ARRIVAL OF THE S.S. ALAMEDA WITH THE ENGLISH MAIL (VIA SAN FRANCISCO).

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 85, 12 April 1899, Page 3

ARRIVAL OF THE S.S. ALAMEDA WITH THE ENGLISH MAIL (VIA SAN FRANCISCO).

PERSONAL NOTES.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, March 11

Mr Lewis H. Harrison, sometime Rabbi of Dunedin, has been declared bankrupt by Registrar Linklater, at the instance of Messrs Hick, Martin, and Drydale, of Portland House, Basinghall street and Dunedin, and is to undergo the ordeal of public examination on Thursday next. Mr Harrison seems to have commenced business operations as the Colonial Trading Company somewhere in Houndsditch. ' Failing to 'make a do' under this style and title, the ex-Rabbi retired to the more salubrious district of Norwich, and there set up in business as the Eastern Counties Furnishing Company (I am not positive as to the- title, but think this is somewhere near the mark). Apparently the exigencies of. the hire purchase system proved too much for Harrison's banking account, for quite recently he was said to be managing a rag, bone and metal business somewhere in Norfolk. The true history of his doings at Home will, however, be made known next Thursday. So far nothing is known as to the full extent of his liabilities. The publication of the fact that Messrs Hick, Martin's application to have Harrison declared bankrupt had been acceded to brought inclaims to upwards of £2,400, but I am not sure that this includes the sums owing by the debtor to the National Bank of New Zealand and the Bank of New Zealand, who, I hear, are in for £800 and £350 respectively. Probably a little more publicity will .add considerably to Harrison's liabilities. As to^assets, no one seems to know anything, for up to last evening the bankrupt had not even filed his position or produced any accounts. As manager of the rag- and hone business it is said his salary was £2 per week. I may mention by the way that Mr Harrison is said to be the first Rabbi who has ever found himself the. subject of bankruptcy proceedings.

The Agent-General was the chief speaker at a large meeting held in Birmingham on the 3rd in favour of .arbitration as a means of settling labour disputes. The Mayor of Birmingham presided, and amongst those present were the Bishop of Hereford, who also spoke, the Bishop of Coventry, Mr R. P. Yates (chairman of the Birmingham Conciliation Board),.and the President and Secretary of the Birmingham Trades Council. Mr Reeves gave a clear and impartial account of the Arbitration Act and its working in New Zealand. On the motion of Mr Yates, a resolution was carried that 'this meeting earnestly hopes that its Outcome will be the advancement of the principle.of arbitration as a means of avoiding strikes and lock-outs.'

The 'Birmingham Post,' Mr Chamberlain's organ, devotes a leader to the subject, in which it says that Mr Reeves 'who entered into the subject very fully last night, is doing a very real and acceptable service in making its effects (of the N.Z. system) known in this country. For although the fixing of wages by the State is for us the very last suggestion that our economic -history would recommend, the evils of labour disputes are so real, so urgent, and so prevailing, that we must consider every possibility of a solution.' .; . . . 'Mr Reeves,' it said, 'described with great lucidity the working of his own act in New Zealand, and was very candid in stating the objections as well as. the advantages of the system.'- At the same time the 'Post' fails to see how any court can settle the fundamental question of what is a 'fair wage,' and believes that 'neither in New Zealand nor elsewhere can the law force the workman to labour or the master to pay wages.' It concludes by saying that 'for voluntary arbitration' there is probably a great field of usefulness in our industrial polities, but in compulsory variant it is difficult to detect, either merit or variability.'

Mr D. Tallerman, the originator of the famous 'mutton duek'-cum-hot pie method of utilizing the less saleable portions of frozen meat (his scheme doesn't appear to be in active operation yet, by the way), has jnst come to the rescue of the ordinary stockholders in the Millwall Dock, whose dividends for many-years to come have been jeopardized by the faithlessness of the chairman of directors and certain of his subordinates. The unhappy stockholders are invited by Mr Tallerman to deposit their certificates for lodgment with a bank as- a collateral marginal security to cover drafts against consignments of cattle, sheep and pigs to be shipped from Ireland and landed at the dock. In the first instance the trust is to be limited to the deposit of 1000 . stock certificates of the nominal value of £100 each, a number which it is estimated will permit of the- weekly importation of 500 cattle, 500 sheep arid 500 . pigs during three. months. A working1 arrangement is to be formed with Tallerman, Limited, and the British and Irish Cattle Corporation, Limited, who will conduct the commercial portion of the business, and will divide commissions with the new trust, until the ordinary stock embodied therein has received a five per cent, dividend, including any payment made by the Dock Company. The scheme reflects great credit upon the resourcefulness of its. very original' originator, but I'm afraid the stockholders will fight shy of trying to recoup their losses by speculating in live meat, even under the guidance of so great a commercial genius as Mr D. Tallerman. .

The last personally conducted expedition in which Mr J. M. Cook (the head of the great tourist agency) will ever play a prominent part took place on Wednesday, when his remains were conveyed to Leicester and buried in the family vault. With his biography we have dealt elsewhere, but I thought I would add here one or two personal items of possible interest to Australians. Mr Cook was on board the Victoria last year when the writer happened to be outward bound to Adelaide. Every passenger from Lord Loch downwards took a great deal of interest in this remarkable man, and when he gravitated to the smoking-room a full house quickly

resulted. Unfortunately, a trifling mistake befell regarding his personality. Mr" Cook had an energetic, voluble little man of about his own age with him —a Cjrptain Winter, or some name like that. Whether they wero travelling together I don't know; anyhow they were seldom apart. • Who started the blunder doesn't matter (being specially addicted to such felicitous betises, it was probably I), but we mistook Cook for Winter and Winter for Cook. The error was the more excusable as Winter was as full as an egg of talk about Egypt and the Nile, and so forth, whereas Mr Cook sat grim and taciturn, puffing solemnly at a black pipe. The Nile steamers were known to be crowded, and lots of our company wanted accommodation badly. These paid assiduous attention to the (as they supposed) omnipotent Cook. Of course the wicked Winter well understood what had occurred, but neither he nor Cook undeceived anybody till Brindisi. There the former departed, and the mistake was discovered. ' After that Mr Cook did not honour the smokingroom so frequently. Though we didn't get much out of 'King Cook' himself, there was naturally a good deal of gossip on board about him, his firm's success, and the making thereof.' A superintendent of the P. and 0. who crossed from Brindisi to Port Said in the steamer enthused on the extraordinary gift which all the Cook family have for reading character and selecting suitable subordinates. I subsequently did most of my travelling business in Australasia, New Zealand, America, and Canada through Cook's firm, and I was. struck with the justice of the encomium. Even in the most out-of-the-way places one found a patient, smiling, courteous, ever-anxious-to-be-useful Cook's man. And patience they do require. The extent to which the gentle tourist thinks he has a right to worrit a Cook's man passes belief. Never shall I forget the pqsitivelv angelic behaviour of Cook's agent at Rotorua. Each night the delicate looking fellow, came over to Mr Nelson's comfortable hotel at Whakarewarewa to try and make up _ excursion parties, etc., and each night he received a maximum of chaff and 'roasting' in return for a minimum of orders. We had nothing else to do, so the agreeable baiting process went on for an hour or two. But I never saw Cook's man lose his temper or fail to capture business in the end. He was a splendid fellow, and I fear -^-from what I heard locally—not overpaid. Cook's agen in Auckland is also a good example of their best men (courteous, informative, business-like and divinely patient), and in America they are everywhere wonderfully well served. .......

The fact that the Cape, the credit of which stands remarkably high in London, which some eighteen months or so ago floated a loan at £102/5s has lately had to fix the minimum at £97, and been able to obtain only £97/2/3, shows clearly the unfavourable state of the market for Colonial borrowing just now. The result of the Cape ' loan 'should convince New Zealanders that their Agent-General raised his little lot on remarkably good terms.

A writer in the Dundee ' Advertiser' suggests that some of the Home trawlers should try their fortune on the Australian or New Zealand coasts, as there is probably no industry so neglected in the Australasian colonies.

* Land and Water' continues its long article on the acclimatisation of Salmonidae in New Zealand, and thinks that the difficulty of getting the smolt to return to the rivers after his first visit to the sea would be at an end if the smolt could only be induced to stay in the .fresh water till it was big enough to take care'of itself.

The dredge ' Manchester . is still in Waterford, and there seems still to be some doubt whether the . authorities Willi insist on repairs to her before she leaves. The Agent-General's office has had a lot of trouble over her but hopes to despatch her on her voyage again before long. .'•.:-

Mr Charles Philips Trevelyan, who recently toured New, Zealand and the Australian colonies, has just been elected Radical member for the Ellarid division of the West Riding of Yorkshire. He defeated the Unionist candidate, Mr P. S. Foster, by a majority of 985. Mr Trevelyan, who is a strong debater, and during the contest canvassed energetically and visited all the hills and dales.of his constituency, of which Halifax is the headquarters, had a most enthusiastic reception on the declaration of the result of the poll.

Guy's Hospital team, which includes some New Zealand representatives, defeated the London Hospital by 3 tries to nil last Wednesday, and thus won the Hospital Rugby cup.

If Mr Thomas Robert James Smith, who left England for New Zealand in or abont the year 1874, and was last heard of at Christchurch, is still in the land of the.living, he should place himself in communication with Messrs George Brown, Son and Vardy, solicitors, of 56 Finsbury Pavement. Mr Smith, it seems, is' entitled to a sharp in an estate which must be claimed within three years of December Bth, 1898, or will be distributed among other persons named'in the testator's will.

Mr Henniker Heaton, whose strong points include a passionate attachment to the grand old game of chess, is at present arranging a series of contests between the Legislatures of England and America. Mr Heaton has for some time been chairman of the Parliamentary Chess Committee, but talks of resigning the office.

According to the organ of fashion, the ' Morning Post,' Lord Hopetotm, the hew Lord Chamberlain, has won golden opinions for his management of the first Drawing Room and Levees under his control. It was no easy .thing to succeed Lord La thorn, but it seems that the Government made a very happy choice.

Mr H. B. Marriott-Watson is at present experiencing some of the inconveniences which may result from being unduly obliging and confiding in financial matters. During the period of the Westralian. boom, when company promoting was the rage, and everybody turned everything into a 'snug little affair amongst a few of us,' Mr Harrison Davis, who was badly bitten with the prevailing craze, hit on the ingenious notion of extracting a bonanza from his wife's play 'For So Little.' /The plot of the piece turn-r ed'on an insurance fraud, and as a slip-slop amateur effort it was not bad. The Davis' believed firmly their drama would entrance the provinces, and they formed a, small limited lia-

,ii' i .ii i ' tf bility company wherewith to xais* cash to run an extensive tour. M . Watson was invited to become a director. He respectfully declined, but his friends would not accept his refusal* They persuaded, exhorted, implored,. At length, merely to get rid of the subject, Mr Watson gave a sort of qualified assent. He thought no more of the matter till one afternoon Mr Davis' clerk came round with a cheque for £ 500 for him to sign. 'What's . this?' asked the novelist, aghast. 'Oh!' said the youth, Tm secretary of the Governor's dramatic company, and you're a director, and this is the money to start the "biz" with, don't you know.' 'The dickens it is,' said Watson; 'well, I'm not a directory can't be, for I've never qualified nor paid a stiver for a share, nor attended a board meeting. You must takb your cheque elsewhere.' But the secretary said he couldn't. Watson was the only director available. The theatrical company were waiting at Newcastle for money, ami had to move ou first thing in the morning. If they, broke their engagements the entire venture would be 'crabbed,' and lawsuits involved.. The situation was serious. Poor M£ Watson found himself in a dreadful dilemma. If he, signed the cheque he gave himself away; if he refused he spoilt his friend's project. Ultimately he hit on the expedient of signing 'under protest,' and then to make all things sure for the future, sat down and resigned every sort and description of connection with 'For, So Little,' Limited. Once again the trivial incident slipped out of his mind. A few days ago, however, he found himself cited to appear at the Bankruptcy Court, and to explain the collapse of the company of which he'^ never even so much as heard. j Protesting his absolute ignorance of the entire venture, and .urging that he never had been a director of the company, Mr Watson hied him to Sir Geo. Lewis, but when that astute lawyer heard of the signing of the cheque he shook his head. How the matter will end remains to be seen, but even the most fortunate issue must involve Mr Watson in a heap of trouble, anxiety, and expense. The case is a pregnant warning to good-natured men.