ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10419, 17 April 1897, Page 5

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES

[from oor own correspondent.)

Lo.vdox, March 5. It seems to be regarded as a dead certainty that Mr. Sertdou, when he comes home, will receive au offer of knighthood, but opinions differ Very much as to whether he will see Ilia way to accept it, and the sinister effect of the honour upon the political career of one of his predecessors is often referred to. I hear, however, that should the New Zealand Premier consider that tho acceptance of knighthood would wreck or risk his political future, he will be invited to suggest one of hie colleagues aa a aubstitnte, in which case it is reported that the Minister for Lauds would be the recipient. The Field has an article on New Zealand sport, written by a Scottish sportsman who recently visited the colony, tie gives some interesting details about the various kinds of sport in New Zealand, which would be no news to the people in the colony, but he has also something to say about those people themselves. This is how he puts it:'' New Zealand is lovely. The people are extremely kind. But do not invest money in these colonies at present. The people are very cute, and there is a fair sample of the scamp and the black sheep to he met with." The New Zealand Agent-General was the guest of the evening at a recent gathering nf the Anglo-Saxon Club, held in Blauchard's Kooina. About forty guests worn present. Sir Churlra Dilke, M.P., who presided, proposed _ Mr. Reeves' health in terms of high compliment both tn Mr. Reeves himself and to the colony of Now Zealand. Sir Charles remarked that New Zealand, above all others, was the colony that would always be linked in bonds of loyalty and affection to the mother country, a bond which, in his opinion, would never.be severed. Mr. Reeves made oue of his usual felicitous replies. Mr. Labouchere has another fling in Truth at Now Zealand politics, which he seems to find particularly distasteful. He quotes several inoaaures introduced last session under the imprimatur of the Government, us etui|)lm of the " preposterous sort of legislation ' which finds favour " under the system of petticoat Government." The last has not been heard even yet about the New Zealand internal loan farce. The Economist says: "It has leaked out that the Bank of New Zealand took, or hid to take, £250,000, aud that various Government Departments had nearly £175,000 allotted, while the public at large took only £SOOO. Thus the Government itself, by its Bank and its departments had to take nearly 85 per cent, of the total. But it was desired to Impress the English investor, who is no longer to be allowed to drain tho colony of interest; that is. until the Government Department cm absorb no more." If these facts, as telegraphed, are true, the Government has once more committed a grave financial blunder, for instead of impressing the British capitalist with any sense of awe and of dread lest his days of fat interest from New Zealand were past for evor, the exposure of tho silly little devices that nro Said to have been resorted to to make the loan appear to go off at all, has simply had the effect of exciting derisive laughter. The result is certainly the reverse of a score for the New Zealand Government.

The cast; of Friedlaendcr v. the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Shipping Company \vi\a heard yesterday before Mr. Justice Mathew, sitting without a jury. The points at issue are of considerable importauce to the commercial and shipping world as between owtiers of goods find carrying companies. The action was brought by the plaintiff a 9 owner of goods, against the H.S. A. Company as owners of thu s.B. Gothic, for wrongful detention of the Victoria Dock of a lighter containing plaintiffs goods, which consisted of 021 hags of beans and tares, consigned to plaintiff under two bills of lading. They were in eight different parcels, varying in quantity, and distinguished by different marks. The goods were landed in bulk on the quay, and tlun were loaded into a barge by the labourers of the ship. The lightermen kept no tally of the numbers or marks of the bags, and when he asked for the usual order to enable him to leave the dock, he was required to sign a receipt in whieli the description of the goods corresponded in marks and numbers with the bills of lading. Ho admitted tlio numbers, but, acting upon instraotious from his masters, refused to sign for marks, the oonsequence beius! that tho barge was not allowed to leave for several days, and (he question was left for the Court to dcoidti, Judgment must therefore be for the plaintiff, and against the S.S.A. Company. A new steamer of 10,000 tons has just been ordered by the V. and 0. Company from Messrs, Caird and Co., of Qreenock, to be employed in the Australian mail service. In the Scotsman ot last Tuesday there appears an article of two columns in length on " Tho Agriculture of Now Zealaud." It opens with this sentence: " The Old Country is it hundred yoars behind Now Zealand in the application of labour-saving machinery to agriculture. ,l This was the statement made bv a farmer of Scottish extraction to the writer of the article, as he was journeying to Dunedin, "It staggered me" he says, " and I have not yet got over the effeots of the statement, which, as everyone will understand, Was a shock to my patriotic pride. Subsequently I found the same idea of the superiority of New Zealand was general, and I confess I think there is much to be said for it. The proof has been found in what I saw and heard at Lougbeach, a great farm, every where in the colony spoken of as the model farm of the world. I had heard of it in Wellington; I had heard of it in Dunedin; 1 had heard of it whenever I spoke of agrionlture. Yesterday I was at Longbeach, and had ample opportunity afforded me of seein? most of the work done upoii it." An enthusiastic but well-deserved eulogium upon tho Longbeaoh farm, and upon its owner and founder, Mr. John Grigg, then follows. The writer says: " Mr. Grigg is now over seventy years of Ate, and unfortunately Iws been recently allliutod with blindness. Want of sight has brought no diminution of intelligence. His head, with its silvery looks and silvery beard, is truly leonine. Mr. G igg's sou was with us as we talked. Upon him now falls the harden of the work of tho farm. It is not an impertinence to say that he is one of the handsomest, wholesomeet young men likely to be seen in many days' marches. All over him is written large the eood effucta of ail outdoor life in a wonderfully fine climate." I need hardly quote the description of the farm itself, which would be something like "oarrying coals to Newcaatlo," but some of the points touched upon are interesting. Great surprise Is expressed at a performance mentioned by Mr. Grigg of threshing 3300 bushels in a single day, and at the small use made of manure. The writer conjectures that the Canterbury plains must be made up of " alluvial deposit like to that loft by the Nile when, it overflows." He thinks he has " got at one part of the secret of a New Zealand farmer's success," and that is,'' He is able to got more work out of his min tiinii is got out of men at home. Next come labour-saving machinery, and organisation. Every machine is adapted to its special purpose. The ploughs, 1 was assured, are better than those at home. The harrows are greatly superior. In every oase there are four Instead of two horses to a team, Far more than double the acreage ploughed or harrowed at home is ploughed or harrowed here." Astonishment Is expressed at the groat yields of corn on the Canterbury plaius, and at the excellence of the climate, whioh affords the New Zealand farmers so many advantages over their brethren in the mother oountry. Mr. F. Biggs, the well-known Christohuroh chemist, who has been spending some little time in the mother country, is sending out no fewer than 40,000 willow cuttings to be planted in various places along the sides of the Avon. He says that these willows grow very much more quickly in New Zealand than in England, and that the English makers of cricket bats find that willow wood which has come rapidly to maturity, is much more suitable for their purposes than the timbor of slower growth. The London makers say that wood sufficient to make some 50,000 bati will be required thii season alone, so it is thought there is a chance of New Zealand earning an honest penny in this direction. Mr, Lawrence Britchaell is still engaged in the endeavour to from a strong London syndicate for the purpose of working the Taranaki petroleum deposits. Necessarily the present state of the money market is very muoh against him, but he is sanguine of ultimate success. The Daily News compliments New Zealand on the "very complete and thoroughgoing manner" iu which servants' registry offices are regulated iu that colony.