ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13737, 19 May 1910, Page 3

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

-— ; ♦*—. (FROM OCB OWN CORRESPOIfDKNT.) london; April s. Tlie leas- of the premises occupied by the High Commissioner of New Zealand ever since tho office was opened in Loudon is duo to expire in September this year. I understand that it is necessary that six montlis'" notice should be given of intention to.terminate the lease, and' as this has not been done it would seem that the removal of the office to a more central position, which has been discussed for some time past, is not yet at hand. It will be remembered that some months -ago it was stated that a supposedly valuable picture hail come to light in Dunedin, where it was in the possession ot Mr G. H. Smith. Many years ago a French refugee settled in Dunedin. He. was not well off, and in payment of some private liabilities he is stated to ha%;e given the picture in question, which he stated was a Wat-. teau. It afterwards came into po-sos-sion of the Smith family, and by them was sent Home to be identified. Experts here who have seen it have jio hesitation in declaring it to be a genuine Watteau, but the valu© which such a picture would ordinarily possess is practically lost by the fact that it has undergo no at some time an unskilful cleaning, which has injured it considerably. 'the second theft of the well-known Leader picturo from the Wellington Art Gallery was reported hero by cable a few days ago. Anxious to find out what the of the picture thought of the vicissitudes through which it is passing, I communicated with him at his home in Surrey and informed him of the circumstance-. "I shall be very sorry if it is not recovered, " said Mr Leader, ''tor I consider it one oi my best pictures, and it was a great pleasure to mc when I heard that Mrs Rhodes had so liberally pre- ! sented it to the Wellington Art Gallery, where I naturally thought it would have a permanent resting place." "Southward from tho Surrey Hills." is th© name of the picture. Surrey is tho county of Leader, just as Essex and Suffolk were of Constable.

An important movement for settling in tho colonies public school boys from tho Mother Country lias just been initiated by the sailing for Canada of Dr. Gray, headmaster of Bradiield College, with twelve public-school-boy emigrants. Tli is marks the beginning of a really scientific movement, for the introduction of boys of the upper and raidaio class into the colonies, and its progress will be watched with great interest. The- Organising •Secretary of thc Public School Emigration League is Mr W. A. Evans, and he stated that though Dr. Gray had taken his boys to Canada, tbe choice of future colonists from the public schools was not restricted to that Dominion. Similar arrangements were being made on behalf of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Rhodesia, the West Indies, and the other colonies. Thirty or forty boys will be sent out shortly, and in every case they will proceed at once to a farm that has been selected by tlie committee of prominent local men that has been appointed in numerous districts in the colonies. Some 600 secondary schools in this country come under the scheme, which is nowbeing pushed forward with great energy. The Empire Press Union has been informed that as a development of the suggestion made by the Eastern and Eastern Extension Telegraph Companies at the interview between the Hon. Harry Lawson, M.P. (chairman of tjlie cable rates oommittoo of tlie Imperial Press Conference), and Sir John Denison Pender, K'.C.M.G., on Juno 9th last, negotiations have sine© taken place with Router's Telegram Company with a view to increasing 'largely the, supply of news of the Empire to India, Australiaj New Zealand and South Africa. Tho Eastern Telegraph Company has agreed to transmit a.very largely,increased scrvieo of British lmperialnews for distribution to tlie Press of theso British possessions. It is an essential part of tho arrangement that this largely increased service, amounting in some casevto 50 per cent., shall be distributed without extra charge to newspapers in the colonies and India: This special news has been available from the 4th inst., and is being distributed, in South Africa, and it is hoped that arrangeipente will shortly be concluded with the Governments of India and Australasia whereby theso countries may have the bonefit of the increased service; also that later on the same news w-ill bo distributed iv the Straits. Settlements and Hong Kong. I understand that the Land Taxation League in London is at present negotiating with a view to the selection of a gentleman to proceed to New Zealand, to conduct a f pTopagandi_t campaign in the Dominion, extending probably over two years. New Zealand has by legislation during the last twenty years done work for. the singletax cause, which has been felt far outside the Dominion, but there is an impression that single-tax alone is. an incomplete principle, and that New Zealand must "necessarily come to a halt row. A wealthy gentleman in London,, who is a strong single-taxer and freetrader, and who believes the principles to be tho complement oi each other, has ; placed a considerable sum aside for the campaign, and New Zea-j land may soon expect to welcome to her shores a lecturer of the first rank, charged with the duty of expounding the interdependent doctrines of free trade and land taxation. In a not© from Paris this week, Mr McNab mentions that he has succeeded in finding some very valuable evidence bearing on the French colonisation of Akaroa. In the Mini-try of Marino he discovered a large bundle of papers which had Been sent to the Minister by th© widow of Commodore Lavaud, or on her death by somebody else. They were all the papers of Lavaud himself, witli letters from L'Anglois, the captain of the Comte de Paris, and from several of _he passengers of that vessel. A cursory glance over one of Lavaud's own report, reveals the statement that on arrival at Akaroa they found the town placarded over with "tho May proclamation." J'This shows," say.-? Mr McNab, "that Hobson s.nt Murphy down not to declare sovereignty, but to nail up the May proclamation. What we want now, therefore, in not tha flag which was hoisted, but the hammer that drovo the nails."' Mr McNab has also discovered all the journals of tho officers of the St. Jean Baptists, and full particulars of Dp Survelle's death on the coast of America.