “ Atlas,” “ one of tho sharpest minds, and is one of the best debaters on the front bench. He will before long receive an office of Cabinet rank, and on the Conservative side there is a strong impression that when Mr Balfour rises from the Chief Secretaryship to a still greater office he will be succeeded by Sir John Gorst.” EXPORT OF BUTTER.

Unless Mr Wilson, the dairy expert to the Victorian Department of Agriculture, has grossly exaggerated, the export of butter from that co'ony (chiefly to England) for the three months ending December, 1889, reached the enormous aggregate |of 430 tons ! The quantity is astonishing and needs verification, for if true, it is nearly half our total import for that year. The prices realised for the first two or three shipments w f ere entirely satisfactory to exporters. Mr Wilson mentions 90s to 112 s per cvvt, and Australian butter received here in January was quoted at 90s to 108 s. These facts and figures ought surely to spur the New Zealand exporters to make greater efforts to secure a greater portion of the dairy produce trade with the mother countiy. Careful attention to packing, salting and other requirements of the English market is all that is really necessary to place New Zealand produce on a par with that of Victoria and South Australia, and cannot fail to prove remunerative. NEW ZEALAND FLAX. Though (as I recently pointed out) the demand for New Zealand hemp has greatly increased, it will, unless more care is taken and MrThos. Spurling’s valuable hints as to picking and packing, etc., obeyed, be supplied (so far as the States are concerned) from the contiguous Bahamas, which are already sending home increasing parcels every month of a very superior sisal fibre. Some time ago the Governor, Sir Ambrose Shea, in a long letter home, pointed out that the authorities at the Bahamas had granted a bounty of £4 13s 4d per ton on all sisal fibre grown on and exported from the islands. He also urged British capitalists to come forward and take steps to place the industry on a sound and substantial basis. Now, it is said, a syndicate has been formed with the especial object of fostering the cultivation of this valuable and rapid-growing fibre plant. They contemplate planting 10,000 acres on one of the islands to begin with. Climatically, tho Bahamas are better adapted to the cultivation of sisal than even Yucatan. The plant grows wild and on the poorest soils. After the ground has been cleared and the shoot inserted, no further cultivation is needed. In three years the plant attains maturity, and continues to live twenty years afterwards, furnishing crop aftercrop of leaves containing fibre equal to the best manilla. Neither rain nor drought affects the plant, nor yet frost, while the prickle 3 in its leaves protect it against animals of every kind.

KAURI GUM. At the kauri gum sales of the 13th February, 1,142 cases were offered, and 950 cases sold. The following prices were realised :—Good to fine selected transparent, £6 2s 6d to £lO 15s, in good demand ; good hard amber, well scraped, 77s to 975, active bidding, dearer ; hard half scraped, pale, 61s to 70s; part scraped, 50s to 555, steady, not much wanted ; common to good hard dark, 28s to 50s ; fine bold scraped, 70s ; good sold well, common dull; pale pickings, 30s to 475, rather moderate; low dark drossy pickings, 24s to 28s, dull; good to fine bright chips, 38s to 60s; dark to fair chips, 25s to 28s, good to fine dust, 81s to 37s 6d, low dark to fair dust, 13s to 17s 6d, brought extreme prices. The stock in London on the Ist February was 1,258 tons, against 1,701 in 1889 ; landed since Ist January, 95 tons, against 601 in 1889 ; delivered, 184 tons, against 202 in ISB9. THE FROZEN MEAT CARRYING FLEET. Tho critics of the New Zealand Shipping Company contrast the action of the Board in chartering the old-fashioned boats of the Ducal line for frozen meat carrying purposes, with that of the Shaw, Savill, Albion Company, who have built three new and specially fitted vessels. The chartering is, as usuai, ascribed to the intluence of Mr Dawes, who has, tradueers allege, a large interest in the Ducal line. 1 imagine this to be about as true as most of the fancitul statements concerning this gentleman. Besides, the New Zealand Shipping Company arc building new steamers for the frozen moat trade, though they may not be purely cargo boats. Few even in New Zealand itself have, I imagine, realised how rapidly the meat and produce trade is increasing, and what, a large fleet of steamers is now engaged in it. Fairplay calculates that 37 vessels with a tonnage of over 132,000 tons and a carrying capacity. 1,200,000 carcases are now plying between England and the colony. Twenty-seven of these are steamers and ten sailing vessels.

This line is estimated to carry 224,000 carcases per annum. Of the ten sailing ships engaged in the frozen meat trade, seven belong to the Shaw, Savill and Albion, of the aggregate of 9,998 tons, with capacity for carrying 87,500 carcases per annum, while only three belong to the New Zealand Company, carrying 34,000 carcases per annum. The total carrying power affected to New Zealand, summarised from the above, provides ior the transport to England, in a single year, of 2 220,300 carcases, while the most favourable estimates do not place the number of carcases likely to be available at over 1,500,1)00. Consequently someonewilthavetogo short— who? is the knotty question to be determined. It has been suggested, however, that there is a tendency to exaggeration in the above figures and they are therefore apt to be misleading. Messrs Weddel and Company estimate the carrying capacity of the vessels at present engaged in the trade at 1,850,000 carcases, as tho net space available for mutton is frequently reduced by an increase in tho shipments of butter, cheese, etc., and support their argument by instancing two vessels, the Tongariro and the Aravva. In the above list tho . former is put down as carrying 30,000 carcases, whereas on her last trip she only brought 18,745 and about 1,000 quarters beef, the remainder of the space being taken up by butter, etc. The Arawa, instead of the 36,500 she is credited with, brought under 28,000 and about 1,200 quarters beef. The above figures are based on the estimate that a carcase of mutton averages 561 b, whereas New Zealand mutton last year averaged well over 601 b. Messrs Weddel are of opinion that “owing to the great development of the trade and the material economies effected in working these cargo steamers, the shipping companies will shortly be in a position to make substantial reductions in freight, and would probably do so forthwith were it nob for the difficulty of getting good outward freights.’" They further.urge the shipowners might make some concession in freight by making their present rate include insurance against “ all risk.” “Shipowners,” they say, “have special facilities for safeguarding the condition of the mutton, and with careful supervision in the colony as well as on the voyage, they ought to be able to get the risk written at a considerable reduction on the prssenb rate.” JEM MACE AND MITCHELL. One had hardly to be a “Zadkiel” to foretell the result of the recently-arranged Mitchell v. Mace match ; but there were not wanting those who, throwing common sense to tho winds, maintained that the old adage “Youth will be served” wmuld in this case be upset. The majority of the cognoscenti were, however, sorry to hear than Mace had made the match, and some endeavoured to persuade the ex-champion to back out. Bub the old warhorsc ivould nob hear of it, and went into training, expressing great confidence of his ability to puzzle the best of the latter-day champions The affair w r as brought off at the Gaiety Theatre, Glasgow, on Friday evening last.. The contest, which did not last four rounds owing to police interference, was from first to last in Mitchell’s favour, and ho never boxed better in his life. A blow on the chin floored the veteran in the first round, a.id even at this early stage Mace exhibited symptoms of distress. In the second bout he was again laid low, and wisely rested there as long as the rules permitted. The third round saw poor Jem the recipient of a perfect hurricane of blows, and ere the fourth was half way through the chief of tho police, seeing how things stood, stopped the fight and tho judges unhesitatingly credited Mitchell with the victory. Mace w»as not idle during the progress of the fight,but Charles was much too quick and clover for his opponent to do him much harm.

The irrepressible “Pony” Moore was one of Mitchell’s seconds, and after the decision stated that he was open to match his son-in-law to box anyone for unlimited money. Mace and Mitchell will now go on tour and it is to be hoped the venture will prove a financial success, for matters have not, I hear, been too prosperous of late for poor old Mace. PERSONAL NOTES. Mr Graham, who is contesting .St. Pancras in tho Conservative interest, is an Australian by birth. Your late visitor Lord Carnarvon’s health continues, I regret to learn, most unsatisfactory. The Earl and Countess were going to spend the early spring, as usual, at Genoa (where they have a villa), bub the plan has reluctantly been given up for the present, owing to his lordship’s illness. Mr Fronde has let his house in Onslow Gardens and betaken himself to Devonshire. He is busy on two new books. Sir Win. Des Vieux is coming home to recruit. The climate of Hong Kong has not agreed with him like that of Fiji, and ’tis said he wishes he had never cone to China. Sir Arthur Gordon is writing a book, but not, thank (roodness, of reminiscences. The work will be a memoir of his father, Lord Aberdeen. Nothing further has been heard of the peerage which Lord Salisbury it was semi-formaliy announced, meant to bestow on Sir Arthur. Mr William Spobtiswood Green, whose “ High Alps of New Zealand ” you all know so well, has a new work entitled “ Among the Selkirk Glaciers ” just ready. Lord Augustus Loftus has returned from the Riviera in order to be nearer the materials for the volume of reminiscences he is compiling. Air E. S. Willard has signed for an Australian tour, to follow his American season. He will “star ”of course as Cyrus Blenkarn in “The Middleman,” taking with him one or two leading members of his company. A ladies’ fashion paper avers that the wonderful costumes built by Worth for Mrs Brown Potter to wear during her Australian and New Zealand tour would draw large audiences to the theatre without any play at all. Sir Charles and Lad}' Haile (Mdme. Norman Neruda) have taken passages in the Valecta, sailing April 4th. Their farewell chamber concerts at St. James’s Hall are crowded.

A new and cheaper edition of Mr William Senior’s Australasian experiences (“Near and Far”) has just made its appearance. Mr Deane Brand, who has nob been fortunate since he and his pretty wife, Kate Chard, retui’ned from Australia some years back, is going to “ elevate the masses ” by singing at the Royal Music Hall. Massive Miss Emily Thorne has returned irom Australia just in time to bid her old manager (Toole) and his company bon voyage. She seems to have enjoyed a good time in your part of the world, and looks delightfully jovial and robust-. Professor - Drummond, of Glasgow, is„ going out to Australia shortly, probably byone of the direct liners from the Clyde. He-, will be accompanied by his wife. In his “Leaves of a Life,” Me Montagu-. Williams goes at length into, the circumstances of tho Euston divQSee suit,:

Shaw, Savill and Albion Line— Tonnage. Carcases Coptic .. 4.44S 56,000 .. 4,753 36,500 Doric .. 4,784 36,500 .. 5.031 36,500 .. 5,026 36.500 Maniari .. 3,583 36,000 Matatua .. 3.000 36,000 Maori .. 2,790 36.000 Total .. .. 33,415 290.C00 The estimated voyages will give this line of steamers 798,400 carcases per annum. New Zealand Shipping Compan; Y— Carcases. Tonnage. Tongariro . . • . • .. 4,163 30,000 Aorangi .. 4,163 30,000 Kuapehu lvaikoura .. 4.163 .. 4,474 .,0,000 36,000 Rimutaka .. .. 4,474 36,000 Total (Ducal Line) .. 21,437 .. ., 3,736 162/00 35,000 Duke of Westminster Duke of Buckingham .. 3,123 55,UIXJ Duke 35,000 Total .. 31,386 267,000 The estimated voyages will give this line 728,400 carcases per Tyser Line — annum. Carcases. Tonnage. Balmoral Castle .. .. 3,050 39,000 Ashleigh Brooke .. Bayley Star of Victoria .. .. 2,863 .. 2,607 .. 3,240 .. 38,000 37.0C0 39.C0 i Star of England .. .. 3.611 41,000 Maori King .. .. 3,700 40,000 Celtic King .. .. 3,700 40,000 Total .. 22.671 274,000 This line also runs to Queensland and the estimated voyages are reckoned to be equal to 348,000 carcases frp.m New Zealand pev annum. Martin X^ne— Carcases. Tonnage. Eltlcrslio .. ,, Kifeshivo .. 2.761 .. 3.720 28.000 28,000 Morayshire .. .. 3,7.0 23,0u0 Nairnshire .. .. 3.720 28,000 Total .. .. 3.221 12,000