OUR LONDON LETTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9326, 1 April 1889, Page 3

OUR LONDON LETTER.

[from our own CORRESPONDENT]. London, February 23. THE MEAT TRADE. The Imperial and Colonial Trading Co* (Limited) makes "very satisfactory progress, and it is expected'that tho prospectus will bo out within ton days' time. Meanwhile lam not at liberty to state more than this, that the schemo has been very favourably received by all tho loading colonists in this country, whoso approval and sympathy is considered of any importance to tho new Company. Although the proposed organisation will have its headquarters in Liverpool, with representative officers in London, Manchester, and Glasgow, it is very essential that it should havo the active support of tho largo colonial sheep farmers, whose interests aro so intimately concerned in this great scheme. It is satisfactory, therefore, to bo able to announce that the projoct has been most favourably entertained by the following well-known gentlemen, amongst others —Sir John Hall, the Hon. Randall Johnston, Hon. Dr. Grace, Messrs. Walter Johnston, Purvis Russell, J. Buchanan, John Tinliue, J. McHardic, and Captain Azim Birch, all of whom aro very largely interested in tho success of tho scheme. It is worth noting that the existing shipping companies are already taking alarm at what they regard as a very formidable opposition, and aro endeavouring to securo their own future by [dodging the large producers to now contracts extending over throe or four years. But it is hardly necessary to point out that this is puroly a question of the » best market. Tho New Zealand growers cannot be expected to sell their mutton to any agents, however respectable and influential, it they can get a better price for it elsewhere ; and, as 1 havo explained in a former letter, the new company having baaed its calculations of profits on a 50 days' voyage from New Zealand to Liverpool, which will be far loss costly than tho present 40 days' service between the colony and London, will be able to pay «:fc the very least a pound more for tho mutton than the maximum rates of tho existing companies. The extra, farthing, as any practical farmer knows, will make all the difference in the world to the producers. In other words, tho new company being able to at 'sailing vessel freight, will be able to give tho farmer a share of tho margin of profit. he highest price thai has ruled in the colony hitherto for tho best mutton delivered at the freezing works is 2,-jd a lb. Tho minimum price of the new company will bo 2Jd, and oven then they will make a larger profit than is possible in tho case of tho existing companies with then - oost by moans of transport and confessedly cumbersome organisation. Tho half million of paid up capital is already financed and will be immediately forthcoming ; but it is understood that an adequate number of shares will be held in reserve for tho colony in case local investors should desire to tako a pecuniary interest in the company, THE PANAMA CANAL. The fate of this undertaking is still in suspense. Friday, the i.3th, was the last day tor carrying on the works, and during tho last week largo numbers of workmen havo been leaving Panama, though just sufficient have remained behind to prevent operations coming to an npsoluto standstill pending further arrangements. The new company which M. do Lesseps sot himself to flout, but which he has been unable to set going, was to bo formed amongst tho old subscribers, with a capital of thirty million francs in five hundred-franc shares, and its object was to prevent the interruption of tho _ Canal works, and afford time for organising financial measures for completing the same. The French law requires that before a new company ea.; bo started a quarter of the share capital shall be deposited. Tho lists of the new Panama Company, "which were to have been closed on February 2, were kept open for a week later, and then, as the necessary amount of monoy was not forthcoming, M. do Lesseps was forced to announce that the formation of this now concern was a failure. Matters therefore remain in abeyance until it can bo seen whether tho official liquidator of the old company is ablo to come to terms with any of tho financial associations in Franco to provide funds for completing tho Canal. Even this will be a very big undertaking, for it is estimated that the work cannot be finished and tho Canal opened for navigation from ocean to ocean for a less sum than from twelve to twenty millions sterling, and this estimate cannot bo too confidently relied upon, for tho experience of M. do Lesseps shows how original calculations have a tendency to increase. His first estimate of the cost of cutting the Canal was twenty-eight millions sterling. At the present moment the total liabilities of the Panama Canal Company stand at something like eighty-four millions sterling. Upon this upwards of four millions annually have to be paid in the shape of interest and fixed charges. At tho abovementioned estimate for completing tho Canal it would cost, before being opened ior navigation, a hundred millions sterling; upon this interest at least at tho rate of 5 percent, would have to be paid, and then would come the working expenses before the shareholders received a penny in the shape of dividends. The Canal no doubt will be completed, but, as far as tho original shareholders in M. do Lesseps' scheme are concerned, they may as well recognise at onco that they havo been spending their money on tho ttic vot rum vobif) principle, and that others will reap what they have sown. REFRIGERATION. An invention in connection with refrigeration which is likely to be of considerable interest to dealers in tho frozen moat | trade, has just been perfected by Mr. Loftus Perkins, of tho engineering firm of Messrs, A. M. Perkins and Co. It is a maehino by which an intenso degree of artificial cold can be produced by simple means, and it baa tho advantage ovor ordinary refrigerators in the foot that the food frozen by i this process is quite dry. Mr. Perkins has kept poultry, bread, milk, butter, wine and fish ever since midsummer, and on being taken out and I thawed, they ate quite fresh and tasty. Mr. Perkins claims that ho can reduce the temperature of his chambers to 200 degrees below zero, and that at a cost of not much more than a shilling a day. It is obvious that if refrigerators of this description could bo provided for the New Zealand steamers, the frozen moat trado might undergo great expansion, and rabbits and poultry bo imported into England as well as beef aud mutton. MR. CALCUTT. This gentleman is engaged daily at tho office of tho Now Zealand Agency receiving visitors, of whom he has a good numbor, and explaining to them tho conditions of a settler's life in the colony. He lias had Ion;' conversations with tho representatives of twenty-seven families, who number in tho aggregate something hko seventy or eighty people', and represent a united capital of close upon £100,000. Almost the wholo of them are eligible as colonists, though Mr. Calcutfc has * plainly intimated to a small _ percentage that 'thoy had better not risk their future in tho Antipodes. Tho remainder seem prepared to pay their passage out, and to make a bold of fort to become settled in the colony. Mr. Calcutt finds that his opportunities of enlisting capital would be vastly increased if the Government would defray tho passages of the particular kind of colonists they want to attract, namely, hardworking persons with moderate moans. Such people have a great and perfectly natural disinclination to go out to the colony as steerage passengers, but if the authorities would give them some assistance towards making tho voyage in a more comfortable fashion, the chances are that their decision would bo at once turned in favour of New Zealand instead of Canada, notwithstanding that that colony is much nearer, and tho passage is far less expensive. As showing tho interest taken in Mr. Calcutt'a mission, I may mention that not long ago he received a communication from an old friend in Nottingham, asking him to visit that town. He did so, and was thoro introduced to two or three families who wero anxious to settle out of England, but did not know where to go. and were hesitating between Canada and some other part of tlw world. Mr. Calcutt's arguments .determined them in favour of Now Zealand, and they will bring an additional £10,000 into tho colony. TARIFFS AND TRADE. The Imperial Federation Leaguo havo just published a synopsis of the Tariffs and Trado of the British Empire, which has been compiled by Sir Rawson Rawson. Tho volume is unwards of 100 pages in extent, and, as a mine of statistical information and a monument of industry, is well nigh beyond praise. It deals with the tariffs of each part of tho British Empire, their character and financial results, the .-maritime trade of each part of the empire in 18S5, the maritime trado of the United Kingdom for a scries of years from 1854 to 1887, and carries the export trade back to 183-1; and finally furnishes a review of the maritime trade of tho whole empire and of each pari; of it for the fifteen years from 1872 to 1880. As regards tho trade, import, export, and shipping of tho empire, the United Kingdom and India contribute more than three-fourths, 77'4 por cent; New South Wales, Canada, the Straits Settlements, and Victoria each from 3"8 to 3.2 per cent.; New Zealand, Queensland, Capo of Good Hope, and South Australia, each from 1.3 to 1 per cent. The next eleven colonies each from 07 toO'l per cent., and the remaining twenty colonies taken together a trifle over o's per.; cent. As regards the trade of the United Kingdom, nearly three-fourths, 73*6 are carried on with foreign countries, 9'B with India, and the remainder 16*6 per cent. \y\th all the other colonies, to which, last J

figuro Australasia . outributos B*o per cent., and Canada 2D. In the year 1885, Now Zealand contributed' towards tho total trade of thcEmpiro £14,300,000, or 13percent. ;New South Wales, £40,007,000, or 3"8; Victoria, £33,596,000, or 3"2; Queensland, £11,606,000, or 1-1; ami South Australia, £10,700,000, or I*o. ' In the same year Australasia contributed £51,429,000 or 8"0 towards tho trade of the United Kingdom. Speaking of New Zealand more in detail, Sir Rawson Raweon sets forth that in 1885 the colony contributed I*3 per cent, to the imports and I*4 per cent, to the exports of the wnolo Empire Its trado was chiefly with the United Kingdom, 70 per cont. of Imports, and 72 per cent, of exports. Of tho remainder about 8 per cent, was with foreign countries. Tho distribution in that year was as folk : —Imports : United Kingdom, £5,227,Ch/(); • Australasia, chiefly New South Wales rind Victoria. £1,285,000; United States, £401,000, India, £129,000; Mauritius, £139,000; China, £129,000 Europe, £20,0JX); other countries, £150,000: total of imports, £7,480,000. Exports': United Kingdom, £4,907,000; Australasia. £1,391,000; United States, £405,000; Mauritius, £2000; China, £7000 ; Europe, .£IOOO ; and other countries, £107,000. The imports exceeded the exports by 10 per cent. Tho progressive increaso of tho import trade has been diminishing until in the last triad, namely, from 1884 to 1880, it was changed into a decrease. Tho increase of exports has been continuous, but fluctuating in amount. The increase between the first and last triads of the period extending from 1577 to 1880, was for imports 11 and for exports 28per cent. As regards shipping, the value of the cargoes was £13.5s above that of the United Kingdom, and second only to that of India. The proportion of foreign tonnage was small, only 9 per cent. Tho steamer tonnage way not distinguished. Tho increase of tonnage between 1t?77-79 and ISB4-86 baa been very small, and in striking contrast to the other Australasian colonies. Of British shipping there has boon an increase of 20 per cent; of foreign shipping there has been a decrease of 33 per cent. Tho shipping belonging to r<ew Zealand on Decern-. berUl, 1887, conai»tod of 383 sailing vessels, of 54,451 tone, averaging 140 tons, and 163 steamships, of 30,51o" bona, averaging 235 tons, being a total of 55(1 vessels, aggregating 93,967 tons. Of tho total tonnago, 22,156 was registered at Anckifccd, 31,419 at Lyttelton, '28,610 at Ihiuodiii,-and' 3,771 at Wellington and other ports. SIR WALTER. PULLER'S GREAT WORK. "Tho Birds of New Zealand" is at length completed by the issue of the thirteenth part. Tho copies subscribed for in Australia and New Zealand are now in the hands of tho binders, and will be despatched by mail Btcwncr noxfc month. ' Tho plates in tho last port are undoubtedly the finest in tho wholo scries, and that is saying a good deal, for competent judges declare that the artist, Mij. Kenlemans, has in this work exceeded by many degrees anything that ho has over produced. The text shows tho samo laborious caro and exliaustivoness that has characterised the work throughout, tho author having apparently omitted nothing that was necessary to render the history a coruploto cxposion of the New Zealand avifauna. 'Che charm of the book, however, according to tho reviewers, is that whilst tho strictly scientific or technical part is exact to a fault, the lifo histories of tho species are written with all the. freshness and attractiveness of a modern romance. The second volume extends to 360 pages of Imperial quarto, and, as with the first volume, tho author has added some very interesting supplementary notes. He has taken the opportunity hero of describing in detail, the uuiguc specimen of a moa's leg (Dinornli dephanComia), with skin and other integuments attached, from the provincial district of Otago, which is now preserved in the Cambridge University Muset • . and he has generously presented to his . ..scribers two extra plates, executed in the most exquisite manner, in illustration of this remarkable specimen. With the final part is issued a list of subscribers, British and Colonial, which accounts for the entire edition of 1000 copies. Tho stones have boon orased, so as to prevent tho possibility of a further issue, and it may be confidently predicted that tho book will rapidly increase in cash value. Indeed, 1 heard Baron Grant remark, not many days ago, that, judging by the history of the first edition, lie expected to see Puller's Birds of New Zealand" fetch a hundred guineas "within the next ten years. He has at anyrato backed his opinion by subscribing for several copies, whilst ono well-known city may, in no way connected with tho book trade, subscribes for twenty copies for presentation purposes. No fewer than ten royalties head, tlie list, the first being Her Most Gracious Majesty. Amongst tho others is tlie late Crown Prineo Rudolph of Austria, who *.us himself a very distinguished naturalist, and President of the International Committee on Ornithology. I see it stated in tho iv; ess that only three days before his lamented death His Imperial Highness wrote to Sir Walter Buller expressing the great pleasure the perusal of his work had afforded lam. Tho two Universities, Rugby, and other public schools and institutions, the Guildhall and other public libraries, and many of our must prominent scientific men, aro amongst tin; subscribers, so the author may well bo congratulated on the success of his work.