NOTES PROM LONDON.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 95, 19 October 1910, Page 11

NOTES PROM LONDON.

ANGLO-NEW ZEALAND ITEMS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 9th September. GISBORNE BOROUGH LOAN. Mr. W. D. Lysnar, the Mayor of Gisborne, has succeeded in overcoming the obstacles which usually make the raising of colonial loans in tho London market a matter of considerable expense. Without resorting to public tenders, he has succeeded in raising £175,000 at par at 4 per cent, for the borough of which lie is Mayor. The term is thirty years, •and the money will be devoted to tramways, electric lighting, drainage, and. other public works. Mr. Lysnar's experience has been that of most oversea visitors who came to London for a similar purpose, namely, that the recognised channels for the raising of money for colonial investment are extremely expensive. By raising his money privately lie has been able to save something like £30,000, as compared with offers which were forthcoming before he left ythe Dominion. LEICESTER HOME-COMING DAY. There will be a home-coming of natives of Leicester from all parts of the world during the week beginning 19th September. Men and women who have settled in New Zealand and other parts of the Empire, who are now at home for business or pleasure, will meet at a series of social gatherings, and it is expected that a large number will attend the festival. It is proposed to hold a special homecoming exhibition of Leicester-mado goods in connection with the festival. Leicester has a great variety of trades, and can boast of having the largest boot, hosiery, and boot machinery fac--tories in the United Kingdom. THE PACIFIC CABLE. Mr. A. S. Baxendale, the London manager of the Pacific Cable Board, lias recently returned to England after a visit to Canada, where he superintended the transfer to the board, of the new direct wire connecting Montreal with the Bamfield Creek cable station. The new land line is held by the board on a five years' agreement with the Canadian Pacific Railway. On payment of £11,000 a year, the board is given the exclusive right to work the line, while upon the railway company devolves the duty of maintaining it. The work of shortening the time of transmission is being gradually accomplished, and it is hoped that before long the average time in transmission between Australasia and London will be reduced by a quarter of an hour. Mr. Baxendale holds out little hope of any immediate reduction in cable rates as a result of the new line. Such a. reduction might be accomplished by a system of deferred rates, by which messages would be received at a cheaper rate, and only transmitted when the line was clear and when there was no congestion of work. It is stated, however, that the British postal authorities have declined to sanction the institution of "deferred rates" on the ground that such a system has not yet been approved by the International Convention. There is little prospect, therefore, of any immediate rednction, as the convention will not meet again for four years, unless .specially summoned. MAORIS AND MAORILAND. Miss Anderson Hughes, .the -wellknown temperance advocate, delivered her popular limelight lecture on "Maoris and Maoriland" at Eastbourne recently. Miss Hughes was dressed in Maori costume, and in the- course of -her remarks said : — "Drink is the curse of the Maori people. It is the greatest cause of the decrease of the population. There are47,000 Maoris in New Zealand now, a total which is less than that of ten or twelve years ago ; but we hope to be able to regain the number lost. During the last few years the people in one or two districts have increased. There have been laws passed to stop the- curse of drink. We have a strict Sunday Closing Ace' (Applause.) You are not allowed to sell liquor to anyone, on Sunday, even if they have travelled from the Antipodes. They must drink tea or coffee. It is a crime to sell liquor to' a Maori woman at all." A YOUTHFUL EMIGRANT. A boy named Henry Bury sailed this week for New Zealand under peculiar circumstances. At the last Old Bailey sessions Bury gave evidence against a man who was sentenced to six years penal servitude for a brutal assault at Stepney, and since then he has been threatened by the convicted man's friends. Mr. France, the Court Missionary, told the Recorder that the boy went in fear of his life, and had been turned- out of his home in consequence of the threats. The Recorder ordered the boy a reward of £20, and this money, supplemented by other sums from charitable persons, has been used in sending him to the Dominion. SPECULATION IN NEW ZEALAND. Continuing his articles in the Penny Pictorial, Mr. H. W. Atkinson, of T© Kuiti, speaks in glowing terms of the advantages which New Zealand offers to the emigrant. One unpleasant feature of New Zealand life hs does note, however — the small trader. "He is often a pathetic figure to me. I see him (or more frequently her) coming to a new centre and opening a small shop, with limited capital and unlimited hope, and in a few months tha capital is gone, the wholesale houses are in possession, •ijid another failure is added to the long list. Last year was one of our worst in New Zealand, and no fewer than 471 bankruptcies! took place, some large and many very small. In a new country this speculative element is necessarily strongly developed in our population. But 471 failures equals four times the number in a year in England, and in proportion to population represents a very serious factor in business Hfe. Obviously no small trader should come out here with the intention of opening a business. He would run serious risk if he did." CADETS' CRUISE. The four-masted barque Port Jackson sailed on Monday from London, bound for Sydney, with forty cadets, who are to be trained to become officers in mail and passenger liners. The Medway, a larger ship, sailed for Sydney, about a month ago, with twentj--two cadets on board. The Port Jackson will sail round the Cape of Good Hope direct to Sydney, a passage which she usually makes in about 90 to 100 days. After discharging her cargo she will load a general cargo, principally -wool, for London, and then return home, via Cape Horn, the round voyage lasting about nine months. The two ships, Medway and Port Jackson should be in Sydney together. While in harbour the cadets will receive regular school, boat drill,' etc., and be employed with necessary duties on board. The Port Jackson goes to sea with a full complement of forecastle hands, all of whom are British sailors. The Shaw, Savill, and Albion are one j of the well-known lines of steamships promoting the venture. RECORDING EARTHQUAKES. The report of Professor Milne, on seismological investigations, states that for several years past small thickenings k§y§ -hstn observed jn the graces -pf.seia-

mograms obtained from the Bi-itish Association instruments. On quickly-re-cording photographic surfaces these ap--pear as ripples. When analysing records obtained by the s.s. Discovery in the Antarctic regions it -was noticed that ■a number of these thickenings were recorded in England about 100 minutes j after heavy shocks had taken place to the south of New Zealand, and as this was the interval of time that large surface waives of earthquakes would take to travel over a path about 180 degrees in length, it was concluded that the hitherto neglected records were the surviv- ' ing efforts of large earthquakes. This was confirmed when 51 of the after-shocks from tho Jamaica earthquake of 1907 were recordeed in Great Britain at exactly the time at which they would be expected 'to reach this country.