OUR HOME LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 308, 30 December 1891, Page 5

OUR HOME LETTER.

Auckland, December 30, 1891,

The season at which we write is one of general festivity and rejoicing throughout -the colony. Christmas has passed but a, few days, and we are on the eve of a New Year. Business IS for the nonce virtually at a standstill, the towns are filled with country, cousins in for their annual holiday, and the country swarms with city folk away for their customary change of scene and air. The' goddess of Pleasure holds' sway, and her reign will not cease until the New Year has been ushered in with traditional and cus-

tomary rejoicing. In these sunny climes of ours Christmas is celebrated under conditions widely different from those that prevail in the mother country. Picnics, steamboat excursions, yachting and trips by rail, all midsummer enjoyments, take the place of the midwinter pleasures of old England, with their associations of blazing yule logs, roast beef and plum-pudding. So iar as they have gone, the festivities of the people of New Zealand have been free from any of those calamities and horrors which so frequently overtake pleasure parties, whiie the weather has been exceptionally bright and beautiful.

As at present arranged, His Excellency the Governor leaves Christchurch for a trip to the West Coast at the end of this month. From the Coast His Excellency proposes to cross the Haast Pass to Lake Wanaka, where he joins Lady Onslow and proceeds by the Cold Lakes to the Bluff, where the

Hinemoa will be in readiness to start

on the arrival of the Hauroto from Melbourne with the Countess of Jersey, the Countess of Galloway and suite for the Sounds. The trip will occupy the whole of January. The Vice-regal party will return to Dunedin about the 3rd February and pass through Christchurch and Wellington, staying a iew days in each town, and reaching Aucklarid on the 17th February. They will remain in Auckland till the 23rd February, when in company with Ladies Jersey and Galloway they will take their final departure from New Zealand in the Mararoa. Mr Walrond returns to ' England by the outgoing 'Frisco mail, having accepted an appointment in the Education Department there.

The Premier spent a portion of the last month in Auckland, and took advantage of his visit to deliver a public address here, in which he justified his policy to the satisfaction of a large and representative audience, which passed a vote of confidence. During the course of an interview, Mr Ballance gave some interesting information concerning the policy of the Government. He said, in the course of his remarks —" We are getting our population back from Australia, and I am confident that our liberal policy hast had a great deal to do with bringing them back. We are still going on with public works upon the cooperative system, and it has been very popular amongst the labouring classes, who are rro longer sweated by middlemen. The system of cooperation in public works has answered admirably, and will be continued. The Government Engineer makes an estimate of the cost of small contracts. Men are enabled to do the work by combining, and the}' receive their pay from the Government direct. They can earn a fair rate of wages, while the State gets the work as well and cheaply performed as hitherto. Instructions were given to Mr Perceva!, the recently appointed AgentGeneral, to see that the colony is defended against malicious attacks, and to take a high-spirited stand on every question in which New Zealand is affected. I, personally, have long felt that ' lings ' of ■various kinds have done as they pleased with the colony, and I am determined to bring about our emancipation from the control of syndicates and rings of such a character. You will very probably find our Agent-General will take up a very different stand from the attitude assumed by his predecessors in office, and will be heard of much more frequently."

Amongst the more notable events of the month was the death of Sir Frederick Whitaker, who for many years has played an important and honourable part in New Zealand politics. Sir Frederick had for a very long time been in failing health, and his friends had for months been apprehensiveconcerninghishealth. The circumstances attending his death, which are recorded elsewhere, leave little to mourn over. There is no more, appropriate termination to a lone life of useful work than to pass quietly and painlessly away as he did while in pursuit of his ordinary avocations. His recent reverses of fortune when years were accumulating upon him were lamentable, but Sir Frederick was not one of those men who could have been happy in idleness. His pleasure ■was in the pursuit of his profession, and if choice had been given him he would probably have desired that life's sands should run out

very much in the way vouchsafed to him. We give in another column a biographical epitome of his career. He has made for himself an Australasian reputation, and his name has become interwoven with the history of this colony for a period extending over half-a-century.

In no part of the world does the Anglo-Saxon take more interest in horse-racing than the colony of New Zealand. Race-meetings were held in different centres on Boxing Day, the most important being that at the Ellerslie Racecourse, Auckland. The chief event was the Cup, which fell to a five - year - old horse named Pinfire, sired by the Musket horse Torpedo from Yattertna. Coalscuttle, owned by Major George, ionnerly connected with the Bank of New Zealand directorate, was second, and The Dreamer third. The day's gathering passed off without unpleasantness of any kind. While on the subject of horse-racing it is worth mentioning that a New Zealand-bred stallion named Maxim (by Musket— Realisation) is being shipped to America this week, having been purchased by Mr J. B. Haggin, the wellknown breeder.

The holiday season has been singularly devoid of amusements of a dramatic kind. The Macmahon Brothers were to have opened with a comic opera company on Boxing Day, but a hitch occurred at the last moment and the arrangements fell through. As it is, the Opera House is tenanted by the performers belonging to a circus whose horses are in quarantine. At the City Hall Kowalski, the eminent composer and pianist, has been giving some excellent concerts. He has a good company with him, including Herr Pechotsch, a violinist of merit, and Madame Van-derveer-Greene, an American contralto. Miss Rossovv, the soprano of whom Patey spoke in warm terms, is also of the Company. The Choral Society gave their annual rendering of "The Messiah " on the Sunday after Christmas Day. A private performance to subscribers was given the previous Tuesday. The oratorio was listened to by packed audiences on both occasions. The rendering was very satisfactory. The solos were taken by Miss Murray, of Thames, Miss Harding, Mrs Coates, Mr Martin, Mr Dufaur. Mrs Coates and "Mr Dufaur were excellent as contralto and bass respectively. The choruses were full, and there were no hitches.

The imposition of protective duties upon all classes of produce by New South Wales will bring home to commercial men the importance of Australasian Federation as a practical question. New South Wales, next to Great Britain, is our best outside customer. According to the trade and interchange reports just compiled, the imports from New South Wales into New Zealand in 1890 amounted to and the exports from New Zealand to that colony were In the previous year, owing to the demand created by the Australian drought, New Zealand exports to New South Wales totalled ,-£1,069,196 against imports amounting to The largest share of the trade with New South Wales falls to the lot of Auckland. Of the 1890 exports, Auckland contributed products to the value of ; Wellington, .£47,427: Dunedin, ,£96,501; and Lyttelton,

The effect of the new tariff upon the produce of the colony may be estimated by an examination of the list of articles exported in 1890, which under the Customs tariff now in operation in New South Wales, will be subject to duty: "Bacon, 4,458cwt, value .£14375 V hams, i,9oocwt, value .£7,200; bran and sharps, 7,306 tons, value butter, i,9Bocwr, value (The value of butter exported to Victoria for 1891 amounted to Chaff, 727 tons, value ; cheese, i,sßßcwt, value 3,3,76s ; eggs, 8.177 dozen, value ; flour, 5,996 tons, value (The new duty on flour is jQi per ton.) Oatmeal, 14,9801b, value 116 (new duty j£z per ton) ; barley, 38,019 bushels, value ; beans and peas, 24,583 bushels, value ; maize, 287.526 bushels, value .€43-365 ; oats, ;£t,306,293 bushels, value ; wheat, 232,210 bushels, value (The new duty on grain is . iod per ioolb.) Onions, i2,4S2cwl", value (duty jQi per ton) ; timber, logs, 2,994,i80fr,va1ue;£7,703 : sawn, undressed, 14,697,532/1, value ; sawn dressed, 106.87211, value (The new tariff on timber is up to 3s per 100 ft according to quality.) Hay and straw, 88 tons, value .£364. The other exports to Sydney trom New Zealand were : Malt, 78,669 bushels, value hides, 8,263, va ' ue «^4»7 10 j woolleri piece goods, value £9,613 : arid fungus, 3» 2 45 cwt » value £4,905.

The new tariff, however, will seriously hamper the trade relations, of the adjacent Australian colonies, although not to the same extent as it affects New Zealand. Victoria and South Australia send a considerable amount of grain into New South Wales, and the definite step that has now been taken in the latter colony towards protection will be regarded with' very great disfavour, even by those colonies which set the example. One consequence must be an intensifying of the desire for a total emancipation from the artificial restrictions which have been set up between people of the same race, occupying the same continent and living under very similar conditions. All the colonies except New South Wales have long been protectionist, and the adoption by the latter colony of a :estrictive fiscal policy will un-

doubtedly remove one difficulty from the pathway of Federation. There was a good deal of uneasiness in the Convention concerning the effect of handing .over control of the Customs to a Federal Parliament, although it could scarcely be doubted even then what the result would be, in view of what the colonies had done individually. Any doubt remaining, however, will be removed if New South Wales, the stronghold and bulwark of Free Trade in these colonies, fall into line -with her neighbours on this question. When the colonies are thoroughly agreed that Federation is really desirable, a way will be found to accomplish it. For Queensland and South Australia, no less than New Zealand, that way must include taking over the colonial debts with the Customs revenue. Until that proposition has been generally accepted as a basis of negotiation, any talk about federation is idle.