ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 153, 27 December 1898, Page 5

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

[from ouk special correspondent.] London, 11th November. PERSONAL. Miss Bridgen (Wellington) has returned to London, after spending some months with friends in various parts of the Kingdom, chiefly at Wimborne, in Dorsetshire, and at Bournemouth. She is at present residing in one of the Bayswater Squares in the West End of London. • In conversation the other day with Mrs. W. F. Parsons, of Wellington, she informed me that her daughter, Miss Phoebe Parsons, is making excellent progress at the Guildhall School of Music. Her special instructor, Signor Visetti, has formed a very high opinion of her capacities, and she has already been called upon to undertake a prominent part in some of the performances by the pupils. Mrs. Parsons' other three daughters, all of whom are musical, are steadily pursuing their studies in the vocal art. Major-General Lionel Smith Warren died this week of peritonitis. He served in the Maori War of 1860-4, being present at Taranaki, in operations in the Waikato, and afc the storming of the Gate Pah. He was mentioned in the despatches, and was awarded the New Zealand war medal. Mr. R. Hastfie, late .Secretary of the New Zealand National Association, is in Glasgow. I gather that he is doing fairly well with some companies he brought over for promfctidn. Mr. and Mrs. Herbert de Pinto and Miss Beresford left by the Orotava last Saturday, for a few months' holiday in New Zealand. Mr. Donald Reid, I am glad to learn, has quite recovered, and is now walking about, as he says, "quite well." The rapidity of his recovery after so severe an operation is little short of marvellous. Mrs. W. P. Reeves gave a New Zealand afternoon tea last Thursday at her new residence, 41, Campden House Road, Kensington. Among those present were Mrs. Duncan Cameron, Mrs. Tancred, Mrs. Sidney Johnston, Mrs. Rous-Marten, Mrs. Kennaway, Miss Kennaway, Miss ,Neave, Miss Greenwood, and Miss Willes. Several invited guests were prevented from being present by the dense fog which prevailed during the greater part of the day ; these included Lady Vogel, Mrs. E. J. Reid, Mrs. Levin, Miss Levin, Mrs. Worthy, and Miss Worthy. Mr. D. M'Gill, formerly of the Engineering Department of the New Zealand Rail 2 vraysj is now at Home bringing out his improved cold-air machine for the refrigeration of produce. It appears to be a great success. The special feature is the remarkable economy of power and hence of cost in working due to Mr. M'GriU's method of refrigeration, which he expects to prove greatly superior to the Ammonia process so largely in present use. Mr. M'Gill hopes to be able to leave on his return to New Zealand in the course of the next two or three weeks, but that will depend upon the progress of his business. Mrs. Coote, widow of Major Coote, who was formerly well-known in New Zealand, died recently at her residence in Sussex. I unders tand that her illness was of short duration and the end somewhat sudden.. Miss Greenwood intends leaving England about the end of December on her return voyage to New Zealand. She will join the P. and 0. s.s. Britannia at Marseilles, and will spend several days in Paris en route. Miss Greenwood is at present on a visit to Mrs. Tancred, at 22 ; Norland-square, North Kensington. Dr. and Mrs. Kemp and their family have returned to England from the Continent, and have taken a house at Dulwicji for a term. ,- Miss* Emily Johnston, of Wellington, has been staying for some time at Folkestone. Miss Johnston appears to spend' most of her time alternately at Dover and Folkestone. The personal estate of the late Mr. James Temple, Managing Director of the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company, has been valued at £195,975, and the gross value has been estimated at £199,450 for the whole estate. Bishop left for New. Zealand on his way back to his diocese yesterday. He was present on Tuesday at the successful annual meeting of the Melanesian Mission, held at the Church house, Westminster, when the chair was taken by the Bishop of Stepney, among the speakers being the Rev. W. Selwyn and the Rev. J. H. Ellison. On Wednesday a farewell service was held at St. Margaret's, Westminster, to bid adieu to Bishop Wilson, the sermon being preached by Dr. "Mason, Canoneßesidentiary of Canterbury. In the list of successful competitors for scholarships at Cambridge there appears the name of Mr. Leo H. G. Greenwood, of Canterbury College, New Zealand, who takes the Laurence Saunders Scholarship of £80 for classics, at King's College. He is a son of Mr. Graham Greenwood, and only recently arrived in this country. He had not intended to compete seriously for the Scholarship this year as he had not been in good health lately, but meant to go up next yeai\ His coach, however, advised him to go in for the examination, just as a sort of trial trip or a test of his powers, also th^t he might see what the examination was like. Much to his own surprise he came out with flying colours as winner of the Scholarship. Lady Gore-Browne, widow of the late Sir Thomas Gore-Browne, who was Governor of New Zealand in the late fifties, has left England intending to make a tour in New Zealand. She is accompanied by her son, whose health is somewhat weak. The party number eight in all, including Captain Stewart, formerly A.D.C. to the Governor of New Zealand, and a great friend of Lady Glasgow. The intention is to begin the tour with the Southern lakes and then to proceed Northward. Mr. A. Arnold Wall, who has been appointed to the Professorship of English Literature for Canterbury College, New Zealand, in succession to Professor Mathew, resigned, will leave England on the 22nd prox. by the s.s. Gothic foriMew Zealand. " Blood is thicker than water," was the leading feature in this year's Lord Mayor's celebration, and two historical reasons are given why use should be made of the sentiment. In 1859 when Sir James Hope was engaging the Taku fort, the American Commodore, Josiah Tatnall* watched the operations from the deck of his vessel. His admiration for the pluck of the British led him to express regret that he could not join in the fight, for he said " Blood is thicker than Water." After a lapse of 30 years, in 1889, Rear-Admiral Kimberley, U.S.N., whose ship, the Trenton, was wrecked during the hurricane at Samoa, wrote to congratulate Captain Kane, R.N., of the Calliope, on his escape from the lee shore. "My dear Captain. Your note received. You went out splendidly, and we all felt from our hearts for you, and our cheers came with sincerity and admiration for the able manner in which you handled your ship. We could not have been gladder if it had been one of our own ships, for in a time like that I can truly say with old Admiral Josiah Tatnall, 'Blood is thicker than water." And in the procession of 9th November, the allegoric car typical of kinship between Britain and America came in for as much cheering as did thai representing the reconquest of the Soudan. STRANGE NEWS ABOUT THE MAORIS. Undor the heading, " The Maori at Home," the Daily Mail publishes the following curious information about the Maoris of "Australasia." I fancy it will be as much " news" to New Zealand as to England. "The Maori women of Australasia have rights — flourishing ones. Generally they have little voice or choice

in the selection of the first husband, but they may and frequently do change him. Courtship is always brief, and does not often preface marriage. The Maoris, however, love to uepeftt strange old love tales and to sing love songs, delicate and charming of diction and sound. Maori widows not infrequently commit suicide upon the graves of their husbands, and are honoured for doing so, as in China. Divorce is as simple as possible. It needs no purse, employs no lawyers. The husband just turns the wife out of doors, and both are free to remarry. That is all. Girls are often betrothed irrevocably in infancy. Those not betrothed in childhood are expected to acquire as many admirers as they please. Indeed, ' the greater the number of admirers the greater the prestige of the girl." COLONIAL INDEBTEDNESS. A paper on " Australian Indebtedness " was read a few days ago before the Institute of Bankers by Mr. H. F. Billinghurst, formerly of the London and Westminster Bank. Unfortunately the occasion clashed with the Article Club debate on Labour Legislation, at which Mr. W. P. Reeves took the chair, and other colonial Agents-General were present ; consequently the colonies were without official representation at the Bankers' Institute. This has been generally regretted, as the opportunity would have been a good one to offer explanations of various points in refard to colonial finance. Mr. Billipghurst, wonderful to relate, appears, unlike most English financial critics, to have recognised the difference between colonial and British debts, pointing out that the former had been incurred for railway construction and other reproductive works. He regarded the increase of colonial indebtedness in proportion to population as regrettable, but considered that the continuance of colonial solvency was unquestionable, and held that British capitalists might "continue confidently to invest in their stocks." * TESTING COLONIAL SUPPLIES. Mr. Thomas Mackenzie has done another good turn to the agricultural interests of New Zealand. It is one of his duties, as representing the various New Zealand Farming Associations, to buy large quantities of seed. It occurred to him to take the precaution of having the seeds tested by the Royal Agricultural Society's botanist to ascertain their capacity for germination. Some lots offered for sate were found to contain little more than* 50 per cent, of germinating seeds ; of others 90 per cent, proved fertile. Mr. Mackenzie is also having the~artificial manures which he sends out to the colony tested,, and he found some to contain as little as 26 per cent, of the fertilising- elements. This shows the wisdom of the Continental practice of paying in accordance with the ascertained proportion of superphosphates. Over 60 tons of pedigree investigated and germinating power ascertained seed has recently been shipped to the colony by Mr. Mackenzie, who this week has been visiting what are known as the " nursery trials " at Stamford, where some of the leading nurseries are situated, and where turnips and mangolds are being thoroughly tried. The process of " trying" is really most interesting. First of all the finest hujbs are selected, and from the seeds of these " stock samplas " are taken. These " stock samples " are then sown out in rows in August. In November they are lifted in different parts of the row and compared, anything faulty in shape or colour being thrown out. The plants are then transplanted, buried up to the neck, the seed from them forming the stock for the following season ; so that it really takes two years to perfect turnip seed. Mangolds are differently treated.