ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9423, 22 July 1889, Page 6

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

[FROM ODE, OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London, June 15. Mr. J. MtritßAY, the inspector of the Bank of New Zealand, is in Scotland. His health continues to be in an unsatisfactory condition. There is strong ground for believing that the whole project of the Imperial and Colonial Trading Company Mill collapse, owing almost entirely to the withdrawal of Sir Walter Buller from the proposed directorate. He was accompanied in his retirement by Sir Edward Lee, of Manchester. The Liverpool papers have contained references to the part that Sir Walter Buller played, and great satisfaction has been expressed at his having sacrificed himself to some degree in order to protect the interests of the investing public. , Mr. Christie Murray, the well-known novelist, will start for his lecturing tour m Australia and New Zealand on .he -,tii of this month. He is going round the Cape to Hobart, and thence on to Melbourne. Mr. Christie Murray is a tall, loutish, strondv-built man. of middle age., with abundance of fair hair slightly turn to «rrev about the head and face. He ought to • 'be "a success in Australia, for he is a good platform speaker, with an excellent voice, and has a well-stocked repertoire. He has prepared three lectures, one of which lie v> m call " Reporter," another "Novelist and a third "Special Correspondent." As a reporter ana special correspondent he has gone through some stirring scenes. Amongst other things he has done was to go on the tramp for seven weeks, living in the poorest lodging houses and on alternate nights putting up at the workhouse, picking, oakum and breaking stones in the morning in order to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the working of the poor law. lie came to the conclusion that, whilst the administration of the poor law failed to suppress the tramp, it succeeded altogether in breaking the honest workman in search of employment. He has also studied poverty and rascaldom in nearly all our great cities, and claims to know the British loafer almost as well as anybody. In his lecture on his work as a special he will deal mainly with his experiences in the Russo-lurkish war. In the one on novel writing lie will give some reminiscences of people he has met with in his career as a writer of fiction, and will try to show by a number of illustrations, in what Usluon a writer may get his inception of new types ot character." Mr. Murray is a linn believer in palmistry, and an easy passport to his menuship is to offer to let him read your " lines.; Mr. Beetham is still in London. He will not return to the colony in time for the present session of Parliament. Mr. Leslie H. Reynolds, son of the Hon. W. H. Reynolds, who some three years ago came to England to complete his studies as a civil engineer, and has spent the greater portion of his time on the harbour works at Peter head, has recently received an oiler from Sir John Coode to proceed to Trinidad and Grenada, in the West Indies, ana undertake some marine surveys there for ttie great engineer. He accented the appointment, and left London on Thursday. The General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland has made a grant to the_ Presbyterian Missions in Australia and New Zealand, to the extent of £1000.. At the same time there seem grounds for anticipating that the liberality of the Church towards the colonial missions is gradually drying up. From the report just published or the Deputy-Master of the Mint, it would seem that Australasia and the United States still continue our chief sources of gold supply. The importations from those two countries in 3SSS were larger than they had been of late vears. Australia supplied us with not less than £4,000,000. and the United States with £2,500.000. India and China together gave us £1,350,000. The value of gold received from South Africa is set down at only £800,000, a ridiculously small sum when we remember the fierce geld fever in South African mines last year. In ISSS we imported from the mints'of Melbourne and Sydney £3.5.3-3,000 in sovereigns, as against a yearly'average of £1,947.000 during the ten Vears" ending 1837. The report of the Deputy-Master of the Melbourne Mint is appended to Mr. Freemantle's report, and it furnishes a table of the gold produced in Australasia within the last forty years. Between ISSI and ISS4 the yield of (.'old in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand was no less than 78,235."227 ounces : in ISSS, it was 1,442,910 ounces: in. ISSG, 1,389,607 ounces; and in 1887, l,4H«>,!)"> : i Thus during thirty-six years the estimated yield of gold by Australasia was 8'2,504,G!J7 ounces. representing in value the huge sum of £300,000,000. The Rev. Dr. Macgregor is contributing a series of letters, describing his travels in the colonies, to the Scotch newspapers. The Financial News, an organ which has hitherto distinguished itself by its unfriendly criticisms upon New Zealand, is beginning to recognise that a new era is dawning in the colony, and to speak of it in more kindly language. In a recent issue the Financial News declares that the earnest and successful endeavour of the New Zealand Government to bring back the colony to prosperity deserves the most cordial acknowledgment, while the various judicious economies effected by Ministers lead to the belief that new elements of stability have entered into financial policy in New Zealand. It also notes the fact that the opening of this new e:-a of prosperity; is contemporaneous with the beginning of Lord Onslow's Governorship, and observes with gratification that the noble earl has been received most heartily in the colony, the New Zealanders appreciating the frankness of his manner, the freshness of his opinions, and manifesting their pleasure at the selection of a Governor from the ranks of active and rising statesmen, especially of one who has taken the trouble to inform himself thoroughly and sympathetically of the aspirations and desires of the colonies. Madame Melba appeared in London for the first time this season at the Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden, last Thursday week. She took the part of Gilda in the well known opera of Rigoletto, and her singing has quite taken the town by storm. The critics are absolutely unanimous in according her the highest praise. The Standard says —"There are few .such voices on the operatic stage. The compass is great. and the quality 'beautiful and perfectly even throughout its register. Madame Melba seems absolutely incapable of a false intonation, and is almost unsurpassed in the purity and sweetness of her tones. Her .shake is close and even, the few embellishments sh<introduces are almost invariably in good taste, and in all she does sincerity and dramatic force are conspicuous.' Other London newspapers speak in scarcely less enthusiastic language. Mr. Campbell Pracd, husband of the famous lady novelist, has just gained a curious action for libel. Last year a Mr. William Graham started a journal called the Gentleman. He was very anxious to secure the services of Airs. Campbell Praed as a contributor. That lady being unwell, Mr. Campbell Praed had one or two interviews with him concerning her proposed contributions. Mr. Graham gave a soiree on the eve of the first appearance of his journal, at which Mr. Campbell Praed was present. On the following day Mr. Graham wrote to Mrs. Campbell Praed, telling her that it would be impossible for him to suffer her to remain as one of his contributors, in consequence of her husband having on the previous evening asked a young lady, who was at the soiree, to dine alone with him. Mr. Campbell Praed at once commenced legal proceedings for libel, and when tin; case was heard last week the jury awarded him £500 damages. The slander seems to have been as false and unjustifiable as anything could have been.

One result of Mr. F. H. Co wen's visit to Australia is that another brilliant musician and orchestral conductor, Mr. Hamilton Clarke, has elected to accept a lucrative engagement in Victoria, and has just Hailed for that colony. Mr. Clarke has held a number of important musical posts in this country. He has received a retaining fee of £2000 lor his Victorian visit. One day last week Mr. Eest, the famous organist of Liverpool, gave a recital on tiie organ which has just been built for the Sydney Town Hall by Messrs. Hill and Co., of Camden Town. This, as you are aware, is the largest organ in tin; world. There is some idea of asking Mr. Best to go on to Sydney and take part in the inauguration of the huge instrument, but I believe his terms amount to about £200 a week. A new mountain railway has just been opened on Mount Pilatus in Switzerland. It seems to rival the Abt Railway, which has so often been alluded to in this correspondence on account of its adaptability for the Midland Railway. The new railway rises up Mount Pilatus to the height of 7000 feet, the average gradient being 42 in 100. The total length of the line is 4018 metres, or nearly three miles, and gauge about a yard. The train consists of one engine and one carriage holding thirty persons. The boiler stands lengthwise across the rails, and occupies a very small space behind the vehicles. Underneath are four cog-wheels fixed horizontally upon two movable axles. These wheels grip a double row of vertical cogs in a rock rail, which stands up midway between the two rails. The whole track is of iron and steel firmly bolted to a road of granite blocks. _ The cogs are controlled by strong automatic breaks, and the engineers claim that they are able to hold the train at any point of the line. The inventor of this system is Colonel E. Lochor, C.E., of Zurich. The total cost of the line, exclusive of laud, was two aud α-half million francs,

The emigration returns for the month ending May 31, show a slight falling off both in the total figures and in those relating to Australia. The total number of emigrants who left our shores last month was 52,225, aa against C6.KX) for the corresponding period of last year.' Of these, 247G went to Australasia, against 2737 for May, ISSS. There is also a falling off in the emigration to the United States, but that to British North America remains stationary. Last month 25,913 emigrants of British origin left the country for the United States ; in May, ISSS, the number was 33,971. In the same two periods the number of emigrants of British origin who went to British North America was 5824 and 5526 respectively. The returns of the first five months of the year compared with those for a corresponding period of ISSB, show the emigration to Australasia to be about the same, the totals being 11,7*21 for 18S9, and 11,613 for ISSB. The emigration from Ireland continues high, though there is a sensible decrease from last year, the figures being 37,971 and 40,3(56 respectively. The' leading articles in the Melbourne Argus and Melbourne Age upon Mr. .Dillon's begging tour in Australia have attracted great attention in England. The Spectator devotes an article to them to-day. Commenting upon the reasons Mr. Dillon gives for not revealing what has been done with the funds of the Land and National Leagues, it says that these entirely destroy the pretence that the Nationalist movement is conducted on the lines of constitutional agitation. The statement that a disclosure of the expenditure of the money would bring the League leaders within the clutches of the British Government is of itself <ui admission that the funds are being spent in secret designs against that Government.