ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 491, 23 July 1890, Page 4

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) London, May 30. AGENTS - GENERAL AT THE PHILATELIC EXHIBITION. The Agents-General were all invited to attend the opening of the Philatelic Exhibition at the Portman Rooms on Monday, but only Sir Saul Samuel and Mr Braddon put in an appearance. The collection of postage stamps is the most varied and valuable ever gathered together in a European capital (not even excepting Vienna), and will attract enthusiasts Irom all parts of tho Continent. It h estimated ns readily saleable for £150,000. Amongst tho raro Australian issues exhibited aro a laureated Id, Sydney, with an error in the impression, recontly auctioned for £46 ; a Victoria beaded oval 6d, orange, worth £B7 6s; a West Australian tirsb issue ..2d, bronze, valued at £57, and a ditto 6d, valued at £BO. . Mr Tapling, a famous collector, exhibits a unique set of New South Wales stamps, includiug an uncut sheet of the first Australian penny issue. It seems a comparatively common 3d “ green,” of this colony, sells now-a-days for from £lO to £ls. The Duke of Edinburgh, who opened the show, announced that he was an enthusiastic philatelist, and so wa9 his nephew Prince George. Mr Tapling (aforesaid Prince of Collector') in proposing the “ postal system o* Great Britain and the colonies,” alluded to tho Queen’s interest in things postal, describing .especially Her Majesty’s intelligent curiosity with regard to the development of the 3d Australian post card, which bears a fulllength portrait of tho Sovereign Sir Saul Samuel replied, and referring to the charges of disloyalty made against those who substituted the emu, the platypus, the kangaroo, and the lyre-bird for the sovereign’s head on the stamps of the Antipodes, asserted that he might say the last-named billed typified these calumniators. This mild witticism excited loud laughter, and w the meeting then broke up and circulated through the exhibition. FROZEN MEAT. Tho frozen moat trade of New Zealand with the Mother Country is threatened now wit-h the powerful rivalry of Russia, whose merchants are making determined efforts to secure a goodly portion of the trade done with England in dressed meats. The Government have resolved to protect and assist the development of this export from the Baltic port of Libau. The trade began in a small way in 1883, when 3,000 sheep were i slaughtered and sent to England. Now, however, arrangements are fast nearing . completion whereby 30,000 cattle and • some 120,000 sheep will be shipped ■ annually. A quantity of pork will also be [ sent. In point of distance, Russia holds a l tremendous advantage over New Zeai land and other rivals, shipments r from Liban arriving in England under > five clays. Whether the quality of ’ Russian • grown mutton will bear 5 comparison with tho produco of New Zea- > land or the Argentine, remains to be seen, bub fowls and grain hitherto shipped in a l frozen condition have not exactly suited . the fastidious palate of John Bull. At ) present England is well off for sources ■ of supply as regards meat ot all sorts, E bub if Dr. Richardson is as correct as l he is sanguine, there is a good time coming, 5 when even England will be independent of 3 foreign supply. The doctor believes that ; years hence artificial legs of mutton will be , manufactured, because mutton is after all i only grass converted into something chemil cally different by passing into tho body of i an animal. Why not, then (asks a “ Daily Telegraph ” writer), make our leg of mutton - first-hand, without troubling the sheep? • MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. A feature of Wednesday’s meeting of the 7 Movable Committee of the Manchester 1 Unity of Oddfellows, at Ipswich, was the 3 arrival of Mr Wilkie, a delegate from - Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, who received , (according to the daily papers) “quite an - ovation.” s The fleet of the Union Steamship Coms pany of New Zealand has been further i augmented by the s.s. Taviuni, built by - Messrs Denny, of Dumbarton, which was 3 launched last week. Her dimensions are 3 250 ft x 34ft x 19ft : about 1,500 tons t gross. f The “Pall Mall Gazette,” referring to s the vis ; b of Lord and Lady Onslow to the t Waitomo Caves, says that their discovery b lends some colour to the title “Wonderland , of the Pacific,” claimed for New Zealand s by poetic and patriotic colonial writers. . Sir Hercules Robinson is Chairman of the r Imperial Colonial Finance and Agency Cori poration, to be launched on Monday next, i with a capital of two millions. Mr Beetham, 3 Mr Lewis Vincent, and Mr John Reid, of 1 Oamaru, are tho advisory directors for New e Zealand, a The Agents-General have been away since s Wednesday week in Paris attending the e Telegraphic Conference, the. result of which 1 of course you are aware. Sir Jno. Pender y banqueted the party early on in the pron ceedings, and last night all (except Sir A. 1 Blyth, who was expected in town this i- morning), were entertained at dinner by o the British section of the London Chamber s of Commerce. lam told that the credit of s bringing the negotiations anent the cable f rate reductions to a mutually satisfactory f issue must be given to Sir Graham Berry, , who (backed up by Sir F. Bell) took the 1 leading part in the proceedings. Mr Brad--8 don unfortunately mistook the day of the s conference, and only arrived on tho , scene in time to share concluding , compliments. The Agents are not hope- ., ful of the Imperial Government agreeing to - the request of the colonies to share r equally with them the cost of the subsidies l and guarantees due to the cable companies. - They will, however, of course, formally i submit the matter to Lord Knutsford for a consideration. f Major Dane, who recently arrived from . your part of the world, where (according to - the papers) he excited “ great interest and - enthusiasm,” is just about starting a lec* . turing tour with a series of Antipodean i lectures.

The “ Saturday Review ” waxes enthusiastic on the subject of “Acte,” by Hugh Westbury, which it pronounces the best historical novel since “ The Last Days of Pompeii.” The scene is laid in ancient Rome, and the story is thoroughly interesting. The author has seized in an almost remarkable way on the leading features of that strange time, and the attitude of the old wot Id towards various questions of morality. He has known how far to go in many directions, and never wearies his readers. “Hugh Westbury” is the pseudonym of a well-known Liverpool journalist named Farrie, who was for a long time on the local PPost,” and now edifr? “Porcupine."