ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 116, 25 May 1885, Page 2

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES

(FKOSI OUK LONIION COKItUSPONDENT.)

[riiß S.S. 10NOABIBO AT POUT CHALMBKS.]

Tho Direct Mail Service,

London, April 11. A good deal of uncertainty prevails in all colonial business circles as to bow far the new direct mail service is really efficacious_ Auckland merchants are writing homo to their correspondents that it is no sort of use their communicating by tho direct route, as the San • Francisco mail, leaving London a fortnight later, reaches them in tho north almost simultaneously. Prom Dunedin, too, I hear tho direct steamers cannot bo relied on in place of tho Brindisi mail, which goes out a week before them. It would simplify matters considerably, and be a gieat boon to merchants, shippers, newspaper folk, and others, who are supposed to take advantage of tile speodiest means of communication, if some official or semiofficial card were published showing the average time of the different mail routes from London to tr6 various centres of the colony, say Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland. The information given by the " Post-office Guide " ie of tho most meagre description. Can you believe it poE.siblo that at the present moment we aro absolutely in ignorance whether the throat of imposing double postage on letters via Brindisi has been carried out or not ? An inquiry made at the Lombard-street Post-office the other day extrapted the fact that no such regulation was known there, and yet, according to a'Now Zealand paper, the rule was to have come into force on November 15th.

A Visit to the Agent-General.

Owing to the Easter holidays, there has been nothing much doing since Hast wrote. I called up at the Agent-General's on Wednesday, and saw Mr Kennaway. No Government immigrants are going out by the Tongariro, but about l!iO will be sent per Aorangi in May. Mr K. speaks highly of the exhaustive report which Mr Ronee Marten has made on the Scotch and Englith railway system for the colony. Slms's "Last Cbance." Siras's melodrama "The Last Chanre," the colonial rights of which have been bought by Rignold and Allison, was sue cesefully produced at the Adelphi on Easter MondayInventors' Exhibition. The Inventions Exhibition will be opened informally, as the Prince of Wales does not wish to discount the effect of the gorgeous ceremony which is to initiate the Indian and Colonial Show next summer. Tho Australasian colonies aro, f?o far as I can learn, entirely unrepresented at the Inventions Exhibition. Various Items Tho "Daily Telegraph" of yesterday contained an articlo semi-humorounly ileccribimr tho rostly exportation of stoats and weasels to New Zealand for tho destruction ot rabbits. On dit at the Savage Club that Sala's firat letter from Australia will appear .in (he " Telegraph " next week. " Truth " this weok rofors to the eubject of Sir Julius Vogol's connection with the Brush Electric Light Company, sotting forth the facts I sent you via San Frisco, and giving the shareholders some whole, somo advico.

A syndicate for introducing a patent called the Gold Amalgamor with Now Zealand is also hastily criticised.

Converting tho New Zealand Loan,

The converting of the New Zealand Loan is proving more successful than even the moßt sanguine financier anticipated. Already £2,500,000 C per cent consuls have been converted into the terms of notification issued by the Bank of England, and the conversion remains open for another month. Tho fact that one half tho holders of tho stock ttirred forward to convert in March, whon they might just as well have waited till April, shows that tho termp have proved attractive. In fact, there seems every prospect of the entire amount being converted within tho next fortnight. Death of a Votoran. Colonists who remember tho Maori campaign of IS6O will regret to hear of the death of tho veteran (General, Sir James Edward Alexander, C.8., K.C.L.S., who commanded tho troops in the province of Auckland for some time. He was 82 years of am and had scon service in almost every par,* of tho world, fighting through the first Bnrmose, Persian, Portuguese, and Kaffir wars. In 183/ ho conducted an expedition for the purpose of exploring Central Africa, and in 1547 he surveyed the forests of New Bru nswick. Imperial Demand for Colonial Meat. A gocd deal has been said in trie newspapers, and some remarks passed in Parliament, about the Government having given the large contracts for tinned beef and mutton used by our troops abroad principally to American firms. I have taken the trouble to inquire into the matter carefully, as it somewhat affects New Zealand, and I find that so far from the Government being anxious to patronise the American firms, they only did so when the whole of the Queensland and New Zealand meat available was exhausted. IE there were any colonial canned meat now to be had, it would bo immediately taken up by the Admiralty, Tenders are at present out for 500,0001b5. To show what vast quantities of meat in this form are wanted, I may mention that last week the Government placed ordors amounting -to 10,000,0001ba., of which Queensland firms took up 1,000,000, and 9,000,000 went by mail to Chicago. If there had been any New Zealand firms capable of supplying a good article, they could have taken up as large a proportion of that 9,000,000 as they chose. Now Zealand Government Insurance Mr J. Moody Stuart, Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries, Edinburgh, has just published a pamphlet discussingthe scheme of life insurance in connection with the New Zealand Government Department. It was originally read before the Actuarial Society of Edinburgh, upon whom the; paper created such an impression that Mr Stuart consented to print it. Tawhlao's Address to' the Tribes. In a crushing letter to the "Times," Mr F, VV. Chesson quotes the speech made by Tawhiao to the Waikato tribes last November, in which he urged them to embrace Christianity. New Zealand. Agricultural Company's Shares. "Truth" exposes a stock-broking tout named Lambert, for endeavouring to palm off shares in tho Now Zealand Agricultural Company on unsuspicious persons for 100 per cent more, than evon their nominally quotable valuo. Mr Lambert belongs to a tribe of stock jobbors who are very numerous just now. They send out circulars to likely dupes, offering small lots of shares in pome "highly - promising" company, a great bargain. Mr Lambert's " bargain "took the form of 60 shares in tho New Zealand Agricultural Company, which he tendered at the surprisingly low rate of £6 a piece. Now the market price Of these shares, which carry a liability of £210s, according to the " Weekly Bulletiu " of unquoted securities, is £215s to £3 ssl. By-the-by, isn't the New Zealand Agricu - tural Company one of Sir Julius Vogel's many financial ventures.

Decline In Frozen Meat.

The frozen meat market prices have declined slightly daring the past week, and may even drop a little more ; but as large supplies are not expected, it is probable that fair average rates will be obtainable for some time to come. The imports for the first quarter of tho year amount to 167,292 carcases sheep, and 8,908 lambs. Ward and Stimson quoted New Zealand mutton at 4s to 4s 2d per stone of 81bs ; New Zealand lambs, 4a to ss, The Prince of Wales and the Colonial Exhibition. There can now be no doubt that tho Princo of Wales has got the success of tho Intercolonial Exhibition very much at hoart, and hopes to make it the biggest thing of the kind there has evor been. In his speech tho other day to tho Commissioners, he said that ho intends tho Exhibition shall bo ft national and Imperial show as contradistinguished to the Fisheries, Healtheries, and Inventories, in which traderivalry naturally played a leading part. I hear that tho Indian courts are of surpassing splendour, and have already been arranged for. The Nizam of Hyderabad alone has promised all sorts of wonders; in fact, it is said that directly* the Inventories closes a large portion of the vast building at South Kensington will bo absolutely handed over to Hindoo workmen. ■ New Zealapders who intend sending exhibits to the Indian and Colonial exhibition should eooh bo £hjnkiug oi getting them ready. All jarticleD tor t>he aliov- must bo in Eiigliuiii early next year, uud nts they will, ■ for economical reasons, mostly be sent over by sailing vessels, they should leave the colony in October or November at the latest. I sincerely hopo some enterprising persons with New Zealand interests at heart will take up this

land Court, we may tak« t "•-■*<«£? i though necessary, these »ra f??Nie alluring exhibits.'an[ ! e ? V*. P*S easy to make a, New ZeaLL oold *» «• feature of the show. A M^opit^U l a native well-tatteoedfafe^-S siding therein, would attract L**"***" tention as the Tarehura v-V* ""hAbl ; llealtheries,amodelS e TK° kit»tt with native weapons S^'^S gum ornaments, wouldL-aEJKi 81' «8 Above all, some endeavour SWfofc 1 to impress the British pnbU?Sb ?*W I that there are a uraat J!"^^it 1 sights and Places to baS?,*?^' 1 and. A small modell of ? b "^ «* Ilotomahana, etc., in ,J£J '""acm « would, I suppose, hardly Wfil*W*fc ; there can be no reason whv T^^M "• selected sories of large nhot™ \?»fcillj 1 be shown. Apart frolfte^*! \ sideratioDs, New Zealand folk»h Uo? «»•' \ a trip to the old country XtI*^ time their visit for next suSmi ° : firat place, all the shiSS^» 1 reso ved to issue cheapretarffi?-1^ ing twelve months. The P Sftfl especially will offer tourists at? n *'* ! of seeing India without any o P? ottt"l ''y in so far as the sea voyages frL im °"V Calcutta and Bombay to gSl?l P«r:- ■ cerned. I have not hoard &!.<* : Pacific Mail Company «j \\Zf^<* tttf i ways mean to hold out simiS^'^ i but I should thinktt'^^U In England the Exhibition-SJ& will (vide the Prince's roeS'^^ facilities to colonial vbSift 5^ i the great English m»nufaoS 8M- ! and Messrs Cook, Gaze and-£- H relied on to put forth temptL^ftK 1 shape of Scotch, Irish, mT-cS&fr i "cheap trips." Before deoidintW or not to visit Euro™ gJ^: your readers would ' tp-sSts. I to have an approximate idei'oftt.S I bable cost of a trip; I have tteiSiX?-i mined in the couree of the neSrJ** \ tosendoutanitineraryiorafTSS 1 meaning 6 weeks voyage hon^vST' in Europe, and 8 weeks voSi^, ing the places and sightßanoEfe would, I should think, wiehSS I expenses entailed, with railway fiSt 2 ;1 bills etc. etc. I.WfflJSgSg. 1 neighbourhoods whore cothfortawSft 1 can be obtained^ and indicateitliSsSi 1 ways and means of ci K ht- B eeiDg K® I Shipping and FMm^^Sf1Mr Dugend goes to AuoklaiidperP ujlih' ! e.B. Rome, sailing May 7th. TffcS I saloon passengers are booked'tatSl' i sailing 23rd inst. :-Mr a ,dM^ffl and sons (2), Rev. T. E;^"!!^ :l Beattie,C. J.RobfoßOT.todiSMiSS1 Auckland passengers, ■'•■-AiiVisf-in •