ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 13003, 24 December 1906, Page 2

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

[From Or/it Special 'CottßKsrpNpENT.] LONDON, November 3. When the Gothic leaves London next week she will carry a large party of domestic servants boaad' for Now Zealand. There are betwecu thirty and forty of them, drawn from various parts of Ihe United Kingdom, about half of the number being sent out under the euspices of tho British Women's Emigration Society. The whelo oarty are receiving the benefit of the reduced fares obtained unde the Now Zealand Government's immigration scheme —a concession which carries with it the proviso that each assisted immigrant must be approved and passed by tho High Commissioner's Department before being allowed to sail. It is to be hoped that suitable arrangements will be made by tho Labor Department for meeting the party on arrival at Wellington and safeguarding tho interesj.j of the girh in their search for employment. Considering the perennial scarcity of domestic servants, there should be iio difficulty about finding suitable situations.

The "sweated industries" exhibit which the High Commissioner's Department has collected for the Cbristchtireh Exhibition will be sent out to the colony by the Gothic, leaving London next Thursday. The collection will givo a good idea, of the great variety of articles manufactured in this country by the sweated labor of women and n ,: .ildren, and will provide an interesting v.- *•' irast to the exhibits manufactured in the ct>iOny at rales of pay flxe<J,. r t-i; the State. The collection might well U'.' iX 4belled 'From Darkest England.' It comes from such depths of poverty and misery as only those who know can realise.

The High Commissioner has been requested by his Government to obtain information as to the possibilities of a fast m" ;i service between Loudon ai via Tehuantepsc, J^^ft|flH^^HP'-'Ute which, svbtei .^H^^^^^^^^^^T.ectcd in theso column quired for the N of Eeprosentanves, the been re cently raised by Mr Wilford. The statement then made by Sir Joseph Ward has been challenged on certain points by Mr E. F. Wright. by whom tho Tehuantepec scheme was originally mooted. Sir Joseph said that the transhipping from the Pacific to the Atlantis terminus of the Tehuantepsc Railway " would be fatal to the success of any fast mail lino to New Zealand and Australia.' Mr Wright points.out that by the present San Francisco route the mails have to he transhipped, and that if Sir Joseph's argument is to hold good this route also must be condemned. Sir Joseph also said that on the Pacific section of the new route the steamers would havo only one day at either terminal port, and that this would ,uot be possible in practice. Jlr Wright, to this, has drafted a steamers, showing that each havo five days . Sydney an Cruz. Sir ,'■ oseph thinks ' steamers would or! required; Mr Wright maintains the service could be maintained with two. Another point on which the New Zealand PostmasterGeneral and Mr Wright hold different views is regarding the probability of Mexico undertaking to pay a share of the necessary subsidy for a 20-knot .service across the Pacific. As New Zealand is not at all likely to undertake the full cost of such a subsidy, it would bo as well to ascertain the attitude of Mexico and also New South Wales towards the scheme. As Sir Joseph Ward admitted, its possibilities may be greater than he indicated in his statement on the subject, and at any rate there is no harm in collecting fuller information regarding the. Mexican route. A service which promises to bring Now Zealand within twenty-three and a-half days of London is worth inquiring into. The advocates of universal penny postage havo not failed to draw the attention of the British Postmaster-General and tho British public to the recent annoUncemcriF that the United States Government have agreed to accept letters from Now Zealand at the penny rata. Tho British Post Office, how- ( ever, maintains its previous attitude. Reply-

ing this week to a question in the House, the Posfcmaster-Geueral said he was not at present in a position to make any proposals to tho United Statc3 Post Office for the establishment of penny postage. When asked, further, whether tho question was under consideration, jSd[r Buxton replied: "• Only in the sense that the question is one 'which largely depends on how much money is to : the various postal reforms.." The annual meeting of the League of the: Empire was hold this week- in the Caxton Hall, Westminster, Lord Tennyson, the president, ih the chair. Lord Tennyson announced that in May next a Federal Conference on Education would be held, to be attended by officii! delegates from all this 3ritish colonics and dependencies. This scheme, which is quite unique, has the official support and approval of the Colonial Office, and the sympathy of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. The Board of Education have given their support and will be fully represented, strBitrell having- promised to attend tho opening meeting. A. resolution was passed "thai a cordial welcome to tho Federal Conference, be offered " to official delegates from all parts., of the Empire and from the United KingdomSir Michael Foster urged ihe advantages which woald arise from 'British students spending part of their university course in a colonial university, and vice-versa, and ,said how greatly London University was interested in the Federal Educational Conference. Another speaker remarked ltow much London children had been brightened up by being allowed to correspond with, tho children in a colonial school. After the meeting Lady Tennyson was at homo to members of the League at Caxton Hall. Tho Federal Conference on Education, referred to at tho annual meeting of the League of the Empire, will be held from May 24 till Juno Ist of next year. The following provisional programme for the Conference has been,.draPtedj^h fMk --raßibjccts. Sch for of the Empire in cdueatujH of a common central for WBral education. Future federal oducalion iWerences. —H.: rMucafcional Subjects.—

Tea,ehcrs.—Comparison of (a) tho provi- ; sioM for tfee supp),' and the training of elementary teachers," and of (b) the conditions of their work in the United Kingdom and other parts of the Empire. Similar comparison in the case of secondary teaohers. Practicability of temporary interchange of teachers and of inspectors between the United Kingdom and other countries of the 1 Empire. The relations between secondary and primary schools in the variou-3 countries of the Empire. Moans of establishing a system of mutual recognition of equivalent standards of education throughout the Empire. Co-operation in educational publications. Scheme of the League of the Empire for Imperial text books in history. Means for ensuring correctness in text books dealing with geography, or in wbioh local knowledge is required. Co-operation in school work. Tho' formation of a. central exhibition of industrial or other school work. Tho organisation of the exchange of school work and specimens between departments, museums, iiid between individual schools on a permar aenfc basis. School subjects: The EpgUsh .anguage—Reading (literature), composition, pronunciation; geography in its relations to history, discovery, and commerce, the growth of the Empire, illustrated by lantern slides and other means; encouragement of Nature study. Education of non-British races: Comparison of ideals, methods, and standards in various parts of tho Empire. Other subjects (to be disoussed if time allows) : Cadet corps and military training, educational facilities in sparsely-populated districts, educational treatment of Poor Law and reformatory children, civio and moral education, metric system of weights and mcaures, and school gardens.