COLONIAL TOPICS IN LONDON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6099, 4 June 1881, Page 6

COLONIAL TOPICS IN LONDON.

[FROM OtTR OIVK CORRESPONDENT.] London, April 21. TEA AND FRUIT CULTIVATIONS'• A new correspondence lias sprung up in. the. Scotch Press about the fitness of New Zealand for certain new industrial products. At one time silk and tea were advocated; now fruit cultivation is having an innings. A correspondent, who professes his willingness to join in forming a company to give useful information on the subject, says that "a company wliO3e sole purpose might be the cultivation and preservation of fruits would yield a handsome return to shareholders." To him "Old New Zealand" answers that without some definite' and well-protected scheme for disposing of the fruit, it would hardly prove a success, because everybody in the colony can procure fruit , .at a nominal price; and there is no neighbouring market for it. Peaches (siys this authority) and -strawberries grow -wild inNewZealand ; plums and. raspberries in profusion,-■ and : apples and pears are only hindered froin being abundant-by a email insect, against which an antidote may bo expected to be discovered.. Tor the very reason, however, that' fruit is so plentiful and cheap, we give the opinion that a company for preserving and exporting- would .proVe a signal success. The following is his estimate of your given for the advantage of practical gardeners, l '-and others also, may feel tempted by the prospects of embarking in the industry :— •:'; ■ '•■-'■ -i '•>'■ "-'■ '•""I-have just a few words to add respecting' the climate" of New Zealand, about which, from the remarks I have read in : some of your previous issues, there - seems to he, some , doubt. There need be no doubt' oh'the sub-! ject; the North Island is very wet, except .-daring, three months of/the year; there are : during the Year more rainy days than in England, but they are distributed so .that they ntiay be reckoned upon almost to a certainty: The period , from the last week : irc December to the last week in March is dry, without being too dry ; there will'bein it a shower once a fortnight. From the end : of i March to the middle of May there will.be frequent rain; from May.until September rains will be more frequent still (this is the rainy season, during which the New Zealand bush roads are so very difficult) : ; from September to the latter end of December will again slacken off, and ' the day the dry summer weather will set in can almost be stated exactly ; it varies a little with the locality. In my five years' experience of the country there was, I niay say, no variation in this cycl(s of the weather: :So far as'l could am not aivagriculturist or experienced in the , cultivation of tea—there could hardly be a" better country for the growth of tea and the vine, or for producing silk; Tlie ( summer heat is' greater than in England ; tlie winter is mild though very wet; the thermometer scarcely ever touches freezing point ;• spring showers; certainty of fine weather in summer ; last, but not least, a fertile soil, with numberless undulating slopes, on the sunny aspects-, of which—screened from the intrusive force of the summer breezes—a genial, soft, enticine; heat prevails." ■ :

Whether any new industrial operations are to come from these prolonged, discussions in the Scotch press, I do not know.' They are perhaps chiefly valuable for the distribution of information. ■ A COLONIAL NOVEL. The critics here have beeu on the outlook for a work bearing the individual stainp of the colonies : which should deal with the colonial life exclusively, and give .more insight into the working of their life and character. Policy and Passion, a substantial story in three volumes, written by Mrs. Campbell Reed, gratifies to some extent the expectation. She boldly claims that it should, "remarking that "the Englishman desirous of penetrating to the hidden sources of- thought and action which govern the lives of his colonial brethren, though, he has to acknowledge deep obligations to several influential English writers, and to a smaller number of Antipodean authors, must deplore the limited medium of communication offered to his imagination by the literature emanating directly from Australia." With confidence . he prophecies that Australia will possess a literature of her own as powerful and original, as might be prognosticated, from the influences of nature and civilisation brought to bear upon the formation of a distinct material type. But the time for this is hardly ripe. "The scenery," she saya, " is i drawn directly from nature, and the name of Leichardt's Land—a tribute to the memory' of a daring, but ill-fated, explorer—is but a: transparent mark,, covering features that : will-bo familiar to many of my Australian readers. It is to be hoped that; the lineaments of . some of her . chief i characters may not be as .distinguishable as her descriptions of scenery. The chief; character is a Premier—Thomas Longlent— whose wife, being dead, falls under the charms of a Mrs. .Valiancy, whose husband leads a gamli'ing, irregiilar life, at the seat of government. She is anxious to get her; 'husband out o£ the road, and plies, her, fascination on the Premier, with the object of having him sent to a distant appointment. He (Longlent) is a noisy, capable man,' steeped in politics, as befits his position, but honest according to his lights. The. double mischief is the nature of the policy, "■which! he hopes to steer the colony into large? prosperity," chiefly by means of foreign loans, and. the passion for the pretty wife of another man, which hinders and him, are worked out with exceptional vigour and cleverness. Mrs. Valiancy, however, is : a flirt, and though she gets rid of her husI band, and draws the Premier on to. a proposal o£ marriage, she rushes away to Sydney to avoid the catastrophe, taking witli her as much as she can carry in diamonds and gold. , j A singular feature of "Passion and Policy" j is the account given of colonial girls. The Premier's daughter—Honoria Longlent—is endowed with the most sumptuous kind of beauty. All her longing and ambition, however, is to appear English rather than Australian; the luxury of the new country palls on her, and she lives in a dream of existence when out, society and all its relaxations at' home will he given her to draw upon. Another type is the giggling wench who marries the youngest son of an impoverished peer, and who virtually keeps him in the bush, and who deplores that the x'rice of a grand piano which was sent out from England had not.been bestowed upon stock-bulls. And a third is a dreamy, angelic typo of creature —with, a touch of Gcethe's Mignon—who lives in the light of an affection bestowed on her by an ex-guardman, and dies regretting, his unfaithfulness. Apart from the merit of individual types, it must be said that the lady conveys a wonderful impression of the indomitable energy.' of the English race under new condition of climate and occupation, and that the descriptions of scenery are somtimes admirable if too luxurious on a whole. Mrs. Reed, being | strongly encouraged by the London press, ! will no doubt repeat her experiment in another direction, her ambition, as she says, being "in some slight degree to aid in bridging over the gulf which divides the Old World from the Young." . .: . . ,' ROYAL COLONIAL INSTITUTE. The business of this association, as you know, has long been performed for nothing by an honorary secretary. But the increase in the membership and business' lias decided the council in paying a secretary. At a recent meeting the labours of Mr. F, Young were acknowledged with something 1 more thah'profusion. THE POSITION OF CROWN AGENTS. A curious question was raised in the House of Commons just before Easter, in connection with tho Crown Agents for the colonies. Colonial laws and colonial contracts l are usually issued through officers in' London called ." Crown Agents," and the question put by a member was to elicit their exact position. Arc they officers, or direct servants of the Crown, since they have their establishments within the Colonial Officebuilding, and with regard to the loans on contracts they offer security for, and claim the right to enforce in the English Law Courts, are they proffer security for them, since they habitually refer aggrieved parties to Colonial Courts for settlement of disputes; Mr. Grant Duff was iiot quite ready with a reply. He admits, however, that the Crown Agent is, in some measure, an anomaly. He has his office, for the sake of public convenience, within the building of the Colonial Office ; ho pays no rent for it ; he uses the English Law Courts ; on receipt of a writit is competent for him to plead mere agency, and on that account non-responsibility, or to refer the suitor to the Colonial Courts. Mr. Duff's inability to reply off-hand to this question has not stifled discussion on the subject, and the demand is being made that the whole position and responsibilities of the Crown Agents should be cleared up. In what manner is it worked, and to what colonies are they appointed, and by whom? How are they paid? In what proportion do the various colonies, contribute

the money? ' Is it right to give them the ! name of Crown Agentsjif they are iu no sense servants of .the.Crown, or to give them offices in a Government building where the Government has so little control over them, since these conditions must confer on them a prestige to which they are not entitled, seeing that their position may only be that of commercial agents, paid by a commission on the loans they float, or the contracts they make, or the goods they buy for the Colonial Governments. EMIGRATION SCHEMES. ' : The issue of the new Irish Land Bill involves the announcement of a now emigration scheme. It is not necessary to doscribe the Land Bill in detail. The one important provision for the colonies is that which gives, or will give if the Bill is passed, to a Land Commission the power from time to time, with the sanction of the Treasury, to enter into agreement with any person or body of persons having authority to contract on behalf of the Dominion of Canada, pr -any province thereof, or any British colony or -dependency', or of any State or other district in such colonies or dependencies, or on behalf of any public company or other public body with whom recently, the Commission is- satisfied, for the advance, by the Commission of such sums as it may think it desirable to expend in preventing emigration from Ireland. .More and more, cool observers are looking upon this .claim •as the : most hopeful portion ol the It is, .of course, indignantly reipudiated by the Land League on the leaders jdf the Irish party iii the House of Commons. ';The interest theSy will conoede in the matter ]|of the shifting of the population is from-one county to another■;•' from lauds which are [overcrowded "to ..lands 'under 'reclamation. :i They vehemently denounce the polfoywhich I■ depopulates the; country, in order to give ,a_ larger chance to those ■ remaining be- | liirid. " There is not a • man too many iii' Ireland,'? says Mr.'Parnell, in one of his' recent speeches ; but the more agitators' say," we cahiiot- affords to'accept emigration, or indeed anything oonnected with this cursed Land Bill; It is drawn and designed with the object of dividing'the League." We; must oppose it to r the utmosti For nothing short of absolute'appropriation of the land will satisfy-the people ot- us."- It cannot be. said, however, that emigration has presented itself in connection -with'lreland'in any, feasible ! way. ! You , already learn the offer—apparently generous—-made ■ by the Canadian Government to open an arteriaV connection with Mayo, Kerry and Cork, for the purpose of ivithdrawiug BOirie of the redundant blood tothe unoccupied territory of the'.:.'Saskatchewan : . -Tlie more it is : looked at, however, the less it recommends: itself' to % the experts. The proposal, they say, seems-sympathetic; and desirous of cooperating for the relief of Irish distress: In reality, though there ie suggestion, consideration of details, full calculation of- the cost of doing everything, nothing special is indicated by Canada. -The Canadian suggestions are'all to te carried out by the Imperial Government, or by a committee or association supplied with funds from the Imperial Treasury. All that the Dominion Government undertake is, to supply land guides to meet the settlers at Winnapeg-, to point put their lands, arid to provide tor making the British outlay a charge on each immigrant's land. The scheme contains nothing to show that any ;part of the guarantee will-be offered by the Government of Canada. She is to accept the new whose way is paid from London, and is to give nothing for them. In the bargains first, especially as, by her hostile tari&j she makes subsequent free intercourse of trade impossible, and emigrants, who might otherwise be good consumers of British manufactures, will not be so.