ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7791, 10 November 1886, Page 6

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

[from our own cobbkspondbnt.] London, September 24. The Prinoe of Wales has returned a final answer to the request of the various Governments of Australia that he should visit that continent on the occasion of the Adelaide Jubilee Exhibition. His Royal Highness has caused it to be intimated that it is impossible for him to accept this invitation next year more than any other year owing to hie presenoa being required in London, in consequenoe of the celebration of the Queen's Jubilee. The wording of the above sentence is held by some to indicate an intention on the part of the Prinoe to visit Australia at a future date, probably on the oooasion of the New South Wales Centennial Exhibition, in 1888, but this, of course, is pure speculation. The little duel between Sir Herbert Sandford and Mr. Walter Severn, as to whose influence should prevail in connection with the appointment of the British Commissioner to the Adelaide Jubilee Exhibition has ended in favour of the former. Sir Herbert, it may be remembered, aoted in a similar oapaoity for Great Britain at the Exhibitions of New South Wales and Viotoria, in 1879 and ISBO. The Duke of Cambridge will be President of the Commission. The great success of the Day Dawn Block in North Queensland is leading to something like a " boom" in Queensland joint stock enterprises. Mr. John Cameron, M.P., who ousted the great Mr. Pender for the representation of the Wick district, a recognised authority on metallurgy, has undertaken during the Parliamentary recess to go out to North Queensland to inspect the Kangaroo Hills tin mine in the Herbert district, in order to pronounce upon its prospects of being successfully floated. It has always been a recognised rule that Agents General, when in this oountry, shall not disouis colonial politics in their public utterances, and in years gone by representatives of Viotoria with free trade proclivities have been very jealously watohed, and rebuked if they offended against this wholesome rule. Sir Graham Berry, speaking at a banquet of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce last week, appears to have been a little carried away by some remarks made by the senior vice-president of that body, for he entered into an elaborate defence of the fiscal policy of Victoria, contending that had it not been for protection the trade of Viotoria with the mother country would not be half what it now is. Mr. Archibald Murray, of New Zealand, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute. Railway enterprise in Western Australia is proceeding apace. A company has just been formed under the title of the Hampton Plains Syndicate to promote a land grant, railway, and land company on the lines of the two companies already formed by Mr. Hordern and Mr. Waddington. Western Australia cannot, at present, stand such rapid railway development, and it is likely that the promoters of the new ventures will regret their precipitancy. The new Governor of Fiji has decided to Bail in the Clyde on November 5. Some views of the Pink and White Terraces of New Zealand are being exhibited photographed on porcelain by Mr. F. W. Holworthy, of Great St. Helens, London. The Bishop of Bedford has addressed a letter to the leading colonials now in England, inviting them to subscribe towards miseion work in the East End of London. Captain Everil), the leader of the recent New Guinea expedition, is endeavouring to obtain from the Imperial Government an extensive grant of land in New Guinea. If he obtains this he declares that he will be able to form a company somewhat on the lines of the North Borneo Company, with a very large capital, to develop the country. Mr. David Buchanan, of New South Wales, seems to be a sort of Mr. Henniker Heaton in a small way. Hβ is constantly advertising himielf. Iα every letter he writes to the papers he takes care to make it| known that he has sat for twenty-five years in the New South Wales Parliament, and he has just published a collection of the speeches he delivered during his public career in Australia under the modest title of " An Australian Orator." Why did not Mr. Buchanan call himself a " Sydney Cicero " straight out? Mr. Henniker-Heaton is patronising the British public something after the Gladstone style. It is a weakness of the Grand Old Man to olaim some affinity with every place of importance, either in the kingdom or out of it. The hon. member for Canterbury is sailing on the same tack. When the colonists were down at Bristol he condescendingly announced to the gratified inhabitants of that ancient city that he took a special interest in Bristol because his great-grand-mother once bought a night-cap there when she was passing through the place, or for some reason equally ridiculous.

The proposal for a new Antartic Expedition does not seem to be looked upon favourably by the general public. The prevailing opinion appears to be that the game is not worth the candle, and that if the South Pole possessed anything which would repay scientific investigation it would not have been left so long in neglect. A deputation on the subject is announoed to be in course of arrangement, which will represent the British Association and several other scientific bodies, and will wait upon the First Lord of the Admiralty, but whether anything definite will result therefrom is doubted. Sir Graham Berry, the Agent-General for Victoria, has been in communication with a Norwegian whaling firm with reference to a small expedition to the South Polar seas, but so far as is at present known, this firm are more anxious to sell their steamers to the Victorian Government for the purposes of the expedition than to undertake it themselves.

There has been numerous, one might almost say innumerable, oomplainio about the sales of colonial wines at the Colonial-Indian Exhibition, and the colonists say, with perfeot truth, that their wines have been presented to the British public in a very imperfeot manner, and they accuse the Royal Commissioners of having broken faith with them in regard to the conditions under which the ooTonial wines have been so'd. A very strongly worded letter appears on this subject in the Times this week from the Melbourne correspondent of that paper. I hear that this letter was brought under the notice of the Prinoe of Wales, as President of the Executive Commission, and that His Royal Highness was so muoh impressed with it that he telegraphed to Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen to come down to Abergeldie Castle, in Scotland, and explain matters,

A new olnb ie being formed in London, called the National Union Club, to be composed of politicians of all shades, and from all parts of the Empire, who are opposed to any interference with the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland. A notable feature in its management will be that, in view of the important part now being played in politics by women—presumably the dames of the Primrose League—the National Union Club will admit ladies as visitors to its preoinots, and will set apart certain rooms for their reception and entertainment.

A book will shortly be published by Whittingham and Co., of London, giving an acoonnt of the chief libraries of Australia and Tasmania. It will be compiled by Mr. C. W. Holgate, 8.A., Oxon.

Mr. Charles Hope is commencing a series of lectures on New Zealand in conneotion with a diorama of thec olony, now travelling through Scotland. M. de Harven, the Antwerp wool broker, who has recently been engaged in investigating the resources of your colony, has published the results of his inquiries in a volume of nearly 500 pages, crammed with valuable information, under the title of " Mission Commercial en Nouvelle-Zelande." It constitutes the best commercial handbook to the colony wbioh has yet appeared. M. de Harven entertains strong hopes of rendering Antwerp a serious rival to London as an emporium of Australasian wool. The Black Ball (Jorl Company, formed to purchase, take on lease, or otherwise acquire the Black Ball coalfield in the Mawheranui distriot, has just been registered.

Captain Edward Pallissr has thrown out a suggestion that Australian and Canadian officers should be invited by the Imperial Government to represent England at the autumn manoeuvres of the Continental armies. For each colony to send a separate representative on these occasions would be out of the question ; but if they oould elect one officer to represent them all it is believed that Captain Palliser'a idea might be carried out.

The report of the speech of the chairman of the New Zealand Shipping Company, in whioh he enters into a long explanation oonoerning the allegations of " Fairplay," isjuut to hand. Your financial contemporary promises to deal with the speech next week.