ITEMS OF COLONIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7270, 7 March 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF COLONIAL NEWS.

[FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT. ] London, February 16. Your late Governor, the Marquis of Normanby, has just been the recipient of a high honour at the hands of Her Majesty, having been invested with the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. This we may assume towers quite into obscurity the merely colonial dignity of the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George, with which he was invested in 1877.

The high-handed doings of Prince Bismarck in relation to the colonies has had the effect of stimulating certain of his co-patriots to assert their claims to certain landed rights in Fiji, and the Colonial Secretary of that colony, the Hon. J. B. Thurston, C.M.G., is now in London in connection with the claims. It is needless to say that the claims of many English settlers to lands acquired in Fiji prior to its proclamation as an English colony were very summarily and cavalierly dealt with; but a German nowadays, is a horse of another colour, and w-th Prince Biamarck at the helm of European affairs, Germanus sum implies, if not a patent of nobility, at least rights that are not to be trifled with. The prominence given to their Luderitz claims in Western Africa may well induce his fellow countrymen to feel that rights similiarly acquired by them from nations before recognised Government was established in Fiji ought to stand, and it will be interesting to watch whether the mere fact of being a German wili, in the eyes of the English Government, support a claim which, in the case of an Englishman, is incontinently repudiated. These German claims appear to have been dormant until this all-prevailing spirit of German activity has revived them, and having been now placed in the hands of Prince Bismark for adjustment, they are sure to receive the utmost consideration from Lord Derby.

Mr. Arthur Clayden's new work on New Zealand, to which I formerly referred, is now announced by Wyman and Sons, publishers. It is a much larger volume than his former work on the same subject, and will be published at half-a-crown. Mr. Clay den has been entirely engaged in promoting emigration to the colony since his arrival, hia object being to form a party of special settlers to go out to the colony and take up land. In some of his lectures recently, he has been vigorously denouncing the anti-immigration feel* ing which, he says, prevails throughout the colonies. He says one of the most startling revelations that the Englishman has abroad is, an unwelcome reception by the colonists. " I found myself, in New Zealand, an object of vituperation, because 1 had in my simplicity urged British subjects to go and occupy British soil." And he adds, "Every ship-load of emigrants from the crowded old home is regarded with dislike." This will certainly be a novel view of things to most people in New Zealand, and considerably different from what is commonly regarded as the prevalent views respecting the advent of settlers. Mr. Clayden has evidently a very vivid recollection of his meeting with some of the newly-arrived settlers who greeted him on his return to the colony, after his lecturing tour in England, some four or five years ago. But then, a sudden and remarkable depression had fallen on the colony, which had completely altered the position of affairs on which his popular and attractive lectures had been based ; but certainly it will scarcely be maintained by many in the colony that, as a rule, newcomers are regarded with dislike. Mr. Courteny, the delegate from Taranaki, has delivered a lecture in the Assembly Rooms at Cheltenham, which has been reported at great length in the local Press. Sir Brook Kay occupied the chair, and introduced the lecturer, who gave a very glowing account of the advantages presented to settlers by I'aranaki. The pacification of the natives, the building of the breakwater, the salubrity of the climate, and the fertility of the soil, were described, aod Mr. Courteny drew a very pleasant picture of the life of a farmer at Taranaki.

Sir William Fox is employing his leisure time, at every opportunity, in assisting the crusade against drink. The other evening he addressed a large temperance meeting in St. Pancras' Visiting Hall, in which he reviewed at length the scientific and medical arguments for and against the use of alcohol, and gave copious illustrations of the baneful etfects of drink and the blessings of temperance, from his personal experiences of New Zealand. Sir William has now gone to stay at Torquay, for the benefit of his health. Mr. Montgomery, ivI.H.JEt., has returned from Paris, and is staying in London at present, at the Langham Hotel. He has gone this afternoon to Oxford, accompanied by his son and Professor Brown, of the Canterbury College, with the object of making arrangements for placing Mr. Montgomery, junior, at the University. Mr. Montgomery will leave for the colony at the end of the month, or during the early part of next month, by one of the direct steamers. Professor Brown, of the Canterbury College, intends returning to the colony by the next San Francisco mail.

Mr. Farr, Secretary of the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, is still in Scotland. Through the valuable aid of Professor Hewitt he has the prospect of success in obtaining the requisite supply of ova from the Scotch rivers, the season having proved unexpectedly favourable.

Mr. George Augustus Sala was very sanguine as to the prospects of his lecturing tour at the Antipodes. Before leaving he asserted his belief at a club dinner given to him that he would make a larger pile in his toar to the colonies than in ten years of his professional duties at home. I learn that the subjects of his lectures will be taken mainly from his experiences as a journalist and special correspondent, and that he will specially deal with the pageants and processions which he has witnessed in all parts of the world.

Among the Fellows elected on Monday last to the Royal Colonial Institute are Mr. A. R. Atkinson and Mr. John Bidewell, J.P., of New Zealand.

In addition to about 200 nominated immigrants taken out to Auckland by the Doric, the Rimutaka will take 60 or 70 for the Southern ports of New Zealand.