OUR LONDON LETTER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10211, 4 December 1893, Page 5

OUR LONDON LETTER.

j ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. I[fEOM OUB LONDON COEEESPON DENT.J London, Oct. 20, Tho Agent-General iaforgas me that the ■ negotiations with Mr John Bayne are now I finally and satisfactorily closed. The new I Principal of Canterbury Agricultural Colt lege returns from Cairo shortly on a visit j to hia friends in the Old Country, and will leave for New Zealand about Christmas, j Further on I shall give you particulars | of the series of lectures which are I presently to be delivered at tbe Imperial i Institute, What I wish to remark here I is that the one on New Zealand will not be | undertaken by Mr Perceval. The Agent- | General has said his say on the Colony very ’ fully, both in print and at the Colonial ! Institute already, and he is now willing—j indeed, anxious—others should blow its i trumpet a bit. The same tune played too j often by the same performer gets moaotoaous, however good it may be, and loses effect. I I had just written the above when | authentic information reached me that at j the instigation of Sir Walter Buller, Sir j Julius Vogel has been asked to deliver the i lecture on the Colony at the Imperial lu- : fititute and consented. Sir W. Duller was { himself invited to undertake the task, bub, j in his own words, “thought that for a first j lecture it would be desirable to have j heavier metal.” I am nob sure this was i wise. Sir Julius Vogel’s matter may be I good, but his manner when last I heard 1 him in public was asthmatic and inaudible. The Earl of Onslow has returned to ! town after a visit to the Marquis of j Bresdalbane at Taymouth Castle, where he j enjoyed excellent sport deer-slalking. 1 Dr Haunsell (erstwhile of Dunedin) has [ after all relinquished hia purpose of raturn- ! ing to the Colony, and purchased a com- ! fortable family Mansion m Cromwell road, ! South Kensington, where he is now eetab- | lishing himself. Mr Vandyk, or Gloucester road, an artist S photographer of great merit, has been i commissioned to execute a life-size enlargej meat from bis excellent negative of the I late Mr W. H. Levin, of Wellington, I trust either this portrait or a copy of it [ will find its way into the Free Public ! Library at Wellington, an institution S which, as everyone knows, owes its very ! existence to the large-hearted liberality of this young citizen. The expression in the picture is a very pleasing one. A Daily News reviewer—who may or may not be Mr Andrew Lang—pronounces the “Early History of New Zealand,” I recently published by Mr Brett, of Auckj land, a work of importance, and predicts ! it will form “a useful record for ethnoloi gists in the days, not far distant, when the ; Maoris shall have disappeared from the : face of the earth.” The Agent-General has just received ! from Messis Valentine and Sons, of Dua- •: dee, a valuable addition to his stock of ■ slides illustrating the scenic beauty of | New Zealand, the which are reductions ! from tbe pick of a large series taken by : this eaterprioiug firm’s representative, Mr Powell, who recently spent some months travelling about tha Calony. The result of Mr Powell’s tour is a series of nearly 350 views from all parts of the two islands. Messrs Valentine have made slides of- tho greater portion of these, end in their new : catalogue of lecture seta for the coming winter session New Zealand is given first -place. The amateur lecturer can now lecture interestingly ou New Zealand with- | out the bother of study, for Messrs Valentine will supply him with fifty slides of ■ North or South Island scenery, &c., and a descriptive lecture also, for a very modest , sum. i The slides are the best I have seen yet, ’ and tha seta are excellently chosen for ’ use in ordinary cases. But one fault must be found. The slides give no idea of the everyday life of colonists—of their work in ; tha ‘ field and fold. Amongst the large number of photos I looked through not one picture showed a field of corn, a flock of sheep, or gave any idea of the life and labour o? New Zealand agriculturists. Of course Messrs Valentino cater simply for '! the tourist and the lecturer, whose business it is to amuse. Mr Perceval and some others, however, give lectures in the hope of stimulating desirable emigration, and to . such man scenic slides are but spicing—a something to relieve tho monotony and ■ “ stodginess ” of their main theme, viz,, the productive capabilities of the laud. It is ; this main theme that requires illustration, \ and the means of doing bo effectively are at present lacking. ! Amateur photographers in New Zealand ! might, in addition to what I said last week i on this subject, taka a note of the fact, and j when they get a particularly good negative ; ct a flock of sheep, a herd of cattle, a i shearing, reaping, or ploughing scone, a \ view of an agricultural homestead, abutter I factory, cr, in fact, anything connected : with the agricultural and pastoral .life of i tho Colony, send the same to the Agent- \ General. He would gladly get tho negative J turned into a slide, and it would serve not i only to enliven faisown discourses,butthosa i of tho many men who will lecture upon the i Colony as a farmer’e paradise during the i next twelve months. During the past ; week or so I may mention that Mr Perceval \ has received several applications for ; materials whereon to prepare lectures upon t the Colony, and also sundry requests for I tha loan of lantern slide*. New Zealand, {iu fact, is becoming a prime favourite with i provincial amateur lecturers, and she is | in request also with the professional j speaker. i By this time next year I fancy Mr | Herbert Jones, who X am told meditates I giving a thousand lectures upon the Colony I in. the Old Country, will find it a matter S of extreme difficulty to hit upon “apitch” ? that has not been worked before. The I complaint that tha average Britisher is it densely ignorant of tbe Colonies is still quite justified, but by the time Mr Jones, Mr Paanefather (now enlightening the good [folk of Surrey on tho wonders and wealth I of tho Colony) aad others have run their I' course, the plaint will not hold good in tho case of Now Zealand. The Agent-General, by tha way, is ene doavouring-to pot suadoMeesro -Valentine

to have gome of their New Zealand photes enlarged for exhibition in the, Colony’s courts at the Imperial Institute. Tho large bromide prints of the publicbuildlngs of the Colony in the Victorian court attract a great deal of attention, arid help to interest people in the other exhibits. Pictures are always a safe " draw.” Dr Anderson, of Christchurch, who has been Home for about three mouths, returns per Tainui on Nov. 23. Though several gentlemen continue to be mentioned as likely to fill the See of Wellington, I cannot learn anything definite on the subject. A vigorous exchange of letters and telegrams with the 'Bsv Robert A. D. Booker, Private Secretary to the Archbishop of York, ha? elicited the fact that no appointment had up to Wednesday been made. The poet nao been offered to and refused by two clerics, generally believed to bo Canon Clarke, of Dewsbury, and the Rev Mr In grata, but outside Bishopthorpe Palace no one really knows anything. I have now addressed a series of respectful queries to Mr Booker, who writes that he will lay them before the Archbishop when he returns home to-day.