ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 250, 21 October 1891, Page 5

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

(Fkom Our Special Correspondent.)

London, September 5. HON. J. FORTESCUE'S SECOND ARTICLE ON AUSTRALIA. Undeterred by the severe handling which his article on " The Seamy Side of Australia " received at the hands of Mr Willoughby last month, chat audacious young man, the Hon. Jno. Fortescue, contributes "A Rejoinder" to the current "Nineteenth Century." In this he repeats that the finances of Australasia are hopelessly muddled, and that, in fact, it looks very much as if repudiation lay directly ahead first of New Zealand, and then of the other colonies. "It is useless to urge" (he says) " that there are plenty of good men (though they take no part in politics) in New Zealand and Australia, and that sound administration would soon pub things right. I know this well ; but I know also that the good men have hitherto been helplese against the ' Labour majority,' and that sound administration is not to be hoped for. These colonies have never ceased borrowing so long as they could float a loan. The Labour party, in fulfilment of my prediction, has established itself in the Parliament of New South Wales as in that of New Zealand, and is bent upon extending its sway over that of Victoria also. As to the present New Zealand Government, I shall give one proof why I consider ifc no worthier of trust than its predecessors. It came into power, I should state, ostensibly on a policy of retrenchment, in reality as the tool of the Labour Unions, The last Government, though defeated at the polls late last year, clung to office, and actually met Parliament early in this year, principally, I am sorry to say, for the personal advantage of one of its members. Having kept Parliament together for a week or two, that Government resigned, and the present Ministry was formed. The new Government, of course, required a little time before it could meet Parliament, and accordingly proposed a prorogation. ■ Now, members of the Lower House in New Zealand are paid, a salary of £150, not per annum, but per cession, and a prorogation, therefore, meant double salary to all the members. One of fcha few upright men in the House moved, as an amendment, that the House should be adjourned instead of prorogued, in order to save the expense of a double session. What did the retrenching Government do ? Accept the amendment ? Certainly not. It made it a matter of ' want of confidence,' and defeated it by a large majority. It could then claim that it enjoyed the confidence of the country; and the majority, thus openly bribed, could explain that they voted as they did, nob for the sake of base gain,' but from the patriotic motive of strengthening the hands of the Government. And we are called upon to believe that such a Government is in earnest about economical and prudent administration. I decline to believe it. I decline to accept pinchbeck for gold ; the similitude, however cunningly counterfeited, for the reality. I speak in no spirit of hostility to New Zealand, for my own feelings towards it are of the warmest ; but when Mr Willoughby points to its administration fince the collapse of the borrowing policy as worthy of confidence, and indeed as the pattern which will ba followed by Australia when (as must soon happen) Australia's credit fails, I feel bound to point out that, though he be not aware of it, he is misled and misleading. The Labour party is supreme throughout the Australasian colonies, and there can be no hope of sound administration while that Bupremay lasts. The question that remains is, will that supremacy be overthrown before it meets its natural death in bankruptcy ?" These passages have been very widely quoted, and will, I fear, do harm.

Mr Leslie Hunter Reynolds, C.E., will return to New Zealand by the Tongariro this month.

AN ANGLO-COLONIAL JOURNALIST-

Mr H. C. Marriott Watson has been appointed assistant editor of the sumptuous new illustrated weekly " Black and White." The management were struck with the New Zealander's recent contributions to the "National Observer," and after making some inquiries sent for him, and ' offered him the supervision of the literary department of their journal. Mr Watson being a man of much originality and many ideas, it is safe topre diet that he will not be long in making his addition to the staff apparent to the public. " Black and White" has in several respects,nodoubt,been rather a disappointment up to the present. The promises were so magnificent that one expected a very great deal. The September reviews have all at least one article on Australia. In the "Fortnightly" Francis Adams, and in the " Nineteenth Century " Hon. Jno. Fortescue, retort on those who have rebuked them.

THE ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.

A most interesting paper on the proposed Antarctic expedition was read before the British Association last week by Mr E. Delmar Morgan. The first object, he said, must be to find a harbour to winter in. Having established this station, if possible, on Victoria Land, and within sight of Mount Erebus, they would be able to carry on the observations impossible in the summer months owing to atmospheric conditions. Such an advance party would nob be cut off from their fellow-men, for the Antarctic region, unlike the Arctic, was surrounded with a belt ef ocean 2,000 miles wide, and navigable throughout. By means of this, supplies could be conveyed from the nearest ports in New Zealand, .i.e., Dunedin and the Bluff.

Mrs Bishop, well-known to you as Miss Bird, also read an informing paper before the Association, on the Bakhtiari country of south-west Persia.

Lord Hopetoun will read with envy that Sir Savile Crossby shot 500 brace of grouse in three days on His Excellency's famous Leadhill moors last week.

Madame Pabey arrived afc Marseilles on Monday in the Yarrow, and came straight overland to London. She is in capital health and spirits, and, like every singer and instrumentalist who visits New Zealand, never tires of praising the culture and understanding of the colonial audiences in all your cities.

CHRISTIE MURRAY'S DEBUT,

"Ned's Chum," produced at the Globe Theatre on Thursday evening with every symptom of success, is a perfected and polished-up version of the original " Chums." During bis Australian "tour with Mr St. Maur, Mr Christie Murray cub and generally improved the piece considerably. It still suffers from superabundance of plot and lack of the dramatic instinct, which renders otherwise good material ineffective ; but the dialogue is fairly crisp, and the critics all agree in calling " Ned's Chum " promising. Whether this much will satisfy Mr Murray I doubt. Hβ cannot, however, fail to be gratified with the chorus of approval which has greeted his performance of Square Jack. In conjunction with Master Leo Byrne (an admirable child actor), he fairly divided the histrionic honours of the evening. Mr H. Reeves Smith was the hero Ned, and Mr David James, jun., made a promising debut as the rascally Drivato inquiry agent. "Ned's Chum " was enthusiastically, nob to say uproariously received by a large audience, the Savage, Green Room and several other Bohemian Clubs rolling up almost en masse. At the close there were loud cries for "Christie," and after the aubhor-actor had bowed his acknowledgments for "speech, speech," Mr Murray oame to the fronb at laab, bub ib

was merely to excuse himself from making a long harangue. Hβ felt, he said, naturally excited after appearing for the first time in the greatest city in the world as an actor and a dramatist. I must say I hope Mr Murray's rage for the stage is not going to interfere with hi? literary work. After all, we have scores of actors who could act Square Jack, but very few authurs capable of "Joseph's Coat," or "A Bit of Human Nature." CHRISTIE MURRAY IN NEW ZEALAND: A COUPLE OF YARNS.

Christie Murray, like most well-known men who visit the antipodes, was pestered with applications for help and criticism from ambitious literary aspirants. They turned him under an avalanche of manuscript, and if he had read half the matter submitted to him he might (he says) far better be chained to the critic's oar at home. In Auckland two elderly ladiee called on the novelisb with a play, which they aeked him to touch up and get produced. The earliest lines of the drama, which was unnamed and contained no list of characters, ran thus , :—"Somebody has tolled Alice that she is no wife, but she is a wife. Three days later Alice's horse throughs Alice at the husband's door, and his leg is broken," Mr Murray read no farther. He declined to add the " finishing touches," resolute that no meddling of his ahoulddestroyitsnativecharm. Santley and Christie Murray stayed at the same hotel in Christchurch. One night the latter overheard the following amusing ajid instructive conversation in the bar parlour : " Santley ?' said a big energetic man with an explosive voice, "Santley ! Santley can'b sing ' The Village Blacksmith !' You ought to hear my brother Jock)?' "Ah!" said the great baritone when Christie Murray laughingly repeated to him this discriminating criticism, "I fancy I must have met that man's brobher Jock pretty often since I left England."