ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 4528, 3 December 1884, Page 4

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

(Via Brindisi Mail or Oct. 17).

[FBOM Or/B LONDON COEBESPONDENT].

London, October 17. Colonial Representation at South Kensington.

[ am sorry to learn from the good people it Victoria Chambers that your Executive lttach little or no importance to the necesrity of New Zealand being effectively reprelented at the great annual exhibitions at South Kensington. Dr. Kennaway tells me the Agent-General sent out full parti3ulars as to ways and means of forwarding exhibits to the Healtheries this year, and the Inventions next, but was informed he need not bother about any exhibition in future, unless it liappened to be something special. Surely this is a most short-sighted policy. The ignorance that prevails amongst the masses di the people with reference to everything antipodean is simply collossal, and these exhibitions are the best of all mediums for imparting information. The New Zealand Grill and refrigerators at the Healtherieß have popularised frozen mutton more effectively than reams of newspapsr articles. Since the opening of the exhibition in May over four million persons have paid at the doors. Fully five-sixthsof this crowd must have examined the refrigerators and seen Easlam's engine at work, and no less than 104,700 partook of and enjoyed a juicy colonial loin chop at the N.Z. Grill. If these figures have not the effect of rousing you to the importance of exhibiting at future shows, nothing will. A fine gallery of photos of the principal towns and scenery in the colony should be a sine qua non at the exhibition of 1886. I see the " Anglo-New Zealander " says steps have already been initiated relative to the "Indian and Colonial" affair, and that New Zealand Fern Gully is to form a feature of the wonders from the North Island. This is a happy idea, and does infinite credit to Mr (}. M. Reed's imagination. Asa matter of fact, however, the whole business is as yet in embrayo, and will naturally remain so till next year's show has been successfully launched. It is nevertheless eminently desirable that your Executive should not be allowed to slumber _ over the matter. The few months between now and the date for closing applications for space will soon pass, and as the latter are sure to be very numerous, your exhibits will require to be attractive to secure attention. I would suggest, par exemple, a Maori whare and meeting-house to be erected on the grounds as the Chinese and Circassian huts are this year ; also a small model of the terraces and geysers at Botomahana, similar to that now shown of the Roman springs and bathing-houses at Bath. Interesting phases of bush and mining life might also be exemplified. Next year I am afraid your colony's name will again bo conspicuous by its absence from tne official programme. Yet a small South American republic like Venezuela manages to be represented 1 I feel sure, too, that if anyone were to take the pains to eearoh for them, many curious and interesting "inventions" and "musical instruments " would be found. Evon now it is not too late to send a small list of exhibits. Chambers's Refrigerating Engine. Tho new refrigerating engine on - the plan patented by Mr Chambers is at last completed. The whole of the parts are now being tested, and in a few days the machine will be in working order. I met Mr Chambers at the Bank of New Zealand the other day, and he was kind enough ta explain the' principles of his refrigerator to me. It is an improvement on what is known as the " ammonia machine." Many other inventors have tried to perfect this machine, but have all failed owing to the whole apparatus getting clogged with ice formed in the tubes. By a very ingenious arrangement of "TJ" tubes Mr Chambers has prevented this, and his refrigerator works perfectly. The machine just completed was originally intended for use on board ship, but it will in all probability be placed in the enormous vaults under .Cannon-street railway station, which Nelson Bros, have taken as a store for New Zealand mutton. This new apparatus will, M r Chambers informs me, cool seven times as much space ai any other refrigerator of the same size. If it proves a success, and the inventor has no doubt that it will, the dock and steamship companies will all order machines on Chambers plan. Mr Chambers has had a lot of trouble over the machinesfirst, the engineer who was constructing it committed suicide, and then all.the castings were found faulty and had to be replaced, but now I think the success of his venture is assured. ■ Comparative Criminality of the Colonies. A reptirt contained in the last issue of papers relating to Her Majesty's colonial possessions gives, in connection with its account of crime, a statistical table which ought to interest New Zealanders. From it we learn the strange fact that out of every 10,000 inhabitants a larger proportion of persons are committed to. prison in the Australian colonies than in England". Here the average of 5 years is 6.40 commitments, as against no less than 30 In Western Australia and 24 in New South Wales. After these come in graduated order Queensland, South Australia, Now Zealand, Tasmania, and Victoria, tho last showing an average of 7.88 commitments. The . Tasmanian average was 9,42 for 5 years, but in 1882 it was reduced as low as 7.46. Some Russian Visitors. You are about to receive some rather formidable Visitors from the Czar, who lias just despatched three magnificent ironclads, the Nadimir, Monomuch, and General Admiral, to cruise in Australian and Pacific waters. The first-named vessel is one of the newest in the Russian ravy. It has a displacement of 5,750 tons, a plating of Tin. armour, and carries 6 6in. guns. The General Amiral - has a displacement of 4,600 tons, Gin. armour, and carries 4 Bin. and 2 Gin. guns. These two ships could, it ii believed, easily overpower Her Majesty's vessels on either the Australian or Pacific stations. The " Pall Mall Gazette "thinks the fleets at both should bo permanently strengthened.' ttw Protectorate of Now Guinea. You will, of course, have heard b"y cable that in accordance with the statement made by the Grand Old Man in the House of Commons last August, stops have been taken for proclaiming a protectorate over all the southern coasts of New Guinea to the east: ward of the 141 st meridian of E. longitude. By the time this letter reaches New Zealand %he Commodore of the Australian Btation will doubtless have proceeded to our new possession, and duly proclaimed the protectorate, which will include the islands adjacent to the southern part of New Guinea.. ~'....'. ■ [ AH the principal newspapers contain long articles descriptive and otherwise about the hew protectorate. The " Times "remarks that the chief interest of this latest extension of our in' fluence centres in the circumstances by which it has been brought,, about. Tho Queensland Government. fearing the possibility of some other European Power seizing New Guinea and becoming an objectionable neighbour, annexed the whole territory, and asked the Colonial Office to recognise this addition to the British Empire, thus considerably upsetting its orderly official ideas. The action of Queensland was refused with enthusiasm by the other colonies, which did not shrink from sharing the moral and financial responsibilities. Common action on this isolated question has started a general movement for confederation. The idea is a fruitful one, and every advance made by the colonies will add to the importance of combination—at least for purposes of external defence. It will strike many people as rather a curious provision that no one will be allowed at present to settle or acquire land- within the limits of the British protectorate. Exclusion of the subjects of the protecting power is an unusual consequence of tho establishment of a protectorate. It may, perhaps, be assumed without much risk that the words "at present" are the most important ones in this announcement. The " Daily News " points out that the Australian colonies have given ample proofof their interest in the question and their desire for annexation. It is therefore in response to the urgent wish of the colonial Governments that the step has been taken. The colonies thus secure a complete guarantee against possible settlements by foreign communities opposite their Bhores, and at the same time the designs which have been attributed to Queensland "prospectors " will be frustrated. * Tho " Morning Post" remarks it is by a very curious irony of fate that the Gladstone administration, notwithstanding their avowed policy of diminishing our colonial .liabilities, have made larger additions to the Empire, either by annexations or protectorates, than any former Government during the preceding quarter of a century. It may, perhaps, be urged with much plausibility that in the present instance the Government had no choice between accedpg to tbe wishes of the Australian eolo«iata

and running the risk of seeing them acting for themselves? even at the risk of severing their connection with the British Crown. But this only proves how shortsighted Mr Gladstone is, and his inability to recognise the true nature of the relationship which exists between England and her colonies. The truth is that the Prime Minister conceives the possibility of maintaining an empire, not a United Kingdom, without incurring the obligations necessarily incidental to the former, and he ha? been sanguine enough |to hope that, whilst simply providing for tho wants of the kingdom, he could'maintain an empire. The fallacy of this reasoning was long ago exposed by the Marquis of Salisbury, and though Mr Gladstone was probably deaf to the arguments of his great political rival, he has now been convinced by the logic of facts. The dread of a settlement of Gallic convicts, the scums ofj tho Paris streets, being planted close to their northern coast, has, the "Daily Telegraph" says, ne doubt had. a good deal to do with the desire expressed at Sydney for the acquisition of New Guinea. But there has been also a_ second motive_ at_ work in the wish to seciiro to Australia, in view of the magnificent future which lies in store for thafr remote continent, a country divided from it only by a narrow strip of sea, and having within it the " promise and potency" of all kinds of commercial wealth. With a true instinct the Australian people have foreseen the capabilities of the island, and the impossibility of permitting any foreign State to turn it into either a standing menace or a constant nuisance to the inhabitants of their northern'and north-eastern coasts.