OUR LONDON LETTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7841, 10 January 1887, Page 6

OUR LONDON LETTER.

[FROM OIJB own correspond «NT. J » j ( London, December 2. THE ATLANTIC MAILS. The Imperial Postmaster has given great offence to many by an experiment. he has sanctioned in connection with the carriage of the Atlantic mails. For many years the Cunard and the White Star lines have practioally had a monopoly of this lucrative work, and have unquestionably discharged <iieir duty with remarkable punctuality and care. The postal authorities have, however, discovered that it is possible to have the work done for something like £25,000 a year less than hitherto, if they transferred the carriage of mails to the Inman and the Guton lines, and to the North German Lloyd'a. The two first-named will maintain the old route from Liverpool, via Queenstown, to America, and the other will start from Southampton. The policy of employ" ing a heavily subsidised foreign line, to the manifest injury of British owned ships, has i been seriously questioned, but, in the South of England, with much less vehemence than in the North, as there is a Blight advantage in. point of time to commercial men in London and other southern centres. The San Francisco mails for New Zealand will in future be despatched via Southampton. They will close in Loudon at half-past seven p.m., and ! they will catch the steamer at half-past eleven. Under the old system the mails were forwarded to Qaeenstown and caught the Liverpool steamer on the Friday. It is thought there would be a alight advantage in adhering to the Queenstown route, but it is not a matter of much moment. It is possible experience may show there will be no retardation of the mails. Nothing has been done, so far, towards accelerating the I carriage of the mails by the overland line in America; an opinion prevails that the United States authorities will not make any effort to comply with colonial wishes in this respect. In connection with this subject, it may be mentioned that a Mr. R. S. Girodia has been lecturing before the London Balloon Society upon a proposed mail and passenger route _ to New Zealand, via Rio de Janeiro and Valparaiso. The advantage he held out was that of the distance being accomplished in about 38 days. He was, evidently, not aware that the Kaikoura, on her last outward voyage, via the Cape, performed the distance in 38 days 2 hours 22 minutes, and that the Tainai completed the run home in 37 days 20 hours and 37 minutes. There is, therefore, no advantage on the score of time to be gained by adopting the proposed new route. There is likely to be some smart racing across the Atlantic between the Cunard Company and the North German Lloyds ; as the old mail-carrying line want, if possible, to demonstrate their superiority of speed over the new contractors. It is curious to observe that in this matter the London Chamber of Commerce subordinates every consideration to the strict application of the Free-trade principle. The secretary writes that the Chamber has long advocated the non-renewal of the contracts, and the throwing open of the carriage of the mails to all lines in such a manner as to give a practical premium to the most rapid vessels. He urges the ocean-letter postage is fast becoming an item in international competition. In contrast with this view of the matter, so far as it involves the use of German steamers, is placed the policy of Prinoe Bismarck. He subsidised a line of steamers to the East because he held that it was beneath the dignity and against the interest of a great Empire like Germany to have its official mails carried across the seas under a foreigu flag. The Hamburg press now chuckles over the fact that the English Government seems to be superior to such scruples. Foreign freetraders admire our robust adherence to free trade principles. One consequence of the new policy will be to diminish the number of mercantile steamers capable of being converted into armed cruisers in emergency. Hitherto we have relied upon our mail steamers, and have quickly utilised them. The German steamers will not be available, and this point is not met by the PostmasterGeneral when he says that they are British built and British manned easels. THE DISTRESS AND EMIGRATION. Mr. John Norton, the energetic delegate of the New South Wales Trades' Onion Council, . boasts that he has succeeded in opening the eyes of the British workmen to the delusions of an emigration policy, and that he has little fear of any general desire being evinced by our workmen to better their lot by going to the colonies. ,When he came over he certainly found himself confronted by considerable opposition from the working men's societies ; but his incessant lectures, and the reiteration of statements respecting great depression in the colonies and the difficulty of procuring work there, have at last produced some acceptance of the story he tells. Last week he addressed a conference of some forty of the representatives of the Metropolitan Working Men's Clubs and Trade Societies, and he induced them to pass a resolution strongly condemning the State-assisted Emigration Scheme of Lord Brabazon. Just prior to the meeting of Parliament, which has been fixed for Thursday, the 13th of January, m more public demonstration is to be held in St. James' Hall, with the object of discountenancing emigration. Mr. Norton has had interviews with Mr. C. Lucas, of the Colonial Office, who is in charge of the Emigration Bureau. Mr. Lucas was charged by Mr. Norton with making statements about the oharaoter of the work available to emigrants whioh are contradicted by the Sydney papers that have reached London. Mr. Lucas was not a little nonplussed by the directness of this attack, and he declined to discuss the matter, | Mr. Norton accuses Mr. Lucas of concealing from him the fact that representatives of the Emigration Committee were about to visit the colonies, and told him that such tactics < would not succeed, as he heard of them in time to write out and to secure for these representatives a suitable reception on their reaching Adelaide. We wait with some interest to learn what is meant by ench a reception. The Cardinal-Archbishop of Westminster, feeling that any spasmodic relief that may be afforded by the creation of a wages fund to find work for the unemployed during the coming winter, will after all be but a very transient form of assistance for the distressed classes, has suggested what he regards as a more permanent and adequate remedy for a form of distress, which threatens to become chronic in overcrowded London. He suggests a plan , of State-assisted emigration whioh differs in some respects from the scheme associated with the name of Lord Brabazon. He does not propose that poor emigrants are to be assisted out of Imperial taxation, but he suggests that they should be assisted by loans which would be secured on lands granted to or Bold to the emigrants by the colonial authorities. Practically what he advises is that application should be made to the colonial Governments for grants of unoccupied land in certain districts, or for the sale of them upon easy terms, that upon these lands groups of emigrants, combining artizans with agricultural labourers and their families, should be located, and that they should be helped to settle down by 1 means of loans, which would be repaid to the colonial Governments as the Settlements develope, In the letter in whioh Cardinal: Manning advocates thlis scheme, he adverts to the opposition of the trades unions of Australia, and deprecates the alarm which they appear to feel. Observing this Mr, Norton wrote to the Cardinal asking for an interview with him; an • appointment was at once courteously granted to him,and last week Mr. i Norton had . a long conversation with the Cardinal,' and assured him that the working classes of Australia would not countenance any such scheme as this; that the land laws of tha colony were such as to render it impracticable, and that depression prevailed in the colonies where thousands were seeking employment. . Cardinal Manning discussed the. whole subject in ; the calmest manner and in the kindest spirit, and appeared to feel the force of many of the objections that were urged ; but he thought that before his scheme could be got into fall working order the difficulties mentioned by Mr. Norton might have passed away. SIR JULIUS VON HAABT. Sir Julius von Haast has received a very gratifying mark of distinction from the Queen and the Prince of Wales, who have forwarded to him framed photographs of themselves with their autographs, accompanied in the case of the Prinoe of Wales, with a letter couohed in friendly and even cordial terms< A similar distinction is not known to have been conferred on any other colonial representative, This mark of signal favour

is probably to be attributed to the old association which the Christohnrch Curator had with'the Prince Consort in his University days. t Sir Julius is packing up with all haste, and hopes to despatch 52 oases of exhibits to New Zealand this week. To speak generally, he has at present paoked up all the exhibits that may be considered useful to the oolony and worth returning. He is holding back for the present the Government collections, some of which may perhaps be handed over to museums and public institu tions in this country, and portions of the exhibits, including some of the pictures, will probably be disposed of by auction. The ferns have been all sent back ■to Chiswick, and. it is believed they will be given to Kew gardens and other botanical institutions. The Buller collection of Maori ourioaities, pictures, &c., will probably be retained in this country, for some time at least. The Maori house and tomb, which excited so much interest at the Exhibition, have been i offered for a time to the Crystal Palace, and will probably go to Sydenham. Some of the remaining exhibits in this collection will probably be lent for a time to foreign institutions ; but nothing has yet been decided. Sir Julias von Haaßt hopes to start on his Continental tour in about a fortnight or three weeks. He has every prospect of materially increasing the value of his collection at tho Christohuroh Museum by the objects that may be presented to him in the countries ho is about to visit. He has received from the Royal College of Surgeons soma smoked Maori heads —a ghastly, yet interesting scientific collection to be returned by the mother country to the colony. Sir Julius expects to sail for Christchurch by the June steamer. Apropos of the distribution of Exhibition honours,, loud complaints are beginning to arrive from India, and it is possible that ere long they may come from the Colonies, that wrong persons have too often obtained decorations, and that those who did the real work have been passed over, The book entitled "Her Majesty's Colonies" was one of the ' literary features of the Exhibition, and Mr, Trendell, one of the staff of Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen, received a C.M.G.-ship for having produced it. It is now declared that, hia name appears on the title page of the volume as the author of the work, he cot only did not write but did not even edit the bulk of the articles. A Mr. Chandler is said to have written the Australasian section, and various writers other portions of the book.