ANGLO-COLONiAL NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 141, 15 June 1906, Page 6

ANGLO-COLONiAL NOTES.

, (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 4th May. In tho course of the- proceedings' at the dinner of the Canada Club, held in London on Wednesday evening, Lord Elgin, Secretary of State for the Colonies, said that ever since he camo into office he had been conducting correspondence to fix > the actual date of the next Colonial Conference. Great Britain put itself at the disposal of the colonies in this matter, and there had not been the slightest unreasonableness manifested by any of the colonies. All the difficulties had been overcome, and if he was still in office he hoped to take part in the next Colonial Conference to bo held in the middle of April- of next year in London. At that conference they desired to bring about a system which_ would unite the Empire in bonds of unity which alone .gave the Empire strength. At the .119 th annual meeting of the M C.C. , held this week, the committee reported that an invitation for next winter had arrived from New Zealand, but that they were not yet in a position to, decide if it could be accepted. In 1905 the club numhored 5D26 members, an increase of 72 over the previous year. During the season the club played 163 matches, winning 92 and losing 38 ; 33 were drawn. Mr Walter Long, M.P., was elected president of the club. Last Friday the annifal conference of the Mothers' Union took place in' the great hall of the Church House, and was very largely attended. The Bishop of Rochester, who was in the chair, testified to the valuable help rendered to the society by the wives of Governors in New Zealand and Australia. The chair was subsequently taken by Mrs. Sumner, who said that 20,238 new members and associates had joined during the year, making a total of £54,952. A most gratifying feature of the year's work had been the increase of drawingroom meetings for the upper classes,, to show educated mothers now to toach religion to their children, lhere was no .doubt that a sense of tho responsibility of motherhood was now taking hold on every class in the country. I am informed to-day by the secre tary of Messrs. Dalgety and Co that the directors of that company nave agreed to declare an interim dividend for the half-year ended 31st December, 1905, of 3s per share, free of incometax, being at the rate of £6 per cent, per annum, payable on the 16th inst Judging by the numbei of callers at the London office of the New Zealand Government who go there to make enquiries with reference to the coming ChristchiTih Exhibition, great interest in that venture is being taken by British manufacturers Mr. H. C Cameron, in whose hands this matter has specially been placed, is literally "up to his eyes" in it. For the past month whenever I have called at Victoria-street there have been at least two. people, and often more, waiting to see him in regard to the exhibition In spite of the prosecutions undertaken from time to time by the New Zealand Go\eiiiiiient against butcheib for fraudulently selling meat as "New Zealand" when it is not from that i.olony at all, the practice keeps giowlnS> and the jyimber of complaints received from honest traders who are handicapped by the dishonesty of other competitors is gi eater than ever. How to deal adequ it:ly with tho matter is a difficult question. It would require a whole army of detectives to cope effectually with it. The nefarious practice referred to is, of course, a compliment in ono way to New Zealand meat : ht lfc ,, I ? ust do a S r °-it deal of harm. Walking through Smithfield the other day I heard that the consignment of Zealand poultry which- had been sent through the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company was highly spoken of. The same, howler, cannot be said of the recent small shipment of New Zealand apples which was sent to Covent Garden for report