ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9492, 23 April 1894, Page 6

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES

[from our own correspondent.] London, March 2. I &BABN from Messrs. J. Balme and Co. that the second series of colonial wool sales of the present) year commenced last Monday evening, the quantities offered being 9315 bales, including 1176 from New Zealand. There was an average attendance of buyers, and competition was fairly animated. Compared with the rates current at the close of the preceding auedons, prices for Australasian wool showed noalteration, save in the case of heavy and wasting shipments, and th© medium grades of crossbreds, which ruled occasionally slightly weaker. South African produce, which was po«rly represented, sold somewhat irregularly at previous quotations. There was a good attendance of shareholders at the fourteenth annual meeting of the New Zealand Mortgage and Investment Association, which was held on Wednesday last. The Hon. Norman Grosvenor, who presided, in speaking to the report remarked that the company had been very fortunate in their New Zealand managers and agents, Messrs. Wright, Stephenson, and Co., of Dunedin, who had both advised them and acted with great judgment toward the final liquidation of the company, but some small properties had been sold which could not advantageously be held. The Dunedin agents had been given a free hand as to realisation and measures were being adopted to that end. For the first time for many years, continued Mr. Grosvenor, there was a balance on the right side in the accounts, due mainly to closingcertainstationaccounts of longstanding. Though the year's working gave a surplus, the properties were worked at too great a disadvantage for similar results to be always relied on. However, now that the Company had such excellent agents in New Zealand, an equilibrium between receipts and expenditure might at any rate be hoped for. The expenses had diminished. Properties would not be sacrificed, but would be realized as favourable opportunities offered. Mr. Grosvenor dwelt on the low prices of colonial produce, and expressed the opinion that it would not be wise to hold on for better times. He appealed to Mr. E. Coward, as having a special knowledge of New Zealand. Mr. Coward said that he feared the chairman's remarks as to the future of New Zealand were only too true, and he thought the sooner they realized the better. As I happened to sit next to Mr Coward, I asked him when he was .in New Zealand last, and upon what he formed his gloomy vaticinations. He replied that he had never be6n in New Zealand, but that "from what he heard" he thought New Zealand was "too heavily overburdened." That, you see, is theeverlastingsong the tune so assiduously taught by Mr. A. J. Wilson and the Standard. The report was adopted. Mr. Grosvenor was elected chairman and director, and £50 was voted as an honorarium to the directors. General Blewett wanted Mr. Butt, the mover, to make it 100 guineas, but the chairman begged that this might not be done.

On Tuesday afternoon the annual meeting of tho Royal Colonial Institute was held in the comfortable library of the Institute, Northumberland Avenue. Inapreviousletter I gave a synopsis of the council's report. Among the fellows present were the Bishop of Brisbane, Admiral Colomb, General Green, Sir H. Bulwer, Sir Douglus Galton, General Edwards, Sir M. Ommaney, Sir Saul Samuel, General Lowry, and others. I noticed the following Mew Zealanders present :—Sir Westby Perceval, Captain Ashby, Messrs. George H. Rhodes, George Beetham, Arthur Clayden, George Cowie, A. Scianders, W. A. Low, T. Harrison Davis, S. B. Browning, Stanley Edwards, and H. B. Halswell. Mr. George Brand, who has just returned to England from New Zealand, gave a representative of the Suffolk Press some of his views about that colony. He said he did not consider New Zealand a good country as regards emigration. "The best of it," he said, " is in the hands of the sheepfarmers, squatters, and Maoris, and if a young man wishes to buy land of vny worth, he would have to buy it a long way back and give a high price for it. The country is the f%c simile of England. . . . And but for the style of tho housos, one might fancy oneself back in England, All this has been accomplished in about half a century, and—the strangest of all— this is the only country where you see white men working for coloured races." He expressed the opinion that there was no danger of New Zealand flooding the English market with frozen mutton, but that there was such a danger from Australia, sis the supplies there were inexhaustible, and the Australian squatters were determined to regain their lost laurels from New Zealand.

Merriment is made by the Aberdeen Express of Mrs. Yates and the Onehunga Town Council. It remarks that Mrs. Yates evidently believes firmly in the poet's words, " The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the State," but that in this case an amended version is needed: — "All women rock the cradle, not with the hand, but with the foot, and here we have Mrs. Yates, first kicking out her opponents, and then jumping on the remainder of the unfortunate Town Council of Onehunga." Mr. Charles Fellows, who went to New Zealand in 1366, returning to England in 1872, writes a long letter to a Birmingham paper containing sweeping condemnation of the working of democracy in New Zealand. A very interesting paper "by Mr. F. R. Chapman on "The Depletion of the Fur Seal in the Southern Seas," mainly in connection with New Zealand sealing, and the indiscriminate extermination of the seals by the New Zealand sealers, is reviewed by the Scotsman. The conclusion arrived at is that the restoration of the New Zealand seal fisheries in the depleted localities is "a very remote one." " The Yellow Aster," which is one of the special successes of the day among modern novels, proves to be the work of a colonial novelist, Mrs. Mannington Caffyn, formerly a resident of Melbourne. Her nom de plume is "lota."

A very melodious and charming setting of the Latin hymn, "0 Salutaris," has recently been published by Messrs. Marriott and Williams, of Oxford-street, London. It is the composition of Mr. George Robertson, of Wellington, New Zealand, who is well-known there as an excellent musician and pianist. It is in the key of D major, 3-4 time, modulating temporarily into G minor, with a return to the original key tor an effective close. It has already been sung in public by several prominent London vocalists, including Mr. Henry Guy, the chief tenor of the Chapel Royal, by Mr. Bartlett, of the Kensington Pro-Cathedral and others, and lias deservedly won high favour. Mr. James Inglis, M.L A., of Sydney, is now in London. Mr. Inglis stayed some time in New Zealand many years ago and wrote "Our New Zealand Cousins," whish was published by Sampson, Low, and Co., in 1886. He adopted the signature Maori" in writing to the press. There is not much that is new to say this week about the colonial dairy produce market. Good New Zealand creamery butter has brought 108s to 112s, and some very superior qualities have fetched as much as 114s. There seems to be a fair demand just now at these prices. The recent telegram from New Zealand, stating the satisfactory condition of the colonial finances, and the certainty of another large surplus, has created a very favourable impression in London. As an illustration I may quote the following from the Westminster Gazette :—" The Investors' Review, in a recent attack upon the finances of New Zealand, stigmatised the colony as 'heavy.laden' with debt, but whilst the editor laid great stress upon the evils of excessive borrowing in the past,* not nearly enough was said in regard to the excellent results that have been obtained in recent years from the carrying out of a thorough policy of economy. Nor is the colony disposed to abandon its patient continuance in welldoing, for while the revenue is exceeding tho estimates, the expenditure is, according to the Premier, being kept within the allotted bounds. Fresh borrowing is unnecessary, and taxation is being reduced. Without going so far as the Premier, who ventures upon the assertion that the colony's financial position is ' impregnable,' there can be no doubt that it is in many respects very satisfactory." Sir Westby Perceval is much surprised, and, I fancy, far from pleased at the colonial comments upon his supposed intention of resigning. Ha asserts in the most positive manner that he has no such intention, and never haa had. Tho state- • meat or rumour is a pure fiction of the imagination, or-«nore probaWy a deliberate

invention for a purpose. The proceeding is the reverse of creditable to its author, whoever he may be. Mr. Reid, the Victorian Minister, is trying hard to induce shipping firms to bring home Australian mutton for fd per lb freight. No New Zealand mutton has arrived since the Aorangi's lot was landed three weeks ago. Excepting a small quantity held by Messrs. Reynolds and Co, there is now none whatever on the market.

Some time ago I mentioned the extensive ' improvements made in the lonic, which has '■ been fitted with new engines, her passenger accommodation being re-arranged and redecorated. The main feature of novelty is that the second-class has been wholly removed, but passengers can have certain of the first-class berths for 35 to 40 guineas, with the right of all first class privileges. This ought to be a very popular move, enabling people to travel first-class by a splendid steamer, virtually at second-class fares. Material improvements have been made in the lonic's third-class accommodation, bub without increase in fares. Very heavy shipments of frozen meat are now on their way by no fewer than four steamers, the Gothic, Maori, Waikato, and Perthshire. It is feared that the almost simultaneous arrival of such a vast quantity will completely glut the market for a time, as the consumptive capacity of even London proves to be by no means unlimited. It is rather a pity that these shipments could not be more judiciously timed as ib is always a bad thing to glut the market. However, the scarcity of tonnage at the other end after their boats have left will it is hoped bring about an equilibrium by the following month. Several authorities on the meat question tell me that the discovery of the limited power of moat consumption or absorption here is a surprise and disappointment to them. They could nob have believed that the London market would so soon or so easily have been glutted. But there is now no doubt as to the fact, and it is most desirable that New Zealand shipments should be carefully regulated in accordance with some capable advice from this end. It is true the meat can bo stored in insulated chambers, but its arrival is known, and the mere fact of so much meat being awaiting sale tends to depress the market. _ Further the spending power of the masses is said to bo less than ib was both here and in America. Heavy shipments from River Plate have aided in weakening the moat market. Mr. Bakewell's extraordinary paper in last month's Nineteenth Century on " New Zealand under Female Franchise," has brought upon him a most trenchant reply from Mrs. Henry Fawcett in the current Contemporary. She points out his numerous mistakes—as for instance his assertion that New Zealand young men who have grown up under the existing school system "never read the Bible at homo and have no such book at home ; never go to Sunday-school or to church except to look after some girl, and are as destitute of any religion as a horse or a cow"—whereas on another page he speaks of the Auckland streets at the last election being as quiet as on Sunday afternoons " when the children are going to Sunday school, or on Sunday evening when people are going to church." Again, she points out thab his prediction that the female vote would be practically unanimous, and would go against the Ministerial candidates, had been completely falsified'.by tho event. Mrs. Fawcett proceeds to deal in detail with each of Mr. Bakewell's wild and spreadeagle assertions, and disposes of them all, "turning him inside out," and "leaving him not a leg to stand upon," as one critic remarked. Tiio Rimutaka is expected next week with 350 tons of New Zealand butter. It is to be hoped the market will keep " up" till its arrival. But there is a slight tendency to-day toward weakening, although prices generally are maintained at 110s to 114s, with some fancy " brands running up to 116s. This week as much as 47,000 boxes, or 1000 tons, came into the market from Australian ports. Just before closing my letter I received the following from Messrs. Coey and Co., the well-known dairy produce agents of Tooley-street: —"ln colonial butter, with winter weather and exceptional arrivals, we have had a much better trade than could have been expected. Supplies are clearing well, and we hope by the end of the week to be well through tho three shipments. It is a healthy sign that the butter committee were able to advance price of choicest 4s per cwt last week. In cheese there is no change in price. Market vory quiet, and New Zealand cheese quoted 53s to 56 per cwt."