ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 136, 9 June 1909, Page 2

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

gFrcm Our Special Correspondent.)

LOXDOX, April 30. Tha fire on the >sew Zealand Shipping Company's steamer Papanui, at the Victoria Dock last Wednesday, nas a mysterious affair. Nobody knows how it broke out. The steajner was laid up B.Z the tune, the Wakanui, which sailed last work, having taken up her running to New Zealand for this trip. The Papanui was in the lay-up dock, popularly j known to dockside folk as "Rotten \ How." and h;id neither cargo nor erew 1 on board. The fire broke ouifc at 3.30 j in the morning in one of the berths in j the thiivl-elasi extension. Some assist- j ant; from the P. a-nd O. steamer Honda, | lying close by, came to the rescue, and j r.ith their aid and the subsequent | iflp uf the tire brigade, the | fin; -was, put out by six o'clock. The' Company's Marine Superintendent was promptly on the spot and directed the operations. A good deal of the ■woodwork was destroyed, and the damage j 6a? been stated to be £1000 worth, but an officer of the company informed mc this morning that this figure was pure guesswork. I'ntil the eabin3 have been thoroughly overhauled it is impossible to say how much of the wood-work will have to be replaced. "The origin of the £re," be added, "'is quite inexplicable. There was no lire in the engine-room at the ti.'ue, nor anywhere else on board."' The Papanui i=. a steamer of 6552 toils, built in IS9B and valued at .£ 58,000. Tha present prosecutions at Glasgow over Xew Zealand boneless meat have had an interesting sequel. The. Glasgow Health Committee some little time ago received a joint deputation of fleshers and provision merchants on "the subject or meat inspection, on which occasion Mr H. R- Brechin, ex-President of the Federation, was spokesman, for the United Fleshers' Society. In the course of his remarks 3!r Brechin referred to two of the seizures in'fhe meat market, and said it was a remarkable coincidence that they were made on the afternoon of the day on "which, interdict "was granted in. the Court of Session to restrain 3Jr Trotter, the chief inspector, from destroying 48S cases of Xew Zealand boneless beef belonging to Messrs Cald-

well, iviiieh he, 2lr Trotter, had condemned, but which were subsequently pronounced to be soundj -with one exception. Founding upon the expressions then used by >Ir Brechin, Mr Trotter ias instructed his legal advisers to demand from Mr Brechin a retraction of the -words, a public apology, and that he shall contribute a reasonable sum to such charities in the city as Mr Trotter may namej otherwise they are instructed to raise an action against him in the Court of Sessions for substantial damages for slander. "Mr Brechin," says the

"Meat Trades Journal," "was given four days in which to replyi four minutes sufficed, and if his reply ever comes lo l>e read in Court, it -will without doubt contribute hugely to the gaiety ©i Purliumenx House."

The Xew Zealand butter-makers, in eoinninii with some other colonial producers, have "been gradually raising the amount of moisture in their butters, until at- the present time samples -which fall appreciably below the 16 per cent limit, promises to be the exception rather than the nJe. Commenting on tills feature the "Grocer" observes: ""There are experts who argue that a butter containing 10 per cent moisture cannot be of as good quality as a butter containing 13 per cent, as 'the conditions which obtain to produce a 10 per cent moisture butter are such that it is almost impossible properly to amalgamate the moisture with fattty components, and so we have the conditions of free moisture/ so much the bugbear of graders. ... It is an incontrovertible fact, scientifically and practically, that a butter containing 13 or 14 per cent moisture properly amalgamated, is a finer and better-keeping article than a butMr containing 9 or 10 per cent, not properly amalgamated -with the fatty solids ox the butter.' Be that as it mar, the point we wish to emphasise is that while no objection would, or could be raised to 13 or 14 per cent or moisture if our Xew Zealand friends desired to observe that standard, any attempts to work close up to the 16 per cent limit are not unattended by risk, and will not in the long run promote the expansion and prosperity of the butter industry."

At the thanksgiving service held at Hanley m connection with tie Selwyn centenary a few nights ago, the Rev. Prebendary Waters paid a reverent and fervent tribute to the memory of Bishop fcelwyn. George Augustus Sehvyn, he said, had the zeal of St. Paul and the tenderness of St. Barnabas. A born leader of men, he attracted by the force of his beautiful character men of varied gift* of graces. He was a stmnger to all double dealing, and his mind and conscience recoiled from all those devices ■which not a iew men are not ashamed to resort to. Though educated in the most expensive and aristocratic school in England, he lived in the simplest and plainest way, and often, in order to help some work of the Church, he would deny himself of those things which many looked upon as almost "necessaries of their lives. Yet with all this he was, in the truest sense of the word, given to hospitality. In a very marked'degree he had the courage of his opinions. X 6 one ever feared God more or man less .than he did. Yet with all his vigour and all his boldness and outspokenness, he was so gentle in the use of language that when after his death hundreds of his letters were read with a view to their publication in his meaarfr. there was not found a single sentence it was necessary to omit fur fear of causing pain. Surely Bishop bc-hvyn, though dead, by his life, character, and work still sWks to tho Church and to the worH in this generation. The offertory at the Hanley service was devoted to S-Iwvn College and the manorial win- of St. John's College. Auckland. °

In common with O.u- members of many other professions architects have for some yeans Ivor, endeavouring to establish a BystPii of registration under TMuca practice will be restricted to tho=e who bare qualified themselves by an adequate course of training The' prois to form a seneral pjcaraining tward. cnmposecl of rcpresentotives of the principal architectural societies, which ■S-ould stand for the cental bo.lv of the yrofession. The snbiect of registration n pnncinal to P'c "f the speech at +W °If O£ E :- Bond ' the President. eW 5 " LODdA