OUR LONDON LETTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9179, 8 October 1888, Page 6

OUR LONDON LETTER.

' 'ROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London, August 24. GERMANY AND AUSTRALIA. The announcement appeared in the Times a few days ago that an addition to the existing Hamburg steamship lines had just been made by the establishment of the Ger-man-Australian Steamship Company. This was said to be the result of two projected opposition lines to Australia, which had been lately fused into one company. Six additional steamers were to be provided for the new line. It is not quite clear what this statement really means, whether it is intended to imply that there has been au amalgamation of two separate newly-projected lines, or whether the Nordeutseher Llo.»d has secured the extinction of a rival by the familiar process of absorption. In this regard it may be mentioned that the attitude of Germany just now is not favourable towards fresh exertion in the fields of colonial enterprise Indeed, the hot colonial fit which caused so much trouble and annoyance to this country four years ago, seems to have burnt itself out, and Germany having had some experience of the cost, pronounces the colonisation game to be not worth the candle. When the colonial frenzv first seized them, the Germans contemplated the establishment of two kinds of colonies. In the first place it was proposed to divert the stream of emigrants from the United States to some land or lands where they would continue to be Germans in speech, tastes, and clothing instead, as is now the case, being rapidly absorbed into the mass of their Anglo-Saxon brethren. These colonies were described as agricultural colonies," and Angra Pequena on the West Coast, and Kilimandjaro on the East Coast of Africa, were spoken of as suitable localities. But according to a leading German newspaper all these ideas have vanished, and the hope of establishing German colonies by means of wholesale emigration is at an end. The other kind of colonies were to be known as "plantation colonies."' In them native labour was to be organised and officered by Germans nnder the exclusive protection of the German Government. Of this class New Guinea and the Cameroons were to be the types. . It is obvious that there is no special difficulty in the way of the Germans working colonies of this descrintion as successfully as the Dutch have done. But time is required for their development, a fact which our Teutonic friends do not seem to have reckoned upon. Already they are beginning to complain that as yet not a penny of profit has been received on all the sums which have been expended on the German i colonial enterprises. A little business has been done with the German colonies via Hamburg and Bremen, but it has not proved expansive. The imports from the West Coast of Africa to Hamburg attained their maximum value, 1665,000, in 1884, but since then they have steadily fallen down to £555,000, tile figure at which they stood last year. The vilueof the imports received at Bremen, which previous to 1884 varied from £17,000 to £32,000, stood last year at £1000. The exports from Hamburg to the same settlements have fallen from 56,000 tons in 1535 to 4-2,000 tons in ISS7, while the exports from Bremen have fallen from a maximum value of £32,000 in 1882 to £(i,400 in ISS7. The trade of Hamburg with the East Coast of Africa shows a similar decline, and the trade of Bremen with that quarter of the globe is now- reduced to almost nothing. The statistics of German trade with New Britain, the Marshall Islands, and Samoa tell the same tale. The exports to New Guinea, have increased from 1309 tons in ISSS to 4137 tons in ISS7, but as no imports have been received from that colony, it would seem very likely that these exports represent merely the expenses of the settlement. The combined exports and imports between Hamburg and Australia amounted last year to 53,940 tons, a trade hardly sufficient in extent to justify the competition of two rival lines of steamers. \N bile, however, apparently abandoning the idea of establishing colonies, Germany isindustriously pushing her colonial trade. With this object in view she is seeking to improve her Consular service, and to approximate the same more closely to that of Great Britain. Paid Consuls are to be substituted for merely honorary officials, it having been found that the latter attend more to their own business than to that of the German State. The number of paid Consuls has also been largely increased, and stands now at 85 as against 79 last year, and 54 six years previously. Another reform which is in contemplation is to compel all candidates for Consular appointments to prove that they have some practical acquaintance with trade and commerce. This idea might very well be copied in England. FREIGHT RINGS. A case having a very important bearing upon the subject of combinations to keep up freightage rates was decided bv Lord Chief Justice Coleridge last week. The plaintiffs were the Mogul Steamship Company, which plies between Great Britain and Australia, taking; in China by the way; and the defendants were a group of shipowners trading directly with China, who, for the sake ol , brevity, may be described as the China Tearing. It appears that the shipping trade with China is lucrative only for about three or four months in the year, when the tea harvest is on, and the China Tea-ring, to , which the Mogul Steamship Company formerly belonged, had fixed the rates for the working of the homeward trade during this period of the year. In 1885, however, a dispute arose between the Mogul Steamship Company and the Ring, which led to the former being excluded from the combination. Ever since then they have been righting desperately either to break up the power of the Ring, or else to force it to receive them back to a share of its advantages, while the Ring has struggled equally hard to maintain its advantages. It has been ottering a reduction 01 5 per cent, on all freights by vessels belonging to its members, if the shippers have not shipped tea at Shanghai or Hankow in vessels belonging to strangers. Thus shippers who have availed themselves of the cheap rates which the Mogul Company accepts for tea in May and June find themselves placed in a position of difficulty when the busy season comes sound. The Mogul Company has not sufficient steamers to supply their wants, for the China trade is only part of its business, and if they use the shins of the Ring they labour under the disadvantage of having to pay 5 per cent, more freightage than other shippers. The Mogul Company, therefore, finding its efforts to attract custom away from the Ring unavailing had recourse to litigation to compel the combination to readmit it within its ranks, and after protracted lawsuits in the China courts has at length brought the matter before the English High Court of Justice. In this it has again been unsuccessful, for Lord Chief Justice Coleridge holds although the Ring has undoubtedly done the company great injury yet it has not proceeded beyond what the selfishness of the trader would justify, and that such damage does not amount to malignant injury. Thus it would seem that this species of commercial boycotting is perfectly legal. The Lord Chief Justice's ruling appears to have attracted some surprise, and it is said that if it be upheld it will prove the most important commercial judgment of the century. But those who are disposed to criticise Lord Coleridge's decision ought to bear in mind that the China Tea Ring has only done to the Mogul Steamship Company precisely what the Mogul Steamship Company was trying to do to the China Tea Ring. However, notice of appeal has been given, so we are likely to hear more of the case. MR. REES'S COLONISATION SCHEME. • Mr. Rees has had an interview with Lord Knutsford, and explained to him, in the course of an-hour's conversation, full details respecting his scheme of colonisation on the East Coast of the North Island. The Colonial Secretary seemed a good deal interested in the idea, but was very cautious, and declined to say anything that would in any way bind his colleague, Mr. Goschen, in regard to the financial aspects of the proposal. He introduced him to Lord Lothian, the Scotch secretary, who examined the scheme still more in detail, and admitted that he regarded it favourably as a possible solution ol some of the difficulties under which Scotch crofter emigrants laboured. His Lordship advised Mr. Rees to be prepared to go before the Select Committee which the Government mean to appoint during the autumn session, and which will investigate thoroughly the various proposals for emigration put forward on behalf of New Zealand, British Columbia and other places. Mr. Rees has just issued a pamphlet entitled "Colonisation, the Salvation of the United Kingdom," which contains extracts from his forthcoming work on political economy. In this book he will propound a new economic theory, and one based "not on selfishness, unrestricted competition, and complete individualisation, but upon ) sympathy, association, and mutual help." He insists tliat the remedy for the economic evils under which the old country is labouring lies in the systematic emigration of her surplus population to the undeveloped lands of the new world; and he states that a system of colonisation upon co-operative lines is to be tried on the Last Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. Negotiations are to be opened with English cooperative bodies, trades and labour councils, and benefit societies. The capital required will be raised and assistance obtained from the co-operative bodies, trade and labour coun- , cils, Friendly Societies, Temperance organisations, and the general public, including the colonising societies and Exeter Hall.

Mr. Rees will read a paper on this subject before the British Association at Bath, before the Trades Union Congress at Bradford, and he will also lecture freely in various parts of the country, and endeavour in every possible wav to spread information on the point. Tonight he will deliver a lecture before the Balloon Society of Great Britain, at St. James's Hall, on " Co-operative Colonisation : a, Remedy for Poverty.'' In this lecture he will declare that some great plan of colonisation is an absolute necessity to relieve the present distress in Great Britain, to arrest future suffering and danger, and to extend the Imperial power, commerce, and happiness. The system of individual emigration has fulfilled its mission, and the colonisation of the future must be co-operative. New Zealand alone will absorb 500,000 families, provide investment for fifty millions of money, and pay interest and sinking fund, help to provide," through the surplus wealth created, for half the pauper population remaining in Great Britain, and at the same time render itself the most _ populous and prosperous colony in Australasia.