ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 8, 11 January 1899, Page 2

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

{ '(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, December 2. j [EICTORLI COLLEGE PROFESSOR- | i SHIPS. . I hear that there will be very keen j competition for the professorships at j the Victoria College. The reports of ! "the referees on the qualifications of ! the candidates have been received and j a meeting of what I may call the j hoard of advice will be held very soon j to interview candidates and decide j finally on the recommendations to be j made to the Colonial Board. Strange i to say there is no chemist amongst the . rreferees, although one of the profes- \ sors is to teach that subject. The ! selectors will have to decide eventually, I fancy, between brilliancy of attainments and capacity and experience as a teacher, as in several instances one candidate can show an exceptionally brilliant University career and original literary or research work combined with but a small experience of teaching, while his rival, although bis learning be sound, has a record xather as a teacher than as a scholar. STrom what I know of New Zealand University Colleges I believe that what the Victoria College really requires is a staff of men who are a cross between the University tutor and the professor in whom soundness of learning and proved ability to teach and inspire students with enthusiasm will be preferred before mere brilliancy and Originality, however great, but at the Same time who must be something more than the mere teacher. They jnust have their hearts in the work, be prepared to make the polony their Some, and be men of character and i tact, capable of working in harmony "with each other and their governing JBoard —no light matter in the colony —-and of sufficiently wide learning to he able to a large extent to direct the educational policy of their college. a\t is not easy for English educationalists to appreciate exactly what stamp of man is required for a coloJhial professor, and so it has not infrequently happened that men with brilliant University careers and highly eulogistic testimonials have failed lamentably in New Zealand because they either had not the capacity of imparting their knowledge to others or because they lacked the tact necessary in dealing with envious colleagues or irritating boards. The Victoria Board has a heavy responsibility on its shoulders for to a large meaiure on its selection depends the question w;hether Victoria College is to be a seat of light and learning or a liucleUs of envy, hatred and all unCharitableness. No doubt profiting by past experience they will attach even more importance to the recommendations as to the character of the men than to their testimonials which, as .we all know; are very often most misleading —to put it mildly. Several leaders in educational circles here have been expressing regret to me at the tendency in New Zealand to give professors fixed salaries without fees. ■There is no doubt that good men are far'more likely to settle in the colony if. they know there is a prospect of increasing their income by increasing the numbers of their classes, and I feel sure that £500 t and half or even quarter fees would prove a greater 'draw on this side than, say, £600 Certain -without the possibility of an 'fflclreaise. In any case I believe that the four or five names that are likely toiM recommended'by the referees for each appointment will be those of thoroughly reliable and capable men. This 'educational' branch of ir t Agent - General's office has increased very largely of late years, and is add-'•ing-largely to the work of the by no means leisured staff. Educational institutions and local bodies in the colony hardly realise the amount of labour that is entailed in advertising, ■writing, to candidates and referees, arranging appointments, corresponding ctfd cabling with the colonies. In fact, what with statues for cities, dredges for harbour boards, professors for colleges, engineers for towns .and ova for acclimatisation boards and the like, a large amount of work is ■being thrown upon the Agent-Gener-al's office in London, which, although it Oan be quite properly and most efficiently transacted through the office, can hardly be termed Governmental and ought scarcely to be carried out at the expense of the Government. In the multiplicity of services, it renders to all colonial bodies, individuals and industries, the amount and 'accuracy of information on the colony it spreads about the Kingdom and affords to the numerous enquirers as ■ to the advantages of the colony as a 'field for settlement and investment, the New Zealand Office is a model to the offices of all the other colonies, -which, by the way, not infrequently - send up te it to enquire how it manages a particular thing. I should :be setry, therefore, to see anything but an increase of private and municipal business transacted through the Agent-General's office, which can manage things more promptly and efficiently than any private individual or agent; but at the same time I think thWryou* legislators—'when they have a few moments to spare between their investigations into personal allega- ' iipns connected with 'Totties' and 'the !H&*tfcen Chinee' — might ,profitably consider whether municipal and educational bodies should not pay your . Govternment something for the services it renders them through the AgentGeneral.

PUBLIC OPINION ON NEW ZEA-

LAND ARBITRATION.

Tairplay' does not like New Zealand Arbitration. In a lengthy disquisition on Sir Edward Fry's article in the *Law Magazine' on Compulsory Arbitration it says:—• •Sir Edward regards the legislation {New Zealand) as experimental, and _as not calculated to remove or even to shake the commonsense objections to compulsory arbitration which render the process impossible on this . side. He shows how the laws, which he regards as one-sided, may be worked to the injury of the eirfployer, and he seeks in vain for anything in the Act which would avert this kind of injustice. He also dounts whether one effect of the Act may not tie to driv6 capital from the colony. On this last point I may venture'to remark that there is no room whatever for doubt. The Act has already driven capital from the colony. It could not well do otherwise, seeing that under the system of universal suffrage, which includes even the girls that sew up the bagging of the frozen meat, a candidate who wishes to be returned to Parliament must undertake to throw all burdens! on -property, exempting labour. x The effect in many cases has been confiscation pure and. simple, without, however, producing —so far—the disastrous results to the colony which Bright have been anticipated. The reason is not far to seek. The colony *« purely pastoral. It has no manu-

factures of any importance. Mutton and wool are its chief exports, and whether 10,000 sheep are the property of one large squatter or of ten small ones, the produce is the same. As it is easier to find ten small capitalists than one large one, the tendency is to reduce the size of the i holdings, and the present legislation j suits that arrangement well enough. | The pinch will come when the small men wish to grow bigger, and to increase their stake in proportion to their savings, a state which will necessitate their employment of labour which, as beginners, they now do j ! without. That day, however, is not j | yet, and in the meantime those who , quote New Zealand labour legislation as j i a model of all the virtues will do well j Ito remember that New Zealand legis- j lators have had in some cases a re- j cord calculated to cast doubt on the I purity of any body of which they may form part. And that is putting it very mildly.' THE DREDGE 'MANCHESTER.' The dredge 'Manchester,' which was recently purchased through the Agent-General for the Lyttelton Harbour Board, was recently, while in the Ellesmere port of the Manchester Ship Canal, run into by the Cork Steamship Company's Lestris, and slightly damaged in the bulwarks. The Cork Company is making good the damage, and the Manchester will be ready for sea at the end of the month, when she will leave via the Suez Canal and King George's Sound for Lyttelton. NEW ZEALAND LOAN AND MERCANTILE AGENCY. A very depressed body of men met together at Winchester House on Tuesday last to listen to Mr Edward I Martin's lugubrious statement on the present position and future prospects of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency. In moving the adoption of the report, the chairman expressed regret that the result of the year's working showed a debit of £4,516, which, with the debit balance brought from the previous year, made a total deficiency of £6,783. This was largely due to the drought in Australia and the cold and wet weather which interfered with pastoral operations in New Zealand, but at the present moment prospects both there and in Australia were more favourable than they were last year, though it would take some time to recover from the effects of successive lean years. The most important points in the balance-sheet were an increase in cash of £39,439, and an advance in wool and produce of £80,807, or £120,000 additional liquid assets over those in the last balancesheet, affording perhaps the best evidence against the likelihood of a call being made. On the other hand, the adverse point was that the gross revenue had fallen from £231,350 in 1897 to £196,610 in 1898, a reduction of £34,740, arising from a decrease in the revenue received from properties held by the company and in the amount of commission and interest earned. Some discussion followed on various points of the chairman's speech. Mr Neville, a former resident in New Zealand, said that what was wanted was the payment of a dividend, however small, which would, satisfy the colonists that the company was really out of its troubles. He also thought that the trustees' certificates representing the losses'of the old company were a bar to the payment of dividends, and were in themselves worthless. The chairman agreed with this view to some extent, but pointed out that at the time of the reconstruction these certificates were necessary. He wish- ' ed some means could be devised of ■ dealing with them. Ultimately, the report -was adopted. THE P. AND 0. REPORT. Despite the run of bad luck culminating in the China wreck which the P. and O. Company has encountered, the directors are able to present an ' excellent report to shareholders. The net surplus for the" year, including £7779 brought forward, amounts to £180,604, which, after, deducting the terim dividend, at the rate of, 2| per cent., on the preferred, and 3£ on the deferred stock, paid in June last, ad- ' mits payment of a further 2J per cent, on the preferred, and 6£ per cent, onthe deferred stocks, and leaves a bal- : ance o* £ 6604* as a nest egg for the ensuing year. Concerning the China, the directors are able to report that the extensive temporary repairs necessary to enable tha vessel to be brought home are nearing completion, and they anticipate that she will shortly continue her homeward trip, steaming with her own machinery. On arrival the China is to be placed in the hands of her builders, Messrs Harland and Woolf, of Belfast, and it is confidently expected that they will be able to re- . store her in every way to the state and efficiency of a new vessel.

THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY,

We are all more or less Imperialists nowadays, so it is possible that the scheme propounded by the 'Times' for calling the reformed London University 'Imperial' and housing it at the Imperial Institute will meet with very general approval. The ca^e as set forth by the 'Times' is that on the one hand the Institute is in distress, and'wants relief, and on the other hand the Government desires to eject the University from its present quarters in Burlington. Gardens. Those quarters, it may be said, would in any .case be entirely inadequate to the needs of the University when its metamorphosis is completed, and one looks in vain for more suitable building and site in the metropolis than the Institute, which is in itself splendidly capacious, and is environed by three acres of vacant land on which laboratories and class rooms can be erected. It is said that the Prince of Wales favours the 'Times'' scheme, and this one can well believe, since it would relieve him and his colleagues of the responsibility of maintaining what the 'Daily News' aptly terms a 'costly futility.' The Government also favours the scheme which would enable them to house the .University suitably at a comparatively cheap price. The proposition is in some respects decidedly attractive and will doubtless receive every consideration.

THE ALL RED CABLE

The 'Daily News' is much distressed at the dilatoriness of the Imperial Government in'thematterof that much discussed 'AH Red' cable, to Australasia. Last session, it says, Mr Chamberlain was understood to be waiting for the views of the Australian Governments, but what is he waiting for now that New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and New Zealand have agreed to find four-ninths of the money required? The 'News'' query is easily answered. Mr Chamberlain is waiting for the views of the treasury, or rather for a change of the Treasury view, which seems to be that the 'All Red' cable is not a thing of such vital im-j

portance to the Empire either commercially or strategically as to justify them in guaranteeing a third of the problematical cost of construction. If it be true that the Americans are about to lay a cable from San Francisco to Manila, via Hawaii, with a branch to Pago-Pago, in Samoa and

thence to Australia, that fact so far from influencing the Treasury folk to change their views is more likely to cause them to look with still more unfriendly eyes upon the 'All Red' project. For the American-Australian connection will from a commercial point of view render the CanadianAustralian cable more or less a superfluity, whilst at the same time it will provide the alternative to the Eastern route so much desired (say the 'All

Red' votaries) by commercial Australasia. This leaves the 'All Red' project with only the strategical leg- to stand on, and the question whether this limb is particularly sound is still under debate among military and naval experts. ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION. The Joint Committee of the Royal and Royal Geographical Societies are' making desperate effort^ to obtain public subscriptions towards the cost of the proposed British expedition to the South Pole in 1000. The cost of this little trip to the Antarctic regions will, it seems, approximate £150,000, aud so far rather less than £15,000 has been subscribed, the appeal to the patriotic feelings of the Home public having fallen rather flat. An attempt is to be made to interest Antipodeans in the movement. Sir Clements Markham, the President of the Royal Geographical Society, is addressing the presidents of the various Australasian Geographical and other scientific societies, asking their co-operation with the Joint fcommitt.ee in endeavouring to obtain support for the expedition. He hopes that in this way not only wealthy Australians, but the Governments of the various colonies, may be induced io contribute substantially to the funds required to equip 'an expedition worthy of the Empire.' Australia, Sir Clements avers, is more interested than any other part, of the world in the results which may be secured by an adequately equipped expedition, and expresses a pious hope that the other Australasian colonies will follow the example of New Zealand, which is understood to be prepared to put up £5000. In his appeal to the great B.P. Sir Clements says:—'A German Antarctic expedition will be despatched in 1900 with naval officers, and well equipped in every respect. But the work to be done is very extensive, and must be divided. My German friends, therefore, hope that a. British expedition will co-operate with them, agreeing to take separate regions within the Antarctic circle. This is expected of us. If we hold back our country will lose credit. For the first time in our history we shall shamefully resign our proud position so long held in the forefront of exploration and discovery. I appeal to the patriotic feeling of all true Britons, and especially to those, among my countrymen who possess the power which great wealth supplies.' Mr Alfred Harmsworth has responded to this eloquence with £5000.

MR RUTHERFORD'S BANKRUPTCY.

Mr John S. Rutherford, of Auckland, whose unfortunate partnership with Mr Jonathan Seaver landed him in the Bankruptcy Court, has passed the Carey Street ordeal with flying colours. His whitewashing was completed on Tuesday last, when Mr Registrar Linklater granted him an unconditional discharge. Mr Rutherford, as you may remember, attributed his.failure entirely to his liability to the Union Bank of Australasia, the petitioning creditors, on a joint account with Seaver, who, as he alleged, during his (bankrupt's) absence from England created an overdraft of £4,936, for. which the bankrupt was subsequently held liable. The official receiver reported that proofs to the amount of £5,004 had been lodged, that the asfets had realised £3 only, and the trustee and petitioning creditors opposed the application for discharge, the latter on the grounds that Rutherford had frivolously and vexatiously defended the Union Bank's action. The Registrar, however, held that the latter offence had not been proved, and adopted the view that Mr Rutherford was not responsible for the existing deficiency in his assets. It was obvious, he said, that Mr Seaveft did not think that his action would render Mr Rutherford liable to the bank, and that Seaver had no right to make his partner liable in that way. Under these circumstances, he was of opinion that Mr Rutherford was entitled to the benefit of the saving clause of the Act, and his application for an immediate and unconditional discharge would therefore be granted.

EAURANUI-CALEDONIAN GOLD MINING.

The report of the directors of the Kauranui - Caledonian Gold Mining Company for the year ended 30th September last, to be submitted at the 1 ordinary general meeting to be held in London on December 20th, states that since the meeting of shareholders held on 30th July the greater part of • the mine has been let on tribute, and the expenses of the Company have been reduced as much as possible. Very little crushing has, therefore, been done, the total value of gold won during the period covered by the account's being £717. Nine parties of tributers are at w-ork, but none of them so far have struck anything rich. During the year Messrs. Cowie and Walmsley have resigned their seats on the Board, and the total remuneration of the directors has been reduced to £150 per annum. UNITED NEW ZEALAND EXPLORATION. The report of the directors of the United New Zealand Exploration to 30th June last, to be submitted to the ordinary general meeting, to be held in London next week, states that since the last general meeting the 60-stamp mill at the Moanataiari mine has been completed, and crushing commenced in the month of February last.The results, however, proved disappointing, the value of the developed ore being much lower than was anticipated. The mill was, therefore, shut down and developments continued. Recent advices have beeu much more satisfactory, rich ore having been met With in the Cambria section, a -trial crushing of 100 tons from this portion of the mine yielded gold to the value of £6/10 per ton. The development of the May Queen mine has proceeded systematically, and with satisfactory results. Crushings during the past year of ore extracted during development of the Cardigan mine have proceeded satisfactorily. The reports -from Kirwan's Reward, Reefton, indicate that this is likely to develop into a property of great value. During the past year

options on a large number of properties have been abandoned, aud all expenditure in connection with them has ceased, and the establishment expenses in New Zealand have been considerably reduced.