ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 43, 19 August 1902, Page 6

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 12th July. Sir E. Sausoon writes to 'Ihe Times : — "It may interest the public to know that the Acting-Premier and Postmaster-Geiie-ral of New Zealand (Sir Joseph YNuru) has informed the Imperial Telegraph Committee of the House of Commons that he is entirely in favour of the policy of State-owned Pan-Britannic cables. The Canadian Uovernment have proved themsefves pioneers in this movement, which, once the 1 adhesion of the Commonwealth Government is obtained thereto, will attain the range of practicul politics." New Zealand meat is gradually wearing down the 'prejudice that exists in some quarters against it? A ludy writer in a London paper this week says: — "The \iolent prejudice caused by the firted idea in many housewives' minds that there is so little nourishment in foreign meat, especially in flew Zealand mutton. This prejudice, I feel convinced, has mainly arisen owing, to the simple fact that so few people know how to cook frozen meat properly, so as to make the flesh tender and retuin the nourishment! How often tho average cook "thrusts th«"leg of frozen mutton into' a very hot oven, and remarks sententiously, when' it emerges as hard os noils and tough as a board, that you can expect nothing else from 'them frozen joints.'" But why New Zealand mtttton, admittedly the best of "foreign" meat, should bo singled out for being "especially" lacking in nourishment it is hard to conceive. "Advanced New Zealand— The Land that Leads the World" is the heading of i an article which is being quoted here from the New York Evening Post. ' Some interesting evidence was given i this week before t'lxe Committed on Steamship Subsidies. Sir Spoucer Walpole, formerly Secrotary to the Post Office, said he agreed generally with the evidence given last year as to the basis upon which mail contract subsidies were given. Theno were granted partly for strictly Post Office purposes, and partly for Admiralty purposes. Tho Chairman asked how the sum to be paid was arrived at, and Sir Spencer replied that the Department asked for tenders for a specified course, and at a specified speed. Tenders wore sent in and a bargain made. The P. and O. Company received £330,000 a year — the sum for which they offered to do what was required. Tho Chairman asked — "Are you sutisfied that full value is obtained?"- To which Sir Spencer Walpole replied — "Yes, I think so." Germany and tho United States had been rapidly increasing, nnd had become very much more active than they had been in the past. He did not think the more recent figures in relation to British and foreign tonnage were unBatisnictory. , He ' aid not think that Bailing-ships should be got rid of altogether, but to subsidise them as against steamers would be as absurd as for our ancestors of sixty years ago to have subsidised stage coaches to compete with the railway. He should object to subsidies given for the purpose of promoting j trade, and not for work done. "Subsidies" was an unfortunate term, us what was so described was payment for work done. The enquiry was again adjourned. The Edinburgh News thinks "it is an unfortunate circumstance thut so little j attention is paid in thia country to the affairs of our Australian colonies," and that it is also "unfortunate that the little we do know comes from men like Mr. Seddon, who hove axes to grind, and who know how to play up to the I gullible instincts of the British public, j We hear a great deal from Imperialist j figureheads about pat/rioti«m but remarkably little about economics. Now, in the long run, national prosperity re*ts j upon economics, and a country which is being run on wrong economic lines cannot be saved from disuster by drum-beating and flop-flying." * • Disclaiming all "prejudice against New Zealand mutton" and entertaining "no doubt thnt other products of the colony have distinctive merits which desorvo general recognition," an English paper declares it "really must decline to accept political economy from New Zealand — at least as it is taught by the redoubtable Mr. James Seddon" (sic). This, of course, refers to that unlucky passage in his speech at the New Zealand dinner, in which he asserted that England had to send out golden sovereigns to meet the balance of trade ngniust her through the excess of imports over exports. The critic remarks — "As we havo been importing a great denl more than we have been exporting for very many yenrs, where docs Mr. Seddon think we got all thoso 'golden rovereiijns' from to meet the differences year by year? Does he ' think they are grown at the Bank of England like mustard and ei'e<»? The balance has been in the snme direction, and not fnr from the same amount, for. say. flve-and-twenty years ; so that, according to Mr. Seddon. we havo sent out some six thousand millions of 'golden sovereign""' during that period ! And yet he is not hnppy !" As regards the recent reviews nnd the studied exclusion of colonists ns spectators, a London paper snys :—"lt: — "It is a pity thnt some apparent blunders with regard to the distribution of scits reem to have deprived not a few of those who had both the desire and n full claim to be privileged spectator!? on Tuesday nnd Wednesday of the proper fnrilities.' The Secretary *of State for India hns explained that his hands were tied by tlie iimited accommodation at hi<? disposal, and perhaps romo confusion arising from the general dislocation of pre-arranged plans accounts for the more obvious omissions at the inspection of tho colonial contingents. But incidents of this kind are regrettable, and nil must feel sorry that any deficiencies should have been in •vldencQ. Colonial viMtt.'s have come to tht metrooali* at tm.i.ii expenditure

of time and trouble, and oyery one would wish them tho fullest possible enjoyment of their stay, especially ha they have been deprived of the great ceremonial to which all so eagerly looked forward. England will never forget the splendid manner in which the colonies displayed their zeal in the time of storm and stress. At the opening of tho New Zealand Parliament yeHterduy the speech of tho Governor excellently illustrated all those endeavours meant."