ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9017, 2 April 1888, Page 6

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

- [FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT. ] , London, February 22. Ma. F. H. CoWEN~has been selected to take charge of the orchestral arrangements of the Melbourne Exhibition. He is to receive an hororarium of £6000 for his personal serricen during; ten months, quite distinct from the payments which will have to be made to his band of eleven performers. Tliis sum seems rather exorbitant, but I have reason to believe that Mr. Co wen might have exacted £6000 for eight months had he known that the colonial commissioners were prepared to go as high as that. On the whole, the Agent-General thinks he has made a good arrangement. Communications were opened up with Herr Strauss, of Vienna, but the terms of this famous musician were too high to be entertained. Allotments have been made provisionally on this side in connection with the Melbourne Exhibition. Applications for space from Great Britain were made to the extent of between 350,000 and 400,000 feet, but this has been cut down to about 160,000 feet Making allowance, however, for passages which are essential to the proper display of the goods, the amount of floor space occupied by British exhibitors will still be about 350,000 feet. Up to the present it has not been ascertained whether this distribution will be approved of by the Melbourne Commission, but there is no reason for doubting that it will. There will probably be a good deal of grumbling on this side amongst the smaller exhibitors who have suffered by the reduction in space; bat the larger exhibitors are, expected to be fairly satisfied with what h&z been allotted to them. There is a 'good prospect of a large collection of pictures Deing sent out to the Exhibition. Noblemen like the Duke of Westminster are making inquiries as to how they should ship their pictures, and otherwise exhibiting a disposition to comply with the request of the Commissioners. ■■ There is a report here that Major Atkinson is likely to be the next Agent-General, but Sir Francis Bell will continue to hold Office until next February. The Spanish Government are issuing invitations, for an International Congress, to consider the use of fraudulent trade marks in wine, and the adulteration of wine. The British Government have been invited to be represented, and they are sending round to ask the Agents-General whether they desire representation. - A meeting of shippers and others interested in breaking down the Australian "ring" was held in London on Monday, at which resolutions were ■ passed and • a committee appointed to endeavour to come to terms with the Associated Brokers. A "ring" similar to, and apparently associated with the one which prevails in London, exists in Liverpool, and snippers who have made themselves obnoxious to the Liverpool " ring " find themselves hampered in tneir dealings with the London "ring." "• The bankruptcy proceedings ' in the case of Lord Augustus Loftus are to be annulled. An agreement has been arrived at by which certain' creditors withdraw claims to the amount of between £20,000 and £30,000, and a sum of £2000 is to be distributed in satisfaction of the remainder. This will pay th& creditors about fd in the £. Captain Loftus's wife, once a noted Victorian beauty, who fascinated the son of the Go-vernor-General of New South Wales at a ball at Government House some years ago, has followed the example of so many of our aristocracy and set up & millinery shop at the West End. Her only stock-in-trade is her good looks, for she can have no knowledge of the " business." . Bu<) with plenty of aristocratic patrons she will no doubt get on well enough. The alternative to the millinery business was (the acceptance by Captain Loftus of some sort of official appointment in the Seychelles Island; but exile of this description was too terrifying for either of them to acquiesce in. The Agent-General is receiving a good many applications for the post of railway commissioner, but so far no very notable man has offered himself. Applications are also coming in from America. It is as likely as not that the onus of dealing with the application will be thrown upon the Government. It certainly would be if the Agent-General could have his way. The competitors for the post are beginning to Appreciate some of the difficulties of the same, and to understand that it.will nob be quite .such plain sailing as it would be in some of the continental colonies, where the system of railway management is far less complicated. Nothing has yet been decided by the Colonial Office with respect to the Queen's assent being given to the reduction of the salary of the next Governor.' The matter might have been settled but for the changes in the Colonial Office, which will necessitate delay, inasmuch > as ■ Baron dei Worms, the new Assistant Secretary; will have to go oyer the ground which Lord . Onslow had previously investigated. f The acceptance by Sir Henry Holland of a peerage will not involve any change in the person of the Colonial Secretary, He will still hold this office. The reason for his election to the Upper House is that his health will not stand the strain of the House of Commons work. He at first intended to , take the name of Baron Whitley, butjie suddenly remembered that he might be mistaken for the Universal Provider of that name, so he has chosen the title of Baron Knutsford. Mr. George H. Rhodes, of New Zealand, has been elected a Fellow' of tha Royal Colonial Institute. < - Some amusement ; has ! been caused in colonial circles on this side by the news which has reached England from Australia that New Zealand contemplates disbanding a considerable part of her colonial forces and replacing them by English regiments. Of course no credence is attached to tho story. A company is being formed in London called the Champion Gold and Silver Mines' of New Zealand-Co, The capital is £75,000, in £1 shires. It is to be worked by Parkes' system of gold extraction, which is very successful tor" the treatment of refractory ores. , Parkes' system, I understand, is somewhat as follows The raw ore is first crushed roughly] then intimately mixed with the fluxes and put into the reverberatory smelting furnace, where it is allowed to smelt for three or four hours, when the ore and fluxes become a liquid mass of molten metal. The slag, which swims on the top in a tine fluid state, is then skimmed off, and the regulos tapped, which flows out into iron or

sand " moulds. This regulus contains all the gold £ and £ silver > and other- metals* j The • regulus : is ' allowed to cool and : dis-< integrate, It is then placed in a cAlclning furnace, ! and about half, the ' sulphur burned out ,of it. It is then' toixed 'with oxide of '■ load' and : smelted, and the gold, silver and copper combine with the lead and form* an alloy. : When this is considered complete, "the lead is tapped and run into moulds. This lead is then nmelted in the cupelling furnace, and the lead oxidised in the usual way, leaving behind it the precious metals. i The Newbery-Vautin Company bids fair to be a success. The shares, 10s paid-up, are selling at £2 10s. . A great number of applications are being received for the testing of ores from all parts of th© world. Sovcral machines have been sent out to New Zealand. ;; The Marototo (near Auckland) Gold Mining Company is talked of as in course of inception. ..' ' . .• • • Last Wednesday Mr. D. Taller mam read a paper at the conference held in the hall of the Brokers' Company, on "Available Food for* the People.He reviewed at some length the different sources of our food supply, giving great prominence to the New Zealand mutton. .v ■ i. Mr.: Henniker Heaton has ft rival. A limited liability company is said to be in course of formation, to be called the Halfpenny Post Company. It is proposed to sell in every town and village in the United Kingdom an envelope sheet of writing paper, with an embossed penny postage stamp for the * sum of one halfpenny. The idea is even more absurd than Mr. Heaton's Imperial Fenny 1 Postage scheme. A week yesterday Sir John Gorst was formally installed as the Worshipful Master of the Drury Lane Lodge oi Freemasons. ; Joseph Scott, the New Zealand pedestrian, obtained an easy victory in his long distance walking match with John Kibberd, the ex-champion, at the Royal Aquarium, last week. The two men started on Saturday, February 11, at eleven o'clock in the morning, Hibberd knocked off after completing 92 miles, while Scott did 5.22 miles in less than eleven hours. The desire of the French Government to substitute a nickel coinage for a copper one will, if carried out, greatly increase the price of nickel, and add to the value of the black sand off the Wast Coast of the Middle Island, to which I referred in my last letter. More misfortunes for Mr. Froude! Mr. C. S. Salmon, an authority on West Indian subjects, has written a book for the Cobden Club series of publications which, it is said, will be a complete refutation of many, if not all, the statements set forth by the "great" historian in his last effort of imagination, "The English in the West Indies." The team of Rugby football players, which is going out to the colonies, will leave England for New Zealand on March Bth, in the Kaikoura. On the day previous to their departure a dinner will be given in honour of the team, at which the captain of the Kaikoura will be present. A dramatised version of " The Mystery of a Hansom Cab " is to be produced at the Princess Theatre to-night. There is to be a real Melbourne hansom on the stage, and application has been, made to the London office of the Melbourne Argus for old copies of the paper for use during the play. One of the evening journals to-night publishes some interesting details concerning Mr. Feargus Hume, author of the book. This gentleman, we are told, as perhaps your readers will know, is a barrister affiliated to the Supreme Court of New Zealand, and is at present managing clerk to a firm of solicitors in Melbourne. He is of Scotch descent, and his parents hold a good social position in Dunedin. A little company is coming out on Monday called the Colville Gold Mining Company, in the Coromondel district. The capital Is only £7300. The directorate does not include any well-known names. It is a mlstako to float such small companies on the London market, for people naturally ask, is hot local enterprise sufficient to grapple with an undertaking of this sort ?