OUR LONDON LETTER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11542, 31 March 1898, Page 6

OUR LONDON LETTER.

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. FPeom Oub Correspondent.] LONDON, Feb. 18. death op bishop, selwtn. I regret to announce the death, at Pau last Saturday evening, of Bishop Selwyn, the master of Selwyn College, Cambridge, and the worthy son of the illustrious first Bishop of New Zealand. His death was not altogether unexpected, for ever since his return from the Melanesian Islands, seven years ago, broken down with malarial fever, and crippled with lameness, 'his health had been consistently bad. Of his colonial career there is no need for me to speak, but his work in England, though it did not bring him so prominently before’ the public, Was, none the less ‘ valuable. , On his return in 1891 he was appointed an honorary chaplain to the Queen, and in 1893 he succeeded the Rev the Hon A. L. Lyttelton as master of Selwyn College, which was opened in 1882, and, of course, named after Bishop Selwyn’s father. The chief event of - his mastership has been the erection of the noble chapel, at the consecration of which the Archbishop of Canterbury and a large number of influential churchmen were present. In spite of his ill-health and his lameness, which compelled him,to hobble about on crutches, the Bishop was a man of wonderful energy and cheerfulness, and an excellent head of a young and growing college. The fact that he had for two years rowed in the Cambridge crew attracted the undergraduates to him, and he retained their respect and reverence, and exercised a quiet but none the less far-reaching and beneficial influence over them by his transparent sincerity, purity of life, want of pretence, and genuine goodness. There was no mawkishness about his Christianity, it was of just that joyful nature that appeals to athletic, young men such as the undergraduates who came Under his sway. He kept up his interest in missionary work to the last, and seldom misse'd a St Barnabas Day, when the friends of l New Zealand missions foregather at Eton; THE “ ASSOCIATED EOAED ” EXAMINATIONS IN AUSTRALIA. ! Mr Samuel Aitken, the honorary secretary of the Associated Board of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal .College of Music, has been giving the Times some account of his experiences at the Antipodes, whither he went with Mr C. Lee Williams, late organist of Gloucester Cathedra], to organise the Board’s examinations. The Board has examined altogether nearly eight hundred candidates in the Australasian colonies. Generally speaking, a much higher standard of musical excellence was attained than had been anticipated, and Mr Williams writes: —“ At many centres, notably Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Rockhampton,!found candidates that would have passed with credit the local centre examinations in England, and the vocal talent in Wellington I must especially mention as far above the requirements of the present syllabus, and I feel sure that future examinations will prove this to be correct. In Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane I found a few individual cases of such extremely high merit that I can only suppose there must be teaching power in these cities of a very high order indeed.” Next year the colonies are to have precisely the same examinations as those prepared for the United Kingdom, The fact that while the percentage of passes is sixty-five, that of honours obtained is only three, is accounted for by the difficulty <?f the examinations for honours. The failures, Mr Williams remarks, “ were chiefly very young, candidates, who seemed to. require, an elementary examination before attempting anything further.” The Musical Times mentions that Mr Chamberlain has cordially given his official approval of this section of the Associated Board’s work. "a lost endeavour. During the last seven or eight years I have seen many, attempts to evade cold chamber charges in .connection- with the carriage of perishable .produce' from the Antipodes’, Without' exception each .and every 'one proved dn; egre'gious f Ailfirei-so when Mpssrs Weddel invited i meldst Wednesday to Sun Wharf, <Tooley Street, to inspect some samples of New Zealand butter preserved by a patent process invented by Mr Simeon Leather, of Auckland/ I felt 'tolerably certain that Xshould only have another, failure to chronicle. The .butter was made in New, Zealand, from cream treated by' Mr Leather’s process, on Oct.- 14 last, and * in -pound pats was packed in ventilated boxes and carried to England in tiie steward’s store on board the lonic: It was landed at Plymouth on Dec. 16, brought by train-,to London and conveyed to Sun Wharf, where it has remained ever since, subject to whatever variations of temperature have occurred in the place where it was housed. Probably the temperature of the building has never exceeded 50deg, so that the land test was not particularly severe, and the steward’s store on board ship, is, we know, a fairly cool corner. The butter was opened up in the presence of a dozen gentlemen connected with the trade, included in the number being Herr Faber (a representative of the Danish Government), Mr Samuel Lowe (sometime Home expert to the New Zealand Government), Mr Weddel, Mr Cameron (representing the Government of New Zealand), and a representative of one of the chief Irish butter factories. Mr Leather was there also, and before we sampled his butter he explained that the basis of bis process was a chemical absolutely harmless to human beings, but deadly to the bacilli of decay. This chemical, it seems, is mixed with the cream preparatory to churning, and is, according to Mr Leather, entirely washed out of the butter afterwards, and the fact of it having been .used could not be detected by the closest analysis. He did not tell us what the chemical was, but had apparently informed Herr Faber. The first butter tried was some made entirely without salt. It looked all right, and proved to be a well-made butter, excellent in body and texture, and to the eye all that butter should be. But the nose discovered no smell of butter about it. and the mouth no flavour of butter. There was a taste of lard, dominated by a peculiar flavour to which no one could give a name except Herr Faber, and he religiously protected the patentee’s secret. He said it was the flavour of the chemical that we tasted, and the odour of it that we smelt, but would enlighten us no further. The representative of the Irish factory shrugged his shoulders and'remarked that it would be impossible to sell such butter in any civilised country, though it might pass muster at Buluwayo. Next we tried the pats which had been made with the usual percentage of salt. The smell of the chemical was in this case a trifle more pronounced, and when we started to taste—well, the rapidity with which one and all ejected their samples spoke volumes. The salt, true to its traditions, had brought out the flavour beautifully. Mr Leather explained that the presence of the chemical ought not to be detectable, and suggested that the butter had not been washed quite enough. It took, he said, four or five washings to get rid of it absolutely, and the butter we had been sampling had only had three waters. Herr Faber and others suggested that five washings would destroy all butter flavour, but this the New Zealander denied. He seemed quite content with the success that had attended his experiment, and told me afterwards that he intended to remain here for some ten months to bring out a company to work his patent all over the world. Perhaps if he had heard some of the comments passed upon bis process in my hearing he would be somewhat less sanguine of the prospects of his patent. For myself I hardly think he will succeed in finding capital here to run his invention. COLONIAL PRODUCE. Mr Cameron, the produce expert, has been following those prize sheep - from Wellington even to the dinner-tables of their consumers, and I understand thatr#ie ; customers of Palmers’ Stores, the purchasers of the sheep, have expressed, great gratification at’ the . quality of -the meat. He tells me that the shipments of frozen . meat have been arriving in good order all ■ through the season, and -that the carcases

now sustain very little damage in landing from the ship. There are, however, great complaints made this season as to the constant irregularity of the shipments of dairy produce, and ic is generally estimated that the loss to New Zealand producers from this cause will again bo very serious.

PERSONAL AND GENERAL. The Home papers continue to publish rumours that Mr Seddon will shortly return to England to take a remunerative billet in the city, or else to replace Mr Reeves as Agent-General. The rumours are so frequently.circulated that I thought there must be something in them, but Mr Reeves assures me that for his part he has heard nothing of the matter, and I fancy that the reports emanate from those at, your end, with whom the wish is father to the thought. Mr Reeves speaks next Saturday at the annual dinner ■of the students of the School of Economics. He has nearly completed his “ Story of New Zealand” for the “ Story of the Empire Series.” The book will contain eighteen chapters; fifteen of these are in the printer’s hands, and the other three Mr Reeves is revising. The task has been a labour of love, but still a tiresome one; for, as Mr Reeves aptly puts it, the process of boiling down into a few pages the colony’s history much resembles the work of those artists in Black and White who first draw a complete picture, and then take out everything but the outlines. Captain and Miss Russell have just arrived, The Captain, who is making the Naval and Military Club his headquarters, had a long chat with the Agent-General yesterday. ■ One of the latest sufferers under the scourge of influenza is Miss Dora Meeson, who, 1 regret to say, has been dangerously ill with measles and congestion of the lungs, following on that insidious sickness. A doctor has been visiting her daily, and a nurse has been assisting in the night work, and thanks to their efforts, .combined with, the unremitting attentions of her mother and sister, the young artist is on the high road t 6 recovery. As soon aS she is strong' enough Mr Meeson intends- to- take the family away for a change into the country. Her illness has, of course, disarranged all their plans for going to Paris in March, and has interrupted both her own artistic studies and her sister’s elocutionary efforts. I good authority that Sims Reeves is likely to visit the colonies shortly, and that he is now getting a company together for that purpose. I have again to chronicle good prices realised by New Zealand stamps. At Messrs Ventom, Bull and Cooper’s last sale, a 2d, no watermark, perforate, unused, realised <£l3 ; and a 2d vermillion, watermark lozenge £7, At a sale a day or two ago, a New Zealand medal, 1845 to 1847, fetched £6 ss. Sir Westby Perceval has been elected a director of the New Zealand and River Plate Land Mortgage Company, to fill the vacancv. caused by the death of the late Mr J. M. Clark.