OUR CANADIAN LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 78, 1 April 1905, Page 3

OUR CANADIAN LETTER.

* _-»poo Our Special Correspondent.) VANCOUVER, 8.C., March 3. A SAD CASE. Alone, friendless, ill Mrs. Nelington. described on the police records as of «^ eff Zealand," sought shelter at the station, Victoria, on Sunday night, and told a sad story to the inspector. She i •» 75 years old, and totally without j fajjds." She arrived at the British Columbia capital from San Francisco,; •hither she had come on a sailing ship fram New Zealand. When she landed at tlie American port from the Island Colony she had £25 in cash, but she lost the nioney at the Golden Gate. She not know if it was stolen. She game to Victoria to see if she could find jjer cousin, Mrs. Barnes, wife of a ship carpenter, failing which the £25 was to tie used to take her home to England. where relatives of her late husband, Captain Nelington. live. Failing to fad Mrs. Barnes she walked the streets 0 f Victoria for several hours, and then sought the police. They decided that the"best they could do for her was to send her back to San Francisco, where she might be able to recover her little hoard of sovereigns. She was placed on the steamer and went south, a pathetic figure. She said she had never known want before, and declared that her late iusband was an army captain, who had teen stationed for eleven years in In-1 . dia. NEW ZEALAND BUTTER IN CANADA. Butter from New Zealand seems to be a curious product to hiring to a great agricultural country like Canada, but Gmm, Langlois. and Co., of Montreal, have been negotiating for some for Eastern Canadian consumption, and say they are quite prepared to handle it on any terms that do not involve an actual loss. "A house with a large local business li_3 ours cannot afford to turn away regular customers," said Mr. Langlois to a Montreal reporter, "so we must have butter to supply them somehow. This New Zealand butter is subject to sis cents, duty, and cannot possibly be laid down here at less than 28 cents. (Is 2d), so you see we are not looking for any particular profits. We want to accommodate our customers, and that is all there is to it." The particular NewZealand butter that is available at this writing for the present Montreal stringency is, of course, some in storage at Liverpool. So far as can be found, out no butter from New Zealand has been seen in Eastern Canada before. The stringency is confined to the east of the continent. HEIR TO AN AUSTRALIAN ESTATE. Eastern Canadian newspapers publish another "heir to an Australian estate" story, which is somewhat vague and wanting in detail. They say that J. W. Hunter, of Neepewa, Manitoba, has just sailed for England under the belief that he is one of 67 heirs to a lortune of £13,000,000. left by his grandMher's brother who ''made his money in Australia and Liverpool." Mrs. R. Hunter, of Brussels, Ontario, also claims to be an heir. Rather more likely is the quest of John Farrell, also of Neepewa, Man. Some time ago an advertisement appeared in the "Preston Record," inquiring the whereabouts of Farrell, and saying that his brother had just died, leaving him a fortune of £44.000, "made in gold-mining and sheep" ranching in Australia." A lawyer named H. V. Fieldhouse has gone to I England to hunt up the matter for John Farrell. TIMBER FOR AUSTRALIA. After having- been stranded oh the beach near Bellingham, Wash., for nearly a month, the ship Carleton, Captain McLeod, has loaded lumber at the Bellingham Bay Improvement Company's mill for Australia, having taken on 1,500.000 feet. Captain MeLeod says the Carleton was not severely damaged, and has been repaired, so that "she will stand the gales of several years yet." j The Carleton is one of the oldest wooden | vessels on the Pacific. It is noted as rather curious that, though a number of vessels have loaded I at Amereian mills for Australia, ports of late, no vessels have come to British' Columbia ports recently to get lumber for the Antipodes. It is suggested that * chance for intercolonial trade is being neglected. A POPULAR AUTHOR. Two years ago, after a tour of Australia and New Zealand, Vincent Harper got off the Canadian-Australian liner at Victoria "to have a look round the town for a couple of hours while the steamer remained at that port, en route to Vancouver. He is 'at Victoria yet, and he I has become one of the most prominent Writers of fiction on this continent. Short stories from his pen appear in all the leading magazines, and his first novel is to be published next month. It will be called "The Mortgage on the Brain." He lives in a modest cottage on the outskirts of the city, which he has I called "The Shack o' Dreams." "I expected to be in this city but a couple of hours; I have been here a couple of _ear 3," he said to an interviewer the other day. "I was returning from New Zealand and Australia, and was booked through to London when, with other passers, I took advantage of the steam- « 3 short stop here to look around Victoria, and lam still here. I thought 1 had seen the loveliest bit of water in J «c world when we sailed down Sydney uarbour and out between the majestic tteaas,' but I changed mv mind the aorning we steamed up the Strait of Juan de Fuea, and saw the superb "•ympics glistening in the sunlight, and I j jT matchless rocky heads of Vancouver land, with their stately evergreen sen™Wl firs and pines. After several y»" knocking about the South Seas, r°» the delicious erispness of the air ■«c felt like a tonic. You Victorians We the ( jewel spot of the Empire, but--7 don't you burn down your hideous j °°«d f eneeg! and give the "town a bap- | «a or fresh paint?"