ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8987, 27 February 1888, Page 6

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

[FROM OUR LONDON' CORRESPONDENT.]

London, January 13. The report of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company (Limited), which is to be submitted to the shareholders at the twenty-third annual general meeting, to be held on February 3, shows that the net profit for last year amounts to £69,567 14s 6d. The directors recommend a dividend at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum and interest on capital paid in advance on old shares, a bonus of 5 per cent., and the carrying forward of £15,003. The directors have not yet disclosed what they mean to do with" the profit of £80,000, realised on the sale of their premises, Collins-street, Melbourne. Perhaps they will follow the example of the Australasian Mortgage Agency Company, which has just added a sum of £36,000, obtained in the same manner, to its reserve fund. It is the intention of the New Zealand Shipping Company that on and after the end of this month their steamers shall put in at Teneriffe instead of Madeira.

The idea of sending out a football team to Australia is not popular in this country. The organ of the game in the press says that nothing but a series of defeats could' come from such a step, inasmuch as all our leading players are utterly unfamiliar with the Victorian gamea variety of the Association game. But this objection would not apply to New Zealand, where the Rugby game is extensively played. The obituary of the fortnight includes the name of the Rev. Dr. Donald Mackinnon, who died at Kilbride Manse on January at the age of 71 years. Dr. Mackinnon was undo of the present managing proprietor of the Melbourne Argus, and brother of Mr. Lachlan Mackinnon, who is at present staying in England. The early years of his pastorate were spent in Melbourne.

The Standard does not consider that the action of the Argentine Republic, in setting aside the sum of 500,000 dollars annually for three years from the beginning of this year, " with a view to encourage the exportation of live cattle and of beef and mutton preserved in tins, by the refrigerating process, and of other preparations," bodes much danger to the meat import trade of this country. Out of this half-million dollars, about two-thirds is to be paid in premiums on exportation, the remainder being devoted to the encouragement of breeding at home. The Standard shows that so far as mutton is concerned, the bounty would amount to only one-eighth of a penny per lb, while as for beef, there is practically none in the River Plate fit for the European market. It therefore anticipates that the tinned meat exporters will secure the lion's share of the bounty. The latest official publication of the Argentine Republic gives the following particulars with restock of- that country, and its values — Horned cattle 18,000,000, value £29,000,000; sheep 80,000,000, value £16,000,000; horses 5,200,000, value £4,200,000 ; hogs 379,800, value £340,000 ; goats 777,500, value £800,000; asses and mules 305,000, value £2,000,000.

The Moscow Gazette is calling attention to the weakness of the Russian Squadron in the Pacific. "In case," says that paper, "of an action in the Pacific, Russia would have at her service only 100 guns and 1600 men, including officers, which is miserably inadequate for possible eventualities. The insignificance of our Pacific fleet is still more apparent when we remember that these five war vessels are of small dimensions, consisting of one frigate, two corvettes, and two clipper ships." The Moscow Gazette urges the Russian Government to build a naval dockyard at Vladivostock. It is satisfactory to learn, on the authority of Mr. Edward Stanhope, Secretary of State for War, that within the present year the defences of all the most important coaling stations of the empire will be carried to a satisfactory conclusion. Mr. W. Montgomery has beep visiting Monte Carlo, but merely out of curiosity, and not for the purpose of trying his luck at the gaming tables. Mr. Todhunter, who was assistant to Sir Julius Von Haast at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, is returning to the colony in the Rimutakathis week. He will tike out 350 stoats and weasels for the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company. The Government will have another 300 sent out as soon as they can be collected.

The St. James' Gazette, in commenting upon the report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the sole consumption of drink in New South Wales, makes a very good joke. It suggests that, in view of the fact that the population of the colony spend £5 per head per annum on strong drink, as New South Wales wants a, change of name it should call" itself " The Great Thirst Land." In Great Britain the expenditure was only £3 7s lOd per head for the same year as that upon which the commissioners reported. Nearly all the newspapers have commented upon this report. The statement of the Governor of jSarlinghurst Gaol, in New South Wales, that 92 or 93 per cent, of the cases entrusted to his custody have arisen from drink coincides with the opinion often expressed by Cardinal Manning that drink is the cause of nearly all the crime with which civilised nations have to contend. Tasmania is to be allowed one commission ■every two years in the Imperial army. Canada is offered six. The Immigration Information Office have just issued their circular to emigrants for the current month. They give a very unattractive report of New Zealand. All artizan and mechanical trades are said to be depressed, the chief markets of labour supply are overstocked, but there is a fair demand for farm and station hands. Domestic servants are also in request, though not at such good wages as formerly. It may be remembered that several weeks ago a good deal of sensation was caused by the shooting in Dublin of an ex-clergyman, named Whytc-Melville, by Captain Dunne. When the case came to be investigated by the.Magistrates the cross-examination of the prosecutor led most people to bolieve that we were on the eve of a cause celebre, and the opinion was commonly expressed that Captain Dunne's conduct was by no means

blameworthy. As soon as the preliminary inquiry before the magistrates was ended, Mr. Whyte-Melville left the country, and has gone, it is said, to Spain. Captain Dunne was released on bail; but it is not thought that the case will bo proceeded further with. Captain Dunne was engaged in the Maori wars. Two years ago a man named James Malcolm, a salesman in the Smithfield meat market, was sentenced to seven years' penal servitude for bigamy. He had met a young lady at Brighton, and represented himself to hor as Captain McDonald, of the Kaikoura. He induced her to marry him, though he was already married. He has just been released from prison, as it is believed he is in a dying condition. Sir Saul Samuel left London on Monday to return to New South Wales. A party of about a hundred colonials assembled at Victoria Station to see him off, including all his fellow Agents-General. He was quite touched by this compliment, and it seemed to cheer him up a little, but he was in a very depressed state of mind, having received that morning particulars of his son's fatal illness. A day or two before his departure Mr. Stead called on him, and the result of the interview appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette of Monday. Mrs. Gordon Bail lie, whose inquiries in the colonies on behalf of the Crofters will perhaps be familiar to your readers, has come back to England with a poor opinion of New Zealand. The late Mr. Macandrew, of Dunedin, she says, invited her to inspect 20,000 acres of land in the Otago district, which he thought would do for a Crofter settlement, but on visiting it she found it entirely unfit for such a purpose. Besides, she continues, there is no market for fish in New Zealand ; " the coast is dangerous, the country is burthened with a debt of which every ne%' comer must bear a share, and it is under great depression, while Sir Julius Vogel's one idea is to borrow money to build railways in which there is no one to ride. To live in New Zealand is at present a luxury only for the wealthy." Mrs. Gordon Baillie thinks that Tasmania and Gipjjsland are the only places in Australasia suitable for crofter settlements.

>Jrs. Gordon Baillie's uncomplimentary opinions of Sir Julius Vogel appear to be shared by Mr. Henry Labouchere. In the money article in this week's Truth that gentleman distinctly warns his friends against investing in foreign bonds or colonial stock. " Our colonial cousins," he sagely remarks, "especially in Australia and New Zealand, are "fast outrunning the constable in the matter of borrowing. Ever since they imbibed from Sir Julius Vogel, that eminent colonial financier, the great lesson of how to raise the wind, they have developed a marked propensity for obtaining fresh capital from the Mother Couutry. A day of reckoning for some of the Australian colonies cannot be far distant."

Truth pays a good deal of attention to the colonies this week. He has a word of approval for Sir Gavan Duffy's article in the Contemporary Review, and has some remarks to make about the opinions expressed by Lord Brassev to the interviewer of the Pall Mall Gazette. Mr. Labouchere differs from Lord Brassey on the Imperial federation question. He gives it as his view that so far from the colonies desiring closer union with the mother country, we shall, in no distant time, hear a good deal of such cries as " Australia for the Australians," Canada for the Canadians," "New Zealand for the New Zealanders." The manifest destiny of Australia, says this authority, is to become the United States of Australia, and "if we go to bed and get up early, wear flannel next our skins and keep our feet dry, we shall most of us live to read the declaration of independence." "As for those lunatics at home and abroad," proceeds the polite member for Northampton, " who talk about the federation of the Empire, I believe them to be quite harmless, and one or two of them 1 know to be respectable." Very kind of Mr. Labouchere.

The observations on the part of Lord Brassey, which provoked this uncomplimentary ebullition from Mr. Labouchere, was that the praiseworthy efforts of the Australians to provide for their own military defences should be encouraged by the visit of a Royal military Dukeof whom we have two—and by the sending out of the band of the Grenadier Guards to play during the Melbourne Exhibition. Mr. G. W. Rusden will shortly publish a book, entitled " Aureretanga, or Groans of the Maoris." It will contain incidents in the history of this interesting and heroic people from the date of the introduction of Christianity amongst them down to the deputation of Tawniao to England in ISS4. The publication in England is announced of the first volume of Mr. John White's " Ancient History of the Maori," which has been prepared under instructions from the New Zealand Government.

Mr. Ross, of the firm of Ross and Glendinning, has been seriously ill, but is now getting better. At one time his condition gave rise to much anxiety. The report of the National Mortgage and Agency Company of New Zealand (Limited) Bets forth that the net profits amount to £5679, which, together with the sum brought forward, leaves a balance of £7301. An interim dividend at the rate r>f 5 per cent, per annum has already been paid, and the directors propose to'pay a further dividend at the same rate, free of income tax, and to carry forward £2301.