ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13596, 3 December 1909, Page 4

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

(from otib own cokekspondent.) LONDON, October 22. On. the 28th inst. Mrs and Miss, Hay (Christchurch) will sail by the Tongariro on their return voyage to New Zealand. They have been travelling in Enrope for some considerable time. Mr E. Nordon, of Christchurch, will leave England next week for the Continent. After .pending a few days in Paris and Brussels he will join the Otway at Marseilles on November oth, being due in New Zealand about the 16th December. Sir Robert Stout continues to make good progress after his operation, and there are no symptoms to cause anxiety. Sir Robert and Lady Stout will not, however, leave England in November, as they anticipated. It is expected that the patient will be in the nursing home for another six weeks. This week the callers at the London office of the New Zealand Government have been: —Mrs Robert Gillies (Auckland) and Miss Gillies, Miss Hudson Williamson, Mr William Devery (Gisborne), Mr W. Thompson (Auckland), Miss K. E. Mullin (Dunedin), Miss Doris G. Dall (Wellington), Messrs E. Blair, Q. Blair, and K. Blair (Auckland), Mr J. E. S. Cooper, M.A. (Canterbury), Mr C. F. Hursthouse (Nelson.) Mr E. Nordon, the president of the New Zealand Hockey Association, has spent a good deal ot his time while in England discussing the projected tour of an English team in New Zealand. Mr Collins, the secretary of the English Association, now informs him that he has received encouraging replies from some of the affiliated associations,:-and he inclines to the opinion that an English team may visit New Zealand in the 1911 season. If the visit does come off, it is quite possible that somo Irish and Welsh players may be included in the team. Mr Ben Fuller has been arranging while in London for plans for a new music-hall in Wellington, and ho has almost decided upon a design similar to that of the Empire at Kilburn, N.W. The architect, who is regarded as possibly the foremost in theatre work in Great Britain, is Mr William G. R. Sprague. He is a native of Dunedin, but left at the age of ten rears. Mr Sprague designed the Queen's, the Hicks, and many other London theatres. A new advertisement for New Zealand mutton and lamb is appearing in the "Daily Mail." It is worded differently from the one which appeared some time ago, and which gavo rise to considerable criticism. There is, however, the same speculation as to the quarter from which the advertisement emanates, and the Government officials here know nothing about it. The advertisement Tuns as follows:—"Prime New Zealand Mutton and Lamb. Supplies are still available of excellent quality and at moderate prices, notwithstanding the great shortage in the meat supply generally, and the impending great rise in prices of English and Sf-otch.. Buyers throughout the country should not delay to secure stocks for tho next two months of prime New Zealand Mutton and Lamb, the cheapest and best food for tho people, and the production of our foremost Colony." It is to be hoped the Government will make its position clear with jegard to the new \vstem of butter-buying which has lately been inaugurated. For some years it has been the practice of the High Commissioner's Office to send weekly cables to New Zealand recording the ruling prices for produce in London. That was a legitimate and apparently an appreciated custom. Last season some of the factories' in New Zealand fold their output on an agreement under which they were to be paid according to _ the prices stated in the High Commissioner's cable as (ruling from week to week. This year this practice has gained popularity. This is, of course, very flattering to'the Hieh Commissioner, but it is to be hoped tbe Government will make its position quite clear.