ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8885, 23 May 1892, Page 6

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

[FROM OUR OWN' CORRESPONDENT.] London, April IG. Apropos of the anecdote which Lord Onslow recently related in Auckland to the effect that the creation of the Australian Auxiliary Squadron was the result of a remark addressed by the Admiral in command of the Australian station to an Australian statesman, that immediately on the declaration of war he should sail with the Queen's ships in search of the Russian fleet, it may be well to note this confirmation of the correctness of that policy. An able writer in the current Quarterly Review remarks "It is 110 paradox to say that Australasia, if ever seriously menaced, must be defended, not in the southern ocean, but in the seas which wash the arsenals of such maritime Powers as may think themselves strong enough to try conclusions with the British fleet." And in connection with the same subject, have you noticed that Russia has for months past been greatlv strengthening ■her forces at Vladivostock. Transports with 1 strong reinforcements are constantly sailing from the Black Sea, but one never hears of soldiers returning in numbers corresponding to the reliefs. Mr. Westby Perceval has succeeded in effecting a useful little economy in the financial relations between the Bank of England and the colony. It is a little complex, but as I am informed it works out as follows :— In 1574 the Government obtained authority to issue an immigration and public works 4 per cent, loan of £'1,000,000. This, lam told, was guaranteed by the Imperial Government—which seems rather singular—and was issued by the Crown agents. Some £'200,000 was subscribed, and the balance of the debentures were left in the possession of the Bank of England, and has been utilised as " cover" for any temporary advances required from time to time. The loan matures in 1907, and meanwhile a sinking fund has accumulated towards its redemption amounting to over a quarter of a million. Notwithstanding the possession of guaranteed debentures to the amount of £800,000, the Bank of England have for years required that all the money to be applied in the payment of interest, etc., shall be deposited with them ten days before it has to be paid away. This seemed unreasonable to Mr. Perceval,

and he saw the Bank authorities 011 the subject, ami after some negotiation arranged, that so long as the Bank held an amount of guaranteed debentures sufficient to cover the whole of the interest ten days before it becomes payable they (the Bank) will be satisfied if the money required to meet the dividends be paid to the Bank two, and not ten, days before it is due. This rearrangement of procedure will save the colony something like £500 a year. _ Major-General Harding Stewart, who ever since the resignation of General Scratch ley upon his appointment to the Administratorship of New Guinea, has acted as Military Adviser in London to the colonies and inspector of warlike stores, will surrender these duties at the close of this month to Lieut.-Colonel J. F. Harman, who has been selected by the War Office to be his successor. The colonies will save something like £1000 a-year by the change, and will obtain the services of a more modern otlieer. Whether those advantages will compensate for the loss of the services of the energetic and zealous little otlieer who is to be superseded is questioned by many who are aware of the exceptional position General Stewart held from his many years otlieial connection with the War Office. He knew exactly how to manipulate this excessively obstinate and lethargic department. It is no secret that he often contrived to get the requirements of the colonies supplied before even those of the Imperial Government had been fulfilled. General Stewart still retains the supervision of the defences of the Crown colonies, but of course the chief sources of his income have been dried up.

It has been discovered that the Knights Grand Cross of the order of St. Michael and St. George are without a distinctive chapel of their own, and this vexes the righteous soul of Archdeacon Sinclair, the Archdeacon of London; who hits suggested that as the Knights of the Garter have their shrine at St. George's Chapel, Windsor; the Knights of the Bath at Henry Vll.'s Chapel, Westminster Abbev; the Knights of the Thistle at St. Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh ; the Knights of St. Patrick at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, so the banners of St. Michael and St. George should hang above the choir-stalls in the cathedral of the capital of the empire, and remind the vast throngs who daily visit St. Paul's of their great responsibilities as citizens of so vast an empire. The Hon. James Munro, the new AgentGeneral for Victoria, has just arrived, He has been keenly questioned as to the prospects of his colony, but he seems determined to look at them through rose-tinted spectacles. He admits a complete but temporary financial collapse in the Land Banks of Victoria, the result of the land boom, and lax uneconomical administration, but he hopefully asserts that within twelve or eighteen months the colony will have overcome all difficulties and have reached the highroad of prosperity once more. Indeed, he even goes as far as to predict that money will be an absolute drug in Melbourne ere Ion?, but it does not do to believe all one sees attributed to public men, in press interviews, especially when the reporter is a juvenile with no colonial experience. Mr. Munro tells everybody that the Government have plenty of money in handsomething like £1,750, and they could readily get more by paying a little over the old rates of interest. Some of his older colleagues are very sceptical of all this, and tell him he will soon discover his mistake. Especially they warn him that it is folly to believe that money can be obtained at a slight advance upon the rates ruling a year ago. Mr. Munro finds it hard to credit that 000,000 or £G,O'XJ,OOO of the last Victorian and New South Wales loans are still in first hands, but a very few weeks' residence here will open his eyes. Mr. Archibald Archer, M.L.A., and Mr. John Ferguson, the delegates of the Queensland Central Separation League, are now in London, and have had an interview with Knutsford. They did not, however, enter fully into the arguments upon which they rely for the subdivision of Queensland. They are to have an interview for this purpose with the Secretary of State in May, after the holidays. It is in tlie ait- that the inhabitants of the northern half of New South Wales are tired of " the blighting effect of the centralising influence of Sydney," and are commencing an agitation for the division of the colony, with Newcastle as the capital of the Northern section. Alt this seems scarcely symtomatic of approaching federation ; at any rate, it is not so regarded on this side.

Principal Grant, of Queen's University, Toronto, Canada, is an Imperial Fcderationist of a sort. That is, he concurs with the idea in the abstract, but is not in a hurry to hasten its fulfilment. He thinks that insufficient attention is paid to the wishes of New Zealand, which colony he holds has no intention of federating with Australia. He considers that New Zealand is quite as important as South Africa, and that in no part of the Empire are the conditions of life so favourable for the British race.

This is supposed to bean age in which the rights of reproeity are respected, but the Archbishop of York appears to be a believer in none of these things. A gentleman named the Rev. J. C. Cater has been nominated to the living of Haydock, in Lancashire, but the Archbishop absolutely refused to institute him on the grounds—(l) "That a clergyman ordained in the colonies or in America ought not to hold a living in this country ; and (2) That a clergyman ordained less than ten years ought not to be instituted to any living." If this extraordinary ruling finds general acceptance the Australasian colonies will have to adopt the retaliatory policy of Australasia for Australasiansclerics as well as laymen.

The 190 th annual report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel shows that its connection with Australia is rapidly becoming a matter of history only. Commencing in 1793, the society has expended about £250,000 on the Australian dioceses (thirteen in number), of which tv/o only—Perth and Brisbane—now receive grants, the others having long ago been thrown on their own resources. iSew Zealand has for many years neither received nor looked for help from England, and Bishop Patteson not long before his death in 1871 deprecated the continuance of the society's grant to the Melanesian Mission. The report states, " That Bishop Sehvyn should be obliged to resign his work in Melanesia on grounds of health is a great public sorrow ; to the Bishop himself it is a sore trial, but he writes, ' thank God, I have not to make any choice in the matter, and my duty is clear.' " The British self-governing colonies are frequently cited as the pioneers of the Empire, all industrial and social developments. Possibly it was this belief which induced Lord Knutsford to collect information from the colonies showing the direction of labour legislation, and especially any statutory interference with the hours of labour. The replies received are considered somewhat dissapointing by the advocates for compulsory legislation. The stereotyped rase in the answers to the Colonial Otfice circulars is:"There are no laws or regulations in this colony affecting the hours of adult male labour." This is the tenor of the replies received from Newfoundland, West Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Victoria, Tasmania, Canada, and British Columbia. In Queensland and Hew Zealand alone have partial and re-

stricted efforts been made to go beyond the voluntary combination system. A leading Scotch newspaper endeavours to prove that the Australasian colonies where the artificial restriction of labour had succeeded most, had not secured any corresponding expansion of commerce. It remarks In New Zealand, 'by common consent and practice, eight hours has been for many years the recognised duration of a day's labour for any wage-earners.' Mew Zealand may thus be taken as the leading instance of a colonial community in which a general eight hours system is in practical, although not in legal, operation among the artisan and wage-earn-ing classes. In that colony it does not appear to have brought about an industrial millennium; and we recently pointed out, it may be recollected, that New Zealand for several years past lias manifested a remarkable slackening of the rate of its progress, and, according to most of the tests that can be applied to .wealth and population, is dropping behind its neighbours. It might be unfair to set this down to the adoption, 'by common consent and practice,' of an Eight Hours Day, more especially as the same limit of hours exists by custom in some of I the colonies which are advancing by more rapid strides. But at least it is no infallible recipe for prosperity and expanding commerce and industry." The War Office lias at last nominated Lieutenant-Colonel J. F. Harman, R.A.. assistant director of the Artillery College, Woolwich, to the jwsition of military adviser in London to the Australasian colonies and inspector of their warlike stores. Colonel Harman is a comparatively young man, who has had a useful career, though more in school than in camp. He was the otlicer out of six candidates who most nearly complied with the conditions laid down by the colonial Governments. He will probably take over the duties of his new position from the end of this month, when MajorGeneral Steward will retire. His salary will be I'JSOO a-year, and he will be allowed clerical assistance.