ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 145, 19 June 1894, Page 2

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

(FROM OUB LONDON CORRESPONDENT.)

London, May 5.

OTAGO AND S OUTHLAND INVESTMENT.

The report of the Otago and Southland investment Company for the year ending January 31st, 1894, is much aa one expected. The directors state that the dis. trust which has prevailed during the period covered by the report with regard to companies doing business with Australasia, and especially during the latter part of '93 in respocb to New Zealand, has prejudicially affected the fortunes of the Company. To avoid making a call on the shareholders, and to strengthen the position in London, the directors requested the Antipodean Committee of Management to remit Home sufficient funds •to meet liabilities as they matured. This demand resulted in remittances amounting to £105,000 during the year. The directors regret the withdrawal of funds invested in New Zealand for the earning power of the business was thus crippled greatly at a time when rates Of interest were on the up track. The working of the year has resulted in a debit balance of £1,021 and sales of securities resulted in a loss of £2,833. To provide for these amounts £5,000 has been transferred from the re 4 serves to the profib and loss account, leaving £1i146 to be carried forward. The report winds up with a hope that as a better feeling towards colonial companies revives there will be a renewal of the confidence which shareholders and dobenbure-holders alike had in the Company for so many years. LORD CRANLEYLord Cranley, who has been reading with Mr J. L. Staart, M.A., at St. Raphael, since Christmas, has just passed his entrance examination at New College, Oxford. The authorities there were so well satisfied with his work, that the Master assured Lord Onslow there seemed every probability of his son proving an ornament to his college, and possibly even to the University aho. Lord Cranley does not go up to Oxford till the October term. Meanwhile he will spend some time at a French Pasteur's in Normandy, where Lord Amphill and other sprigs of the aristocracy are qualifying by studying modern languages for the diplomatic service. The scare which the insanitary condition of Government House, Wellington, and the consequent illnesses of Lord Cranloy, and other members of the household, gave the Countess of Onslow has made her ladyship an enthusiast, not to use the objectionable word " faddist," on sanitation, and wherever the family go nowthe drains, etc., are aearcbingly inquired into and, if necessary, overhauled. Otherwise their reminiscences of N.ew Zealand are very pleasant. Both Lord and Lady Onslow liked Auckland, Chrißtchurch and Dunedin immensely, and to this day they contrast New Zealandora generally moat favourably with the Australians they happened to meet. Lady Onslow told a friend of mine her husbaud was informally offered the Governorship of New South Wales, bub she insisted on hia refusing it, as she dialiked living long in one place, however good. MAJOR GEORGE. Major George and Mrs George, of Auckland, have arrived Home, and, like Sir Geo.Grey, are stopping at the Hotel Metropole. They voyaged from Australia to Marseilles by the Messageries steamer Polynesien (by which Mr Thos. Russell also travelled), and spent a month on the Continent before crossing to London. The Major's visit is this time wholly one of pleasure. He has, id ytiuV of 'course know, severed his connection with the Bank of New Zealand Estates Company, which he so successfully engineered for 18 months, and all other affairs of the kind. Moreover, he states emphatically that no inducement would persuade him to sit on the Board of a public company again. The conclusion he has come to after a goodish experience is that—to slightly modify Mr Gilbert— " A Director's lot is not a happy one." Either he has to trust implicitly to the facts, figures and conclusions of the officials and managing director, or he must satisfy himself personally things are alright, and as represented. If ho does the former he may wake up some fine morning to find himself in the same unhappy quandary Fergusson and Mundella are now. On the other hand, if he " wants to know," the officials of the Company ab once regard him as a personal enemy who is reflecting on their probity, and his position becomes almost untenable. "My experience," said Major George, " is that officials resent the faintest criticism or suggestion from a director. Yob one's responsibility is tremendous." Major and Mrs George remain in London for tho present. THE COLONIAL READING-ROOM. Thanks to the untiring efforts of the Agent-General, the colonial reading-room at the Imperial Institute is now an accomplished fact, Sir Fredk. Abel having set apart a special portion of the completed building fo; the purpose. All that remains is for the colonial newspaper proprietors to do their part, and send Home files of their dailies and weeklies to be laid on the tables and stands provided for them. The big Australian dailies have alroady, through their London offices, intimated their readiness to do this. They were long ago quite 'cute enough to perceive that, to secure the confidence of English advertisers, bhoy muab be en evidence wherever possible. Nob only do several of them give free copies to the Colonial Institute, the Imperial Institute, and two big public reading rooms, but they take care their papers are to be seen at the Metropole, the Victoria, the Savoy and other huge cosmopolitan caravauaerieß. I wish I could impress this admirable policy on the New Zealand press. It is not, if they could understand it, very reasonable to expect advertisers to take on trust the position and prestige of papers which have no visible existence at this side, and which even the colonial tourist can only see by hunting them out at the Govornmenb offices. No doubt things have greatly altered these last few months. Advertisers can now read or buy many of your leading journals ab the New Zealand Proas Agency, and, as a matter of fact—though it has only been open three months—canvaaeers and agents, etc., are constantly pawing over the files and asking questions innumerable. Most of bhemdon'b cometoanything, bubtime will beget confidence and alterbhis. The Sydney " Morning Herald," which was thefirst Australian daily to realise the desirability of exhibiting its existence to the London world, has reaped a splendid reward for it-eH and its weekly. For the matter of ttio Imperial Institute—from which I have strayed somewhat—ib is mosb desirable I\ bw Zealand should not hang behind Australia. Your Agent-General has been the initiator, promoter, almost creator of the scheme—acting as he believes both in the interests of newspaper proprietors and the colony generally, and it would be shabby indeed if the former were nob to back him up to the utmost of their ability. Files should be sent with an explanatory note requesting acknowledgment in the annual published proceedings of the Institute, tc Secretary of the Colonial Reading Room, Imperial Institute, London, S.W. ■FROZEN MEAT KIOSK. Tho question of how the Frozen Meal Kiosk at the Imperial Institute is to be kept) going this summer is causing the Agent-General a good dial of anxiout thought. The expense will be consider-

able, and, so far, the frozen meat importers (who, ib must be remembered, did a great deal last year) have not proposed to assist. Then there ie the question of the little bill for the kiosk. I was under the impression Sir Walter Buller had persuaded Mr Nekon to pay the whole, but ib seems the latter would go no further than a £250 cheque, which he gave at the time. There is, unfortunately, a big balance, such a big balance, indeed, that Sir Wesbby thinks the- price exorbitant, and has refused even to consider the amount. The builders, I understand, admit their account is heavy, bub urge their men worked nighb and day to have the kiosk' ready for the Royal visits, and the opening of which certainly was one of the most attractive features. I don't think myself that the colony should make any fuss about paying for the kiosk. A New Zealand court at the Imperial Institute without a display of frozen meat would have been absurd. Ib was, and is, a magnificent advertisement, and like mosb magnificent advertisements ib is expensive. THE REV. AUGUSTUS FRANCIS TOLLEMACHE. You will, no doubt, remember the Tollemache family in Now Zealand. The name came prominently before the public the other day by an inquiry before the Master of Lunacy into the state of mind of the Rev. Augustus Francis Tollemache, vicar of Whibwick, in Leicestershire. The inquiry was held ab the instigation of bis relatives and nexb of kin, who are inberested in his estate, which is said to be considerable. There was a strong Bar, and the case was heard before a jury. The evidence disclosed by several witnesses showed the mosb ludicrouß and exbravagant conduct on the part of the reverend gentleman. Attired in a dilapidated waterproof coat, and armed with an enormous ring—which he asserted waa a charm againsc ghosts—he was in the habit of cavorting round at nighb, wibh the objecb of exorcising an objectionable spook. He was in the habit of emphasising the salient points in his erratic sermons by blowing a policeman's whistle, which he also used with startling effect on the occasion of a burial service, finishing up with some sensational performances with a pick-axe. Another eccentricity was dietary experiments on an unfortunate horse, which he attempted to feed on lemons, and was greatly surprised and troubled when the animal resented the treatment. When his little idiosyncraciea took the form of punching the Bishop in the back, and dilating from the pulpit on the quality of a certain brand of stout as a beverage, the congregation and his friends, more particularly his heirs, became alarmed, and moved for an inquiry, which has resulted in a verdict to the effect that he is of unsound mind, and incapable of managing himself or hia affairs, and he lefb the court in the custody of an attendant. THE "INVESTORS' REVIEW." Australasian concerns have a very fai>" share of attention from Mr Wilson in this month's "Investors' Review." Ib is pleasing to note that all things Australasian are nob utterly rotten in his eyes. In a list of financial and investment companies he recommends to his readers as having behind them " some amount of substantial security " the following Australasian concerns, viz.:—Australian Mortgage Land and Finance four per cent, debenture stock, which ab its present price of 104, yields but £3 16s 9d per cent. ; Bank of New Zealand Estates five and a-half per cent, debentures, now at 107 and yielding £5 2s 9d; British and Australian Trust and Loan four and a-quarter per cent, perpetual debentures, standing ab par ; Scottish Australian Investment six per cent, guaranteed preferentials, five per cent, guaranteed preferential, and four per cent, perpetual debentures at 130,. 112, and par respectively; and the 5 per cenb. Cum. preferentials of the Trust aud Agency of Australasia. Mr Wilson, in criticising adversely the recently issued report of* the re-organised Commercial Bank of Australia. He has also some nasty remarks to make re the report for 1893 of the Australian and New Zealand Mortgage Company, Limited. He says it is meagre, and the balance-sheet "lacks essential debaila." In another place Mr Wilson attacks Australia viciously on humanitarian principles. He sermonises on the disastrous results to cattle and sheep of the late Queensland drought. "In overy part of Australia disasters of this kind are of constant occurrence, and some years the deaths of animals from lack of water number many millions. If anything could be more revolting than these deaths ib is bhe callousness with which they are accepted as part of the order of nature. Neither the colonists nor the people at Home over dream of thinkingthattheyhavedonewrongin thus covering arid waste with animals for whom there is neither food nor water in sufficient quantity one year in three ... Where half the human population of Australasia to die itself of hunger and thirst, it would be but an incomplete retribution for the perpetration of these gigantic crimes. Full of the habitation of horrid cruelty rhab sunbaked country certainly now is, cruelty the offspring of insatiable greed and money grubbing, of land-grabbing madness and the rutblesaness of the beast of prey. And we boast of our ' success' as colonisers !" Concerning the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile reconstruction, Mr Wilson has something to say. Mr Justice Williams, he coneiders, could come to no other conclusion than he did about the scheme, but " he made a much better fight for the out-in-thf> foirj creditors than they made for them ~.:?." The fact that the Judge felt _wu«d to let the company re-consti-tute itself removes none of the objections Mr Wilson has to this method of letting debtors off. Regarding the assertion made by counsel who supported bhe reconstruction, that if the scheme were not passed a business worth £300,000 a year would go to ruin, Mr Wilson remarks, " We have seen no evidence to prove that this estimate of the Company's profits is correct, so far, at any rate, as recent yoars are concerned. In the old days of high prices for Australian products, large commission profits of this magnitude may have been common, but the business will not permit them now. Relieved as the new Company will be from the compulsory payment of heavy interest on some 2£ millions of money, and provided as it is to be with about half a million of capital, it is, of course, in a better position to struggle against low price 3 than before the collapse last year." He cpnsiders the terms of reconstruction unduly favourable to tho shareholders.