ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 14310, 2 March 1907, Page 5

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES

PERSONAL AND GENERAL. [F»om Our Corbesi’okdsst.] LONDON, January 18. • The King and Queen Alexandra, and the Prince and Princess of Wales, were among the first of those whose sympathy with the earthquake-smitten Jamaicans took a practical form. The King, indeed, wae first in the field, for his telegram to the Lord Maj-or, announcing his desire to contribute 10C0 guineas tow r ard the Mansion House Fund for the relief of the sufferers, reached Sir William Treloar before steps had been taken by him to open the Fund. The reading of his Majesty’s telegram at the Court of Common Council evoked much enthusiasm, and within a couple of minutes it had been decided that the Corporation should match the King’s gift with a like contribution. A little later the Lord Mayor received a, telegram from the Queen expressing her deep sorrow at the terrible calamity, and intimating her desire to contribute £IOOO to the Mansion House Fund. Hard on the heck of the Queen’s welcome message came one from the Prince and Princess of Wales, containing the news that they desired to make a joint contribution of 500 guineas to the Fund. The splendid example set by the King and his family is being eagerly followed, and the fund bide fair to run into six figures in a very short space of time.

Mr Winston Churchill has informed a London interview'd- that there is no truth in the suggestion contained in the report freely cirfculated this week that he was about to leave the Colonial Office. This statement seems to dispose of th© rumour that the Under-Secre-tary for the Colonies is to bo transferred either to the Education Office or the Office of Works. While it is probably accurate, it must not be taken too literally. A Minister is not at liberty to disclose the secrets of his Government, and may consider himself entitled, when questioned, to deny a report ,which he cannot affirm without breach of confidence. Sir Walter Scott’s famous answer to the inquiry whether he was the Great Unknown, “ No, and I should have made the same reply if I had been,” is often, repeated in effect by members of Governments, who are not regarded as being guilty of any serious departure from the'truth; in thus putting off an inconvenient questioner. Assuming the statement to be correct, the question arises, “ Is Air Churchill to become Secretary for the Colonies?” This was one of th© questions put to him by the interviewer. If so, his statement that he was not to leave the Colonial Office would bo verbally accurate, though it would not .convey the meaning generally attached to it. The reply almost universally given to this startling suggestion was that, great as are Mr Churchill’s abilities, he has not yet had sufficient Ministerial experience to qualify him for a position of such supreme importance; Moreover, it is believed that, though the'Earl of Elgin has been strongly criticised by some of the Radicals for refusing to go as fast as they desire on the Chinese labour question, Ministerialists generally would be very reluctant to see a man of his administrative knowledge shelved in favour of so young a politician a® the present Colonial Under-Secretary. “It is with quite a pang that w'e have said good-by© to these Southern Islands,” says Airs Ramsay Alacdonald in her last contribution on New Zealand to the “Labour Leader,” “for even in one short visit we had learnt affection for them and their people. . . . Wo left New Zealand enriched by many new friendships and many delightful memories.” Air George Thomson, of Oamaru, and of the Otago School of Alines, has just fot .an appointment in Northern lexico, and leaves London probably at the end of this month. He will bo accompanied by his wife. Air Thomson will visit several mining centres in the United States en route.

An exciting scene was witnessed in Plymouth Sound on Saturday in connection with the departure of the "White Star Liner lonio for New Zealand. Neither of the Plymouth papers report the incident, but the facts are that just as the steamer started a email boat with three occupants . pulled acm-s her course. The ionic immediately went astern, and the bluff of her bow just grazed the small craft. Fearing disaster, Aliss Radford, one of the occupants, who was a visitor from Liverpool, jumped into the sea and kept herself afloat until rescued by a passenger who leapt from the liner’s deck to save her. The “ Springboks ” said good-bye to Old England on Saturday, amid scenes of great enthusiasm. The cheering and einging at Waterloo Station, and again at Southampton, recalled vividly the departure of their famous predecessors, the “ All Blacks.” As on that occasion, the Welsh students from Hartley College, Southampton, were very much in evidence at the steamer’s side, and sang and cheered the “Springboks” out of port. Two young ladies who accompanied the New Zealanders to Southampton 1 aa,t year to see them off, and who, I believe, rejoiced in the name of the Australian Twins, appear to have shown an equally touching devotion to the fortunes of the “ Springboks.” A photograph in the “Daily Mirror” shows them in the midst of the South African team on the deck of the s.s. Norman at Southampton, giving the Springbok war-cry as a last fond farewell.

In an interview with an “ Evening Standard” representative, Air Ramsay Alacdonald points out that in the colonies a well-masked national sentiment is being developed*- and that at the same time there is a sympathetic and Gcntimnetal feeling for the Alother Country. Ho claims to . have . discovered “very little Imperial feeling in any of the co-loniee.” “I believe,” he says, “that in the event of war the colonies would rally round the Alother Gauntry just as they did in the South African war, but- it would not bo became of the idea of Empire, but for the sake of the Alother Country—the land of their forefathers.” Air Macdonald savs he found in. the colonies a growing feeling against the obligation to admit coloured subjects of the British Empire, and, ns regards Japanese and Chinese immigrants he will not- ho surprised if British Columbia gives Ottawa exactly the same trouble as San Francisco is now giving Wash-

The alert Colonial Office! The hustling, energetic. up-to-date Colonial Office! Here is a little story of Whitehall officialdom for the truth, of which I can vouch. When the earthquake occurred at Kingston, Jamaica, this week, a lending newspaper on the Government side'sent a reporter round to the Colonial Office in search of photographs of Kingston. The official whom” he interviewed received him courteously, heard his request, and thou withdrew into the inner recesses of the Department, to return presently with this delightful piece of information; “Wo have, a fine sat of photographs of ’Kingston, ami expect to lay our hands on them in the course of a week or so!” It is to he Imped that the ether work'of the Colonial Office will not become hopelessly disorganised by this display of feverish haste. 'For colonial hotels ?tlr Bullon has nothing but praise, and it is high praise, too. “Let me cay with all the emphasis at my command,” he writers, “ that my first impressions of hotel life in Australasia, given in my second article, have Been deepened and confirmed bv every,fresh one that I have stayed in, until I am fully prepared to swear that, of all the countries I have

travelled in, Australasia is easily first in the matter of hotels. The food is always excellent, well cooked and abundant, the accommodation is invariably comfortable, the attendance all that could be wished, and the prices on an average are about one-half of what they are anywhere else. Sorrowfully do I confess that I have never stayed in any British hotel that was nearly as good so far as personal comfort is concerned as the worst hotel I have sampled out here. These hotels are less pretentious in appearance, but they have no irritating extras, baths are not considered a luxury for which you must pay a high price, but are free at any time; a cup of tea at early morn in bed and a newspaper are brought you and not charged for; afternoon tea is also free, and,. whisper it gently, 11 you are meanly inclined you need not tip anybody. I would rather stay. in the smallest way-back hotel in Australia or New Zealand that I have visited than the most swagger hotel in London, while as for America—-but there, to stay in any'American hotel is to suffer ‘penance for sin unrepented ox, and thepunishment is fully adequate. The Tyrolese chamois presented to the New Zealand Government by the Emperor of Austria are arriving in London to-day, and will be transferred forthwith to the Royal Albert Dock, where they are to be kept pending shipment to the colony on hoard the lurakina. The chamois, numbering two bucks and six does, have been slowly habituated to the diet which will be necessary for them, during their long voyage. The Austrian official who has brought them as far as London will return to Vienna in charge of the native birds and lizards recently sent hither by the New Zealand Government as a present to the Imperial Alenagerie at Vienna. . ,