OUR LONDON LETTER.

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

OUR LONDON LETTER.

; [FROST OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London, December 1. SOLDIER EMIGRANTS. The Imperial Government are desirous of effecting an alteration in the terms upon which retired soldiers are permitted to commute their pensions on emigration. As the law at present stands, under the provisions of Act 1, William IV., cap. 41, soldiers at and above the age of 50, are allowed to commute their pensions for four year's purchase on emigration. But by the Pensions Commutation Act of 1871 officers are able to commute their pensions at their actuarial value. It is desired to place the private soldier on the same footing as the officer, and the Imperial Government are prepared to introduce legislation into Parliament to effect that change. But before proceeding to do this they desired to know what were the opinions of the colonial Governments upon certain points. Yesterday the High Commissioner for Canada, and all the Australian Agents-General and the Agent-General for the Cape went to the War Office and had ■ an interview with Sir Herbert Maxwell, representing the Treasury; Baron de Worms, Under-Secretary of Stat e for the Colonies ; and Lord Harris, Undersecretary of State for War. It was taken for granted that the colonies would not object to retired spldier emigrants entering their territories with a larger sum of money at disposal than they would have under existing conditions ; but if these conditions were altored the following question would arise:—Would it be better from a colonial point of view that the emigrant should commute tho whole of his pension, or only a part, say so much as would still leave him 6d a-day? If the former, would it be preferable that the whole sum should be paid to the emigrant) in this country, or that his passage only to the colony should be paid, and the remainder remitted to his destination? In the latter case, would the colonial Governments undertake its receipt and payment? If these points can be settled satisfactorily, would the colonies encourage this class of immigrants by the offer of grants of land, or by supplying such information as might tend to save them from falling into the hands of designing persons on landing? It is understood that the colonial representatives undertook to submit these points to their Governments, and the interview then terminated. THE PACIFIC CABLE. On the 22nd ultimo a meeting was held at tho Cannon-street Hotel, under the auspices of the Pacific Telegraph Company, to diacuss tho question of the laying of a cable from Vancouver to Australia. Tho Earl of Winchelsea occupied the chair, and there was a large attendance of city gentlemen and others interested in the Australasian and Canadian colonies. The noble lord, in opening the proceedings, disclaimed any idea of hostility towards the existing cable companies having lines to Australia, and cordially recognised their services as pioneers in cable enterprise; but he thought the time had arrived when the existing means of communication should be improved. The present rate of tariff, 9s 8d per word, if not absolutely prohibitive, was so high as to lead to very restricted intercourse, l>ut when the Pacific cable was constructed he hoped the tariff would be brought down to 4s a word. The physical difficulties in the way of laying such acable had been, ho said, greatly exaggerated. The question had been referred to experts, some of whom had been connected with tiie Challenger expedition, and they had all pronounced tho opinion that a cable laid in deep water was safer and would last longer than one in shallow water. In the first placp it would be wollmgh impossible for a ship of war to fish it up and destroy it, while secondly, at a great depth, it would be free from the attacks of insects and out of the reach of currents, and therefore not liable to attrition against the bottom of tho ocean. The soundings too, which had been taken In the Pacific, showed the bottom of the ocean to be composed in the main of soft "ooze," which formed a very suitable bed for a cable. There was already a cable to Pernambuoo, which was only 200 miles less in length than the proposed Pacific cable would be, and which was laid in water as deep as would be met with in the Pacific. All the assistance they asked for was that the Governments of Great Britain, Canada, and Australasia should jointly agree to use tho cable to a total of £75,000 a year. They would be asked to give nothing; on the contrary, they would receive back a quid pro quo in the form of transmission of messages for every shilling they spent. Lord Winchelsca dwelt at considerable length upon the advantages of the Pacific cable from an Imperial point of view, and his arguments in this regard constituted the strongest portion of his speech. Ho believed that the danger of the Atlantic cables between Great Britain and the United States being cut in time of war might safely be left out of account because there were not only so many lines laid but the United States Government would have so direct an interest in keeping open cable communication with Great Britain thatit might bo taken for granted such communication would always exist. The land line across tho Canadian Continent would be in British territory, and in the Pacific the cable would be so deep that, in the opinion of the experts, an enemy would not be able to got at it. The first point that it would touch would be at Hawaii, which was under joint Britsh and American protectorate and each of the succeeding stations of Fanning Island, Samoa, Fiji, ana New Zealand would, with the exception of Samoa, be British territory, so that wherever tho line was vulnerable it would be on British soil. After the Chairman's opening speech, the following resolution was moved by Sir Donald Smith, of Canada, seconded by Mr. Doxatt, of Messrs Dalgetty and Co., and supported by Mr. Blackwood, Mr. James McEwan, and Mr. Westgarth ;—" That, in view of the unsatisfactory state of the existing telegraphic communication between Great Britain and Australasia, this meeting most strongly approves of the proposal of the Pacific Telegraph Company (Limited) to lay a cable across the Pacific Ocean, from Vancouver Island to Australia, touching at Hawaii, Fanning Island, Samoa, Fiji, and New Zealand, and to reduce the tariff from Great Britain to Australasia to 4s per word, and that this meeting, believing that the laying of such a cable would be of great benefit to commerce in time of peace, and a safeguard to Imperial interests in time of war, trusts that Her Majesty's Government will do all in their power to facilitate the laying of such a cable, especially by obtaining the necessary soundings, with as little delay as possible." The resolution was carried without a single dissentient voice, and, indeed, the proceedings throughout were characterised by remarikable unanimity. Previous to the meeting Mr. Hesse, secretary to the Eastern Extension Company, had issued a letter which contained what might be called an Apologia on behalf of the Eastern Company. This letter appeared in the Times on the day on which the meeting of the Pacific Company was held, and Mr. Harold 1 inch Hatton, secretary to the Pacific Company, made an elaborate reply to the statements set forth therein. It is not necessary to go into all his points, but some of them are worth alluding to. Mr. Hesse declared that the interruptions in the Eastern Extension Company's cables had amounted to only 41 days since 18S0, or an average of five days per annum, a result which would compare favourably with the working of any other submarine system in the world. Mr. Finch Hatton, however, controverted this by saying that tho Pernambuco cable had only been interrupted once in ten years. I may here say that it is the repeated interruptions in tho working of the Eastern Company's cable which have induced city men to take so favourable a view of the proposed line across the Pacific, and it is quite open to supposition whether, if Sir John Fender's company could obviate these interruptions and reduce their tariff, a good deal of the support now accorded to the Pacific scheme would not be withdrawn. Mr. Doxatt, who seconded the resolution, spoke very bitterly of the loss and inconvenience caused to business men on

this aide by the recent interruptions of the cable communication with Australia ; while Mr. Blackwood, a finished specimen of Young Australian selfsufficiency, was so upset by the same cause that, whenever the Eastern Company was mentioned by name, he cried out " Monopoly ! Monopoly !" in a wild, hysterical kind of way. But to return to Mr. Finch Hal ton. He scored one other point acainst Mr. Hesse. That gentleman mentioned the discovery by Her Majesty's ship Egeria of depths of five miles off Fiji, and indicated that the Pacific cable would have to be laid in those depths. Mr. Finch Hatton said it was quite true that soundings five miles deep had been found off Fiji; but they were 500 miles off those islands, and 500 miles away from any point at which the Pacific cable would have to touch. But one fact mentioned by hia rival, Mr. Finch Hatton, forebore to touch upon. Mr. Hesse said that the proposal made by the Pacific Company that the Imperial, Canadian, and Australasian Governments should, in place of giving a subsidy, merely undertake to use the line to the extent of £75,000 per annum was not so favourable to the colonies as it looked, because the whole of the traffic at present exchanged by the Imperial and Australasian Governments was less than £16,000 per annum, and consequently a sum of about £60,000 would have to be made up in order to cover the amount of the guarantee. This is certainly a very cogent argument against the Pacific scheme.

Some fa-cts stated at an extraordinary gener&i meeting of the Eastern Telegraph Company on Friday, November 23, serve to show that Sir John Pender will be a difficult man to beat if he persists in opposing the Pacific scheme. Sir John tola nis snareholders at this meeting that theyjind fche companies working with them controlled over 29,000 miles of cable communication. He purposes to extend the South African cable system from St. Paul de Loando to thfb Cape, thus giving an alternative line of communioation with South Africa, and at the eame time with Australia. If this should be done, and a triplicate cable laid from Java to Australia, there ought to be very little interruption in the communication between here and the antipodes, even though the Pacifio cable be not laid. SIR WALTER BULLER. I notice that a section of the New Zealand press is rather severe upon Sir Walter Buller for having refused to accept the London directorship of Sir Julius Vogel's "Picturesque Atlas Publication Company." But surely this is one of those matters in which "a citizen is the custodian of his own honour." It cannot be denied that Sir Walter Buller's name would have been an important factor in any .undertaking of this kind. But, so far from his having thrown cold water on this particular enterprise, Sir Julius Vogel acknowledges that from no one else has he received so much valuable assistance and advice. He has put Sir Julius in communication with Messrs. Judd and Co., the chromo-lithograpers, who have produced his own beautiful plates of New Zealand birds, and these gentlemen have offered to undertake the "Atlas" on very liberal terms. He has also introduced Sir Julius to M. de la Crohr. of Paris, and through him to Prince Roland Buonaparte, who has volunteered to write the whole of the New Guinea articles, and to assist the publication in other respects. Sir Walter has likewise agreed to take a scat on the London Board of Management as soon as the business is launched. But what he has absolutely refused to do is to identify bis name with an appeal to the general public for the purpose of raising the proposed capital of £20,000, and he is not to be blamed for that. Ho is chairman of several successfully-floated companies, with capital varying from £100,000 to £250,000. He is also chairman of a syndicate in which the capital, amounting to £20,000, was subscribed in a day or two, without any advertising. It is not surprising, therefore, that he declines to "go to the public" for the comparatively small amount required by bir Julius Vogel. Whether the " Atlas " will ever see the light seems at present doubtful, unless, as Sir Julius hopes, a strong publishing house can be induced to accept a large share of the risk. That such a book, under the able editorship of Sir Julius Vogel, with a staff of experts, and illustrated by such artists as Chevalier, would be a valable addition to colonial literature, and would do much to bring New Zealand into favourable notice on this side of the world there can be no manner of doubt. But an enterprise of the kind will not be taken up in London unless its financial outcome is well assured beforehand, and this seems the weak point at present. NEW ZEALAND LITERATURE. " Kaipara," by Mr. P. W. Barlow (London, Sampson, Low and Co.), is the narrative of a civil engineer who came out to New Zealand in 1883 and settled in the North Island, in a part which has not yet been overwritten. i\lr. Barlow relates his experiences in a pleasant, good-humoured fashion, but some of his remarks upon the various openings for industrial enterprise in the colony ought to be noted. For instance, he built himself a ,, h . P ond and stocked it with valuable nsh from the Kaipara beach. The price of these dainties in the Sydney market was sometimes 80s a dozen, and yet he tells ua that "they can be caught line fishing in the Kaipara at the rate of sixty or seventy an hour per line of two hooks, and of the average weight of 91b." If a ship htted up with refrigerating chambers were dispatched to Sydnoy with a cargo of these ash, Mr. Barlow is sure a good trade might u °R e T ned U P- I" the same way he observes that New Zealand is the only country in the world which produces kauri gum, which is so important on ingredient in varnish. Yet it ia all sent away in its crude state for other countries to derive the benefit and profit consequeDt on manufacture "New Zealand of To-day," by Mr. John Bradshaw (London, Sampson, Low, and Co.) is a more ambitious work than that of Mr Barlow, being, in fact, something between a guide-book and a blue-book. He is an enthusiast on behalf of the colony, foreseeing tor it a great future, and he enlarges with pride upon the rapid development which, despite its public debt, it ia undergoing He 18 ve i r i V scv r ero against Mr. Fronde, and makes an able defence of the colony and its institutions from the insinuations of that gentleman. TASMANIAN TIMBER. _ Messrs. Ransome and Co., the well-known timber merchants, who inspected and reported upon New Zealand woods at the time of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, have been making an examination of the qualities of iasmauian timbers at the request of the Agent-General of that colony. The samples sent to Messrs. Ransome included she-oak, silver wattle, figured myrtle, curly gum and musk, and of these they speak n favourable terms, thinking they would be useful for English cabinet work. len specimens of woods tested were stringy bark (eucalyptus obliqua); stringy gum; red myrtle (Fagus Cunninghamii): white myrtle (Fagus Cunninghamii); pine • Huon pine; blackwood (Acacia Molanoxylon) ; lightwood (Acacia Melanoxylon) ; pencil cedar (Acacia Melanoxylon); and sassafras (Atherospernia Moscatum). The trials included working the various samples with different joiners machinery, sawing with circular, vertical and band saws, planing and moulding with revolving; cutters, cutting circular moulding, and making two or three barrels from such woods as were deemed suitable for cooperage work. The woods were also carefully tested for strength. The experts say that none of the woods after working and polishing, looked anything like so well as the samples of the same shown at the Tasmanian Agency office. The myrtle wood they think might be used for all the purposes for which the best English beech is employed, but its dull unattractive colour would prevent it being employed as a substitute for mahogany; but the black wood would offer a fine substitute for the best "Honduras mahogany. Most of the other timbers would be useful for general joinery and carpentery work. THE NEW ZEALAND ANTIMONY COMPANY. It will be remembered that when this company was formed to purchase the mining property at Endeavour Inlet, it also acquired a gold mine at Jackson's Head. At the first meeting of the shareholders of the Antimony Company twelve months ago, Sir Walter Buller, the chairman, mentioned the fact of this gold mine forming part of the company's property, and said that he should propose that the Antimony Company should not work it themselves, but dispose of it to another company. It was at that time impossible to say whether the gold mine would be a success or not. In the interval several shipments of quartz from the mine have been sent to London, and submitted for assay to Messrs. Johnson, Matthey, & Co. Some of the assays have turned out very good, and others medium, but the average result has been so satisfactory that Sir Walter Buller has been enabled to dispose of the gold mine for the benefit of the shareholders in the Antimony Company on moat advantageous terms. As the result of his exertions on behalf of his shareholders, a syndicate either has or will purchase the Jackson's Head Gold Mine for the sum of £130,000, of which £10,000 will be paid in cash and £120,000 in fully paid-up shares in the company, which the syndicate mean to float with a capital of £250,000; of this capital not less than £20,000 must be set apart for working expenses. Probably, however, a larger sum will be devoted to this purpose. The vendor company will also have the i right of nominating one shareholder as director on the new company. Most likely this director will be Sir Thos. Brocklebank, Bart, of Liverpool, who holds 5000 shares in the New Zealand Antimony Company, 3000 of which he took up at par, and 2000 he since acquired at a premium of 2s 6d. Sir Walter Buller deserves the hearty thanks of his shareholders for the good bargain he has made for them. The sale he has effected likewise confirms the wisdom of his judgment in holding, as he has always done, that it Avould be better for the Antimony Company to sell the gold mine instead of attempting to work it in conjunction with their own property. ___________^_