ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9254, 7 January 1889, Page 6

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

[from our own correspondent.] London, December 1. Sir Robert Herbert, the Under Secretary of State for the colonies, is devising an official seal for the new Crown Colony of British New Guinea. An ornithological friend has suggested to him that the Bird of Paradise should be the central figure, and he has practically accepted that idea. New Guinea and the Malay Archipelago being the homes of nearly all the Birds of Paradise, no more suitable emblem could be adopted, a'nd from the hands of Messrs. Wyon Brothers' the Crown engravers and die sinkers, a very artistic seal may be looked for. t Mr. Walter Johnston, of Wellington, who is still in London has been buying largely in Bank of New Zealand shares (on the London register). Soeing that Mr. Johnston is on the London committee of that Bank, this proof of confidence in the future of the institution may be accepted as a very favourable pmen, and the more so, as Mr. Johnston, who is a large shareholder on the old list, is understood to have paid £21 and more for all the shares he holds on the New Zealand register. Mr. and Mrs. Case Pinto have left England by the Oroya for a six months' tour in Australia and New Zealand. The time table of the New Zealand Shipping Company for the first half of ISS9 has just beeii published, and from its contents it appears that the departures and arrivals of the mail steamers are as follow :—The Ruapehu will leave New Zealand on January 'jHtn, and is due at Plymouth on March 7th. Iho ivaikoura will leuve the colony on February 21st, and be due in England on April 4th. Ihe Tongariro will leave London on January 10th and May 30th, and be due in the cobuy on February 2lith and July 16th. It will leave tho colony on March 21st and August Bth, and be due at Plymouth on May 2nd and September 19th. The Aorangi will leave London on February 7th, and June 27th, i and be due in the colony on March 26th and August 13th. It will leave the colony on April 18th and September sth. and be due in England on May 30th and October 17th. The Rimutaka will leave London on Marcli 7th and July 25th, and be due in the colony on April 23rd and September 10th. It will leave New Zealand on May 16th and October 3rd, and be due at Plymouth on June 27th and November 14th. Iho Ruapehu \yill leave London on April 4th, and be due in the colony on May 21st. It will leave the colony on June 13th. and be clue at Plymouth on July 25th. The Kaikoura will leave London on May 2nd, and be due in tho colony on June 18th ; it will leave the colony on July Ilth, and be due in London on August 22nd. The death is announced on the loth inst.at Camorton Hall, Cumberland, of Com mander Tom Harrison Falcon, R.N., who served with the Naval Brigade in the Now Zealand war from July to November, 1863, and received the New Zealand medal. The New Zealand Copper Co. (Limited) is just being floated on the London market. The capital is £150,000, in 75,000 £2 shares. The object of the company ia to purchase, work, and further develop the United and Champion copper mines, together with other mines and deposits as yet unnamed in Ani- . seed Valley, Nelson. The silver medal of the Royal Humane Society has been awarded to Mr. Edward R. McKinstrey, second officer of the lonic, for recuing a man who, on October 6th, while in a fit of insanity, jumped into the sea at Plymouth Sound, where the lonic was receiving the mails for New Zealand. Mr. McKinstrey, though fully dressed, and despite the struggles of the man, who appeared bent on destruction, managed to bring him alongside a boat, into which they were both hauled. A_ bronze medal has also been awarded to Lieutenant Caspar Baker, of the Egeria, for saving the life of a seaman in the Friendly Islands, on August ISth. Mr. Thomas Collingwood Kitto, an English engineer, who has been inspecting the Panama Canal works, reports rather favourably upon them. He says there has not been so much wastefulness and extravagance as has been represented, and he thinks that the engineering difficulties have been greatly exaggerated. "After examining tho whole of the works in detail," he declares, " notwithstanding any opinion to the contrary, I am a firm boliever in the ultimate success of this great enterprise." Sir Julius Vogel's new novel is to be called "The Year Two Thousand," and not " Anno Domini—2ooo," as was at first suggested. It will not be brought out before January, because the publisher, Mr. Hutchinson, has ascertained that there are some four or five hundred Christmas books of one sort or another to appear before the end of the year, and it would be prejudicial to the prospects of Sir Julius Vogel's imaginative effort to briiis it out too soon. It is, however, being printed so as to be ready for issue on the first opportunity. Those who have read the first two or three chapter speak very highly of it.

The capital of the New Zealand Caledonian Gold Mining Company, to which reference ha 3 been made in a previous letter, has been increased from £100,000 to £120,000, but only £100,000 will be issued at present. The directors are advised that the £20,000 already allotted for working capital is more than sufficient, but in order to meet any possible contingency, they have reserved an additional 20,000 shares to be issued if necessary, although they do not expect that such a necessity will arise. In the current issue of the Contemporary Review, the Rev. R. W. Dale continues his "Impressions of Australia," and forecasts the future of the colony. His article is too detailed and statistical for me to refer to at length, but I may say that Mr. Dale has evidently carefully studied the resources of Australia, and thinks that in the future it will become a serious rival to Europe in commerce and manufactures. Mr. Rees is still lecturing in the country on behalf of his emigration scheme, and secured the chairmanship of the Marquis of Lome at one of the meetings he addressed. A statement made in the House of Commons this week, however, may have some bearing upon the f uturo of his scheme. Baron Henry de Worms, in reply to a question, said that Mr. Rees had had an interview with Lord Knutsford, at which the latter expressed no approval of his scheme beyond a general wish for the success of any plan calculated to deal satisfactorily with the colonisation of crofters ; and that it was subsequently pointed out to Mr. Recs officially that he was under a misapprehension in interpreting what was said as an approval of his scheme. Neither had approval been expressed by the Secretary of State for Scotland, who informed Mr. Kees by letter that he " must guard himself agaiust any expression of approval or otherwise " of the scheme. The Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies then went on to say that the AgentGeneral for New Zealand had received a telegram from his Government saying that they had seen Mr. Rees' prospectus, ana that .the figures therein were entirely misleading, and they could give no countenance to it.