CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12402, 16 January 1901, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

' There was a time' when colonials heard) and thought a great deal more about'

downing STREET.

Downing Street than they do to-day, when the self-governing colonies are subjected to comparatively little inter-, feremce from the Colonial Office in London. Downing Street had a curious history, as 'Mr Choate, the American Ambassador,' showed in the course of a recent address. The school which he had* attended 1 in 'Mas-: sachusetts, he said, was the first organised in the State, and the name of its ’ first 1 scholar was George Downing. Downing was one of the first graduates of Harvard, and in the course of time ihe found his way; to England and was a chaplain in Croat* well’s army. He displayed an extraordinary talent for diplomacy as it was then practised—‘'hoodwinking,” Mr Choate called it —and ultimately lie hoodwinked Cromwell into sending him as Ambassador to The, Hague. “Well,” continued Mr Choate, “ after the Protector died, he, tried his arts;

upon the Rump, add he hoodwinked the Rump, and they re-appointed him as Ambassador. When tihe Restoration came, he practised his wily arts upon the Merry Monarch, soon after 'his return, and' induced him to send him.' again as Amlbassador to The Hague. He made lots of money, and finally he induced the Merry Monarch to grant him a great tract of land in Westminster, provided, so the grant ran, ‘that the house to be built upon the premises so near to the Royal Palace shall be handsome and graceful.’ ” Then Downing built a house opposite Whitehall, and many more mansions between there and Westminster Abbey, .and old annals of that time described those houses as “pleaeanj mansions, having a back front upon St James’s Park.” In Wie natural course of things, according to Mr Choate, Downing would have been hauled to Tyburn andl harigedl by the neck until he was dead, but he won his way : totpjthe favour of King Charles by claiming that he must forgive his past backplidtpig because of the vicious principles that ho had received, as he said, in his early (New England education. Finally he died, and by his will devised his immense estates at Westminster to Ms children). Of those estates there remains 'the strip of land one hundred yards long and twenty wide, sometimes (narrowing to ten, wMcb bears his illustrious name. Mr Choate had some reason, therefore, for claiming that Downing Street was an American tt'oroughfue.

•Mr Arnold White contributes to. the “Contemporary Review” an article dealing with the difficult question of the suggested settlement of

SOUTH IiJaiOAM 6STTLEE3.

•English colonists in large numbers in South 'Africa. Mr White is fully aware of the greai success which attended the 1820 settlement, and also the transportation of the German Legion after the Crimean War, but he is more anxious to point out the difficulties in the way of mew emigrants than to dilate on the success of their forerunners, and’ many of his warnings are very much to the point. He states that few of the correspondents, who have discussed! the juestdon have touched upon what is, perhaps, the main difficulty, the encouragement given to intemperance. Brandy is miaepence a bottle 'in Cape Colony, and alcohol is procurable throughout South Africa at an incredibly cheap rate. The .result of such a state of affairs upon tie industry, intelligence, and aims of the -people can be imagined. Alone among the civilised white communities of the world the Cape Colony dispenses with excise. This is a legacy of the Dutch ; a legacy of evil Inconceivable to those who have not lived the life of South Africa. White immigra-* tion to a land saturated l with bad alcohol Im heavily handicapped. The dangers arising from the large preponderance of the black population and from, climatic and .Other causes are also dwelt upon by Mr White. He' points out that it would) be undesirable that the cleavage l between the two races should be accentuated by the settlement of all the English in the towns, and the monopoly of agriculture by the Dutch. It is, therefore, necessary to ensure the establishment of people of English blood In veldt farm life. Unfortunately, however, the rains fall at the wrong time, and In two years out of live there is, a drought of more or less serious dimensions. Before >ny expenditure is made on veldt settlements it is absolutely necessary to organise an irrigation system after the necessary land has been acquired. -If this is not done disastrous failure is the inevitable and 'inexorable result of the condition of things prevailing in South Africa. The whole article father tends to give' the impression that Hew Zealanders are much better off at home than they are likely to be in tha new El Dorado,

A few weeks ago we received a number of cable messages concerning a new coaling-station alleged to

KOOMAH* AND UEAON.

‘have 1)6611 acquired by Germany in the Eed Sea. There was some talk of an island called Uraon, and the “ Daily Mail ” -went so far as to assert that it was “well situated,” and that the Germans had “ obtained a fine harbour.” 'Now, “ Uraon ” does not figure on ordinary maps, and fine harbours are not lying about promiscqously'in the Red Sea. Most of the London journals imitated the cautious Brer Rabbit, “lay low and said muffin.” The truth is that a German vessel, the Marie, called at the quarantine island of Eamaran, and then left on a purposeless cruise in the Red) ISea. It ultimately called at Farzan, a large island eighty miles north of Eamaran, which is reported to possess considerable mineral wealth and valuable pearl fisheries. Here the Marie unfortunately went ashore, and the captain, in spite of protests from the Turkish authorities, landed a quantity of coal. The Mudir of Farzan communicated Vith his superiors, and eventually peremptory orders came from Constantinople to effect that the coal must be removed. jThe whole story reads singularly like the /account of the notorious attempt of -the ■ Russians to establish a coaling station at Bunder Abbas, in the Persian Gulf. But the/captain of the Marie seems also to have (been .in communication with the German '■ Admiralty, and an astounding turn was /given to events when the Porte ordered the ■'JTocal authorities to render the Germans ■ levery. assistance in the matter of coal storage and accommodation. The Sultan did not desire “to offend his good friend the Kaiser. 33 The Mudir was directed to construct a coal depot to receive 10,000 tons of coal at Koomah, six miles from Farzan, the depot to be controlled by Germany, although the sovereignty of the island remained with Turkey. More recently we learnt that Eoomah was to be thrown open fls a coal depot to all the Powers, so that Germany should not . exercise exclusive rights. _________